Signed confirmation but load gone.

I personally didn't have a lot of luck with most free load boards except Mercer Transportation. And they pay usually within a day.
I felt the small fee for a good load board was well worth it on even just a single load. I was actually using 3 load boards so I could find the best load with min. deadhead.
Internet truck stop was my favorite. Also with the paid load boards, you get a credit rating on the brokers.

 

He's shooting himself in the foot with the no Landstar line in the sand. Email alerts are the best thing since beer in a can.

 

OP: On the TONU fee you need to figure out how much you've been harmed and ask for that. Keeping in mind that the object of the game is to get what you can, which is usually a number less than what you think it ought to be. In other words, be sensible. I'd rather cover my costs and get paid, versus asking for the moon and getting nothing.

On the business side, you have to consider LS has many agencies. Now you will of course keep that particular one at arms length, but don't write off the whole company. I have several customers that do stuff I have to watch for. It sucks. On the other hand, I'm not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. If you're pulling a van or flat, I agree with rollincoal - there's too much good money to be had with LS to let one slimy broker or agency get under your skin. Recover what you can and move on, a little wiser.

Then maybe do a little navel-gazing and figure out what could you have done differently to avoid such a thing. In this particular case, nothing really. You had a signed confirmation with a confirmed pick up time, with the possibility of an earlier appointment. However, any time you book in advance and/or run long DH miles, the risk goes up. You have no real leverage until the cargo is on your truck. It could be an honest mistake, for example double booked by another broker in the same office and the other guy got there first. It could be dishonesty where they got a cheaper offer and dropped you. Or it could be those crazy customers (the shippers) shifting to a different (cheaper) broker or just deciding to reschedule or cancel the load. All of the above happen to the best of us. I just booked a load yesterday, with more DH that usual with a customer known to pull a few tricks. It was no sweat because I knew I could get that truck on another, equivalent load with little effort. If the DH was to BFE, I'd have turned it down or been prepared to eat even more DH to get to another load.

So what does second guessing all that get you? Zero today, and risk avoidance tomorrow. While you're trying to get paid, do your due diligence but try not to sound like an armchair attorney. The customer that's worth doing business with will meet you at least halfway.

 

I've found, I usually can get a dollar a mile deadhead for canceled load. More than that, is hard pressed to get. It covers the fuel but not the time. I've also found a few brokers that won't accept this being put on the confirmation sheet kinda like trying to put detention time billed after 2 hours. ATS always refused my confirmation is adding anything to it. But I'd try to put it on all. Also ran into a few brokers that wanted a signed confirmation but didn't sign it themselves.