Rejected Load due to Bad Produce

Broccoli was always a pain, breaks up easily and leaves pieces all over the floor. And all that ice they pack the cases with melts and in the winter it freezes and creates a mess.

 

throw a can of gasoline and light a match, done deal.

 

At this point in time you are at their mercy. Learn from this experience. I'm assuming you are a O/O, what does your contract say? Are you the carrier? if yes, then you should have this and many other things in your contract. If you are leased on to a carrier what does the carriers contract say? This is a "no one wins" situation. Wait for further instructions from the broker, as he is your customer and your contract to deliver the goods is with the broker, not the shipper, not consignee or insurance company.

 

Exactly in big bold letters, driver not allowed to inspect or count load. Shipper load and count.

 

I had loads produce refused, they were good enough to give to the local soup kitchen, Kind of what load insurance is for. When you get to a shipper and they wont let you on the dock, that's the time to call the broker and make the broker accept the liability of the load, You'll be suprised as tho how fast the shipper will let you examine the load. One word of caution, yu never enter a trailer at a produce dock that has the deck plate in the load, saw a lady get killed at Dole Marina near Salinas, She was half loaded, went into her trailer for some reason the forklift came around the corner stacked 2 wide and 2 high as fast as they could roll right into the trailer. That was that, too bad so avoidable, do not enter a trailer that has a deck plate in it at a produce or meat plant.

We do it at the post office but they do not using anything but electric jacks.

 

Hope you took some pictures and got a copy of USDA report.
Look these jokers up in the Blue Book and get their past history. This happens often in produce, and usually trucker will be OK if you are dealing with a reputable shipper.

 

Aluminum Mill west of Frederick Maryland was loading van trailers (Mine included now and then) with billets to the floor.

We had one trucker go into the van trailer to stand in the field of billets counting. Point point point absorbed in numbers.

Mr Forklift rolled in there top gear to slap next set of billets.

Well... that's endeth one drivers life really badly.

They fenced the HELL out of that single dock out there within hours. Horse and cart had left the barn by then.

 

I hate broccoli.

 

Makes me fart