Posting For Good and Bad Brokers

I had a run in with TQL myself just today. I was not surprised to see the comments here. Very sneaky what they do. We've run a few loads for them over the past few months with no event. However, I called on a load monday for tuesday before it was one minute old. The broker said "that load is covered, but I have another load that pays just as well for Wednesday". (it's monday) So we book the load. It was a short haul in our area paying decent. So I get the confirmation sent back to him. I ask him where the 17000 lbs of pasta is picking up, he says "umm, I'm not sure of the name of the company yet". ..... anyway, you know the story.. I get a phone call early this evening (tuesday night) asking when the driver will be empty in the town of P/U. I explain he is empty now and truck is in the area. I ask him again for location of pick-up for 7 am. He say's he's still not sure who shipper is yet and will call me back. He phones back about 20 minutes later and said "shipper moved the load to Friday, are u still interested"? ( I already told him I got a long haul going out of delivery area which is 170 miles away!) He knows I can't take it... I KNOW there is a reason they don't want the drivers knowing who the shippers and rec's are until they are dispatched. It is because if a better deal comes along, and some one else is willing to do it cheaper, no one can complain to the shipper about the unethical behavior. And also, I know they are doing some shady things in terms of BIDDING on loads and booking them with carriers before they actually have them. An example is there was a load posted within 2 minutes of another load. Same p/u and del. cities. Called to book the load with TQL and they said they may have it covered but will call me back if turns out it is still avail. Then I call a company called Bear Logistics and talk to a lovely woman who openly asks what we would need to move the load because the bid is closing in about 15 minutes. Says if she gets the bid she will call me back. Bottom line is it really frustrates me that these brokers want to tie up our trucks and then give some lame one liner like "the shipper cancelled" or "the date got moved... so sorry". .... And always seems to be in the 11th hour. So now we have to D/H 170 miles to honor our agreement with the long haul broker. If we use TQL again, we will have to ask for dispatch info right away. They aren't going to tie our truck up and not pay something for it.

~BridgettAnn

 

Never hold a truck for a load. That is a huge mistake, the brokers do play that game but you have to play it smarter with you winning in the end. These are all lessons that are best learned first hand. Just remember, TQL is a big company and if you tick off a single broker, they do not have the authority to black list you throughoutall of TQL unless it is something serious or unless you are new (no track record to prove you are diligent and trustworthy). Just keep that in mind.

 

Why in the world would you want to talk to them for $.70 a mile. If a broker told me a 563 mile load only paid $400 i have no reason to call back I wont even try to negotiate.

 

I have experienced a rude an unprofessional person at TQL also. If you look at most of his loads on the boards you will see inaccurate mileage postings for starters. On the other hand I've dealt with others who are polite even if they don't want to pay my rate.

 

That's what I do now. Remember write down name and extension of the bad ones

 

I experienced that last evening. Called a broker just before 5 eastern and told him my rate. He told me had another driver on the other line who was asking for a different rate. I guess he was hoping I would then lower my rate to undercut the other guy. I told him no thanks.

 

Here is another Broker name Keller Logistics from Defiance OH. Every thing came out to be un-true. I called towards the end of the day for this load which just popped up from Pittsfield MA to Carneys Point NJ listed for 30K lb and 266 loaded miles. I got to the location approx 95miles from where I was at 7:00 AM. She told me that the load was 45239 lb and they will not work with me to make it legal. The guy who I talked to never came on the phone again but some one else came on the phone and said can you take the load as is it or no she said yes/no. There is about $80 tolls on this route and some hills. To make my word good I accepted the load and had to remove some plywood sheets to reduce weight to make it legal. No regards from these people at all what so ever she told me they were loosing money by paying me $600. I asked around to find out that there were many others taking lesser load on reefers (41K) for 150 miles runs for the same price. They told me call from the Truck stop to get the fuel advance. No one answered the phone when I called.

 

Heartland Motor Freight in Nixa, MO --> Total idiots who do NOT comprehend HOS rules. I was scheduled for a 15:00 loadout in Ft. Worth, with an 11:00 am delivery 630 miles away. The load planning requires the driver to INTERRUPT the 10 hr break (about 6-7 hrs into it), in order to make the drop appt. Naturally, the receiver didn't open until 2 hours AFTER driver could POSSIBLY arrive, and closes 2 hours before driver's 10 hr brk finishes. Truck was held over 24 hours to make drop the NEXT day. The IDIOTS @ Heartland INSIST the load schedule met HOS requirements. Driver ATTEMPTED to resolve the problem BEFOREHAND by arriving @ shipper 10 hrs EARLY... was turned away with extreme attitude.... This broker is a fly-by-night dufus op... stay away.

 

Thats 20 hours, maybe less depending on time zone changes.

Can be done if driver scheduled correct. But you should know times when booking load. If it won't work for the driver then don't book it. If you are the last option and you need a couple extra hours to make delivery then they will get it rescheduled. I do this all the time.

Because one thing is for sure, if no truck shows up to pick it up, then it will never make it to customer PERIOD.

 

You're SO wrong... that's 20 hours from the ARRIVAL for loading (plan on 2-3 hours for loading... actually took 2.75 hours)... Start driving @ 18:00 add 10 - 11 hours driving, you get 04:00 - 05:00... THEN add 10 hour brk, you get 14:00-15:00 ->> The drop time was 11:00 ... Tell the D.O.T. compliance officer I consulted that YOU can run this schedule and make the drop staying legal! Come on supertrucker!