Shipper griped about securement, threatened to remove the load..

They will be sued. Whether it holds up is another matter. But that shipper will be paying legal fees to defend themselves and that's what matters to them. They don't want to pay a dime to defend themselves from your screw up. Throw in things like power only work and a shipper suddenly becomes much more liable.

I've seen firsthand a shipper get pulled into a fatality lawsuit. You can talk about contracts and what not all day long, but those things don't magically erase your liability in court. The same reason the back of your ticket to a sporting event doesn't remove liability from the venue even though it says it does.

 

Same when you take used oil to be disposed of, they have you write your name and address and quantity. If that oil is involved in a spill, each name on that manifest is responsible for their percentage. Just because a product leaves a shipper in no way, shape or form absolves liability from the source.