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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;road_runner, post: 11156629, member: 83211&quot;]Had a bit of an issue today with a customer.&nbsp; Unless we completely destroy their freight, 99.99% of the time stops tend to go fairly smooth.&nbsp; Every now and then you just pick the short straw and end up with one of the other 0.01%, and despite having their freight in pristine condition; they will still give you a hard time.&nbsp; Btw, I had issues with these guys a previous delivery three weeks ago.&nbsp; I was expecting to get held up again, and oh boy was I right.</p><p><br /></p><p>Backed into an overfilled warehouse.&nbsp; Had to wait 20 minutes for them to get their crap together, clear an area, and finally dig out their dock plate.&nbsp; Got their pallets unloaded and was on out the door to get to my next stop.&nbsp; The 45 seconds it took to pull up the next stop on my GPS was enough time for them to send someone out telling me I was not cleared to leave.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was confused about all this so after I got the waypoints to my next stop I ran inside to see what the issue was.&nbsp; I was told I was not allowed to go anywhere until they counted and verified each INDIVIDUAL box.&nbsp; This was 2,300 lbs of product on four pallets.&nbsp; Must have been 300 or 400 cases.&nbsp; The packing list was a full page and there must have been 40 different products listed on there with different quantities.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Hey guys, I&#039;ve been here for half an hour now, I got other customers waiting on their stuff.&nbsp; The shrink wrap is still intact so if anything is missing or off, just notify your shipper&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>-&quot;Nope.&nbsp; You aren&#039;t going anywhere.&nbsp; We don&#039;t mind if you wait on us to finish counting&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>I think these guys hated their job working out of a cramped warehouse, and it brought a little bit of joy to them that they could give me a hard time and set me back at their convenience.&nbsp; This happened just a few weeks prior before.&nbsp; And these guys were just smug and rude about the whole thing.</p><p><br /></p><p>I made an angry phonecall back to my dispatcher and carefully explained the situation along with the circumstances.&nbsp; I was told to handle it however I wanted, but to be sure to inform them that they were getting a detention fee.&nbsp; As I got off the phone I tried to get one of them to talk to me, but they just brushed me off and quietly laughed about (presumably) being stuck there.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, nearly an hour after inventorying all their crap I caught their supervisor and told him politely that their shipment is being assessed for an additional detention fee.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Detention fee?&nbsp; What&#039;s that?&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>- &quot;it&#039;s a fee we impose on any additional time spent after the initial transfer of freight has been completed.&nbsp; This fee is usually added when the driver is being prevented from leaving and proceeding to his next stop&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Are you ###### kidding me?&nbsp; You can&#039;t do this.&nbsp; How much is that fee?&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>- &quot;it costs my company $180/hour to operate the truck I am driving.&nbsp; First 10-15 minutes are covered by the shipping charges.&nbsp; After that my dispatcher needs justification on why I am not heading to my next stop.&nbsp; I don&#039;t give out prices, but a typical carrier will charge the operational costs against whoever is holding me up in 15 minute intervals after the first 15 minutes&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Well I ain&#039;t paying that, you got a lot of nerves blah blah blah blah&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>-&quot; hey, this has nothing to do with you or me.&nbsp; I am not assessing the fees against your shipment, I was told to inform you of the additional charges.&nbsp; This is between my company and yours.&nbsp; Unless you need me for anything else, my dispatcher wants a call from me when. I am leaving.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Guys.&nbsp; Do not let people screw you around.&nbsp; If the dock screws you and there is a bunch of restacked stuff, that&#039;s one thing.&nbsp; But a customer just burning up your clock at his convenience is another.&nbsp; Communicate everything that is going on in real time.&nbsp; If you start missing pickups or bring back freight and start generating service failures, you need to be able to assign the blame away from you and give a reason why you got held up.</p><p><br /></p><p>A shipping charge covers the transit from&nbsp; A to B and usually 15 minutes of your time to get it unloaded (and yeah, a live full trailer unload takes longer).&nbsp; But if you feel like they are trying to sell you porkey pies or start demanding additional services like sort/segregation or inside deliveries..&nbsp; Charge them.</p><p><br /></p><p>We as a collective need to put these people in their place so they don&#039;t walk all over the next driver. Final advice is to document things over text message whenever you can.&nbsp; Get a hardcopy record of your hold-ups so if they do ever ask, you can scroll to that day on your phone.&nbsp; Just CYA.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]364209[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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