Posting For Good and Bad Brokers

D&L Transport based in Kansas (several satellite brokers) hosed me on two loads. Scheduled loads then cancelled at the last minute. Cost me a day each. They’re also really cheap.

 

They were probably rate shopping the whole time. Hopefully, you got some TONU money out of it at least.

 

Don't feel alone friend. Last Thursday I spent ALL DAY capturing a load I needed starting in East Brunswick, NJ going to Columbus, Ohio to get me to my first pickup point for a 3 pick load for my direct customer coming home.

All day Thursday doing the carrier packet, sending docs...finally got the rate confirmation and I headed out early Friday morning to go get it. I got 2 texts while in route to the pickup point, asking what time I'd be there. I told them 3 times so far...11:00 a.m. I did just that, arrived at 11:00 a.m. sharp Friday 8-3-18.

Walked inside the office to discover the machine was shipped "yesterday". Now I'm pretty disgusted to be polite, but I remained cool and made the call to the broker. They were "surprised". The customer admitted the load was picked up by some foreign-speaking fellow with another broker's name on the paperwork, so I'm assuming the worst that they led me on all the while and sold the load to someone else for a higher %. I think this because the rate posted wasn't attractive enough to me, so I got them to confirm it at a rate that was satisfactory. I am trying to stay civil, but I think they simply found a truck cheaper than me and just screwed me over. What else is new, eh?

I requested the normal TONU of $250.00. They cordially replied they usually pay $50.00 for TONU's, but in my case they'd go $100.00 for my troubles. Man, that sure is big of them to offer such a generous amount. That trouble was 230 miles for nothing, $23.00 in NY Thruway tolls, 5 hours wasted, and now located in the cesspool of the universe...Brunswick, NJ which I didn't need to be in anymore than the man in the moon did. I stayed on the $250.00, but the bottom line was $150.00 and that's where it landed. Now let's see if they actually pay the bill.

Thank you International Transport Systems, Inc. out of Elmhurst, Ill. for your generous and kind contribution to the cause.

On a positive note, last trip out I dealt with a 2 brokers on 2 separate loads from Ohio to Buffalo, NY. One was mis-described on the length, as I was combining 2 loads (partials) on one load. Ended up having the first broker find a crane company to pay to unload his piece while I go haul the other brokers critical, time-sensitive freight to Buffalo, come back and load the 1st piece back on and get it delivered. Everyone was happy, content, and thanked me for the idea and patience. They both were class act brokers, like they used to be years ago. Even though that ordeal cost the 1st broker a chunk of money above the rate confirmed for the extra mileage for me to come back and get it and pay the crane company, they were still thankful for the service. I like how that ended...so did they.

Another day in paradise is how I see it.

 

I would like to add Mercer agent CNC/Carla Gibbons to this list for wasting my time/resources on their cheap double brokered trash today.

 

How did she waste your time and resources? That agency is owned by one of my favorite mercer agents.

Oh and fyi, you are confusing the term double brokering with cobrokering. No mercer agent will double broker. That will get them fired on the spot.

 

It was double brokered. Either way, if Mercer (who I had the load with) cannot put detention or any other accessorial on a rate con without permission from another broker that's all I need to know and frankly, I find it unacceptable. How can you defend that? Yeah, add more hands in the pot to take more money from the Carrier. Makes total sense, nein.

 

If you find that unacceptable i would start every call off with is this a 3pl load? I don't have any numbers to back it up but i would take a guess that a full 30% of all loads moved in the country are through a 3pl company. And quite possibly even higher.

 

Thanks. I will start doing that. I had Landstar do that with me in conjunction with ATS. However, LS was straight about it from the start and put me in touch with Sureway immediately. Sureway/ATS were the ones I dealt with from beginning to end after that point. That's how it should be if it's 3pl. When something comes up, it gets handled immediately. The way CNC handled it was the exact opposite until there was an issue. Then they put everything on the other broker who I could not contact, nor would they contact me. I find that to be very unprofessional. Mercer was who I had the rate con through so Mercer should have been the ones to handle everything no matter what even if that meant paying accessorials themselves and taking it up with their co-broker later. In the end, their customer was short a truck, nobody made any money and I actually lost some. Everybody got raw deal on this one because CNC didn't do the right thing. They couldn't even add detention to the rate con when the need arose. That's bad IMO.

 

I dont think you understand what a 3pl is. The example of landstar and ats has nothing to do with a 3pl. Both landstar and ats are carriers and brokers. A 3pl is neither. They give loads to broker/ carriers because they don't want to deal with small carriers.

No broker is going to agree to accessorials without checking with their customer first. The only exception to this is a broker/carrier with a minimum volume contract with a customer. Doing so would mean they have to pay it out of their pocket. The agents cut of 8% doesn't leave a lot of room for this. 8% dude. So if the load pays 2k dollars that agent has a grand total of 160 bucks to work with. If they agree to 75 an hour detention without customer approval they are very quickly in the red on this load.

Basically, in a nut shell, you have unrealistic expectations on these type of loads. 3pl loads by nature are just a royal pia.


Backing up a step to the term double brokered.
An example of what that term means: a mercer agent takes a load from abc brokerage starting it will go on to one of their trucks but then sells the load to john smith trucking while maintaining the illusion it is on their own truck. That is double brokering and will get an agent here fired faster than anything else. That practice destroys companies reputations and is a guaranteed way of never getting another load from the original brokerage if it comes to light.

Co brokering: your story about landstar and ats was a perfect example of co brokering. Ats gave the load to landstar with full knowledge it was being brokered to a third carrier.

 

I'm sure I'm confusing the terms here but it's not the big picture. CNC tried to hide the details until it came time to pay out detention. They couldn't even add it to a revised rate con. The shipper was NOT Mercer's customer. In fact, another broker was their customer. If Mercer is paying me to make the move then Mercer should be the ones to pay all the Accessorials as well. It doesn't matter to me what any of the other arrangements are frankly. It was a very cheap run that I should have walked away from the beginning. Lesson learned. No more cheap Mercer loads. I'll sit first. Just like I did yesterday.