When you are a victim of extortion....

Or seen his $2,000 fuel pump that he put on the truck, either. Not only would he have been working several hours in the middle of the night for free, but he would have been out a $2,000 part.

 

There's nowhere between Vegas and L.A. on I-15 where you can be remotely close to 120 miles from ANYTHING.

You've got the casinos/truck stops at Primm the state line. That's only 30 miles from the south side of Vegas.

It's only 45-50 miles from Primm to Baker, then another 60 miles or so to Barstow. It's only 30 miles from the south side of Barstow to Victorville.

From the other side of Victorville to San Bernardino is barely 20 miles and you're in wall to wall people from one end of the L.A. Basin to the other.

If you were exactly halfway between Baker and Barstow you were only 30 miles from both.

If you were exactly halfway between Primm and Baker you were only 25 miles from both.

If you were anywhere else on I-15 from south of Las Vegas all the way to Mexico you were never more than 30 miles from the nearest "civilization".

If you were still 80 miles from the Love's in Barstow you were barely over 60 miles from the south side of Las Vegas, where many of the truck shops in Vegas are located. Both Vegas and Barstow have all kinds of truck repair shops. towing services, and road repair companies.

 

@TripleSix

This info is 10 years old. We had a service call and hourly rate. Port to Port. Only added milage over 100 miles. But had 30-50% markup on parts.

Calculate employee wages, truck price, insurance, to come up with reasonable rate for profit.

Shop was strictly hourly. No up or over charge. Welding billed same hourly rate as a oil change. Parts still 35-50% markup.

Same insurance, employee calculations.

The parts markup pays the shops utilities and taxes on parts you stock.

I however kept a noose on suppliers neck and worked hard to negotiate part prices. That way I could keep them at a reasonable retail price, yet make my profit of 35% and the customer still got a good deal.

There is alot to consider, and I'm scratching the surface. 15% overages or underestimate is more than acceptable. After that I would prepare a new estimate if customer requested.

Let's face it, 400 ain't even a decent tire anymore.

2675.00 bill plus 15% is 401.25. Could simply be extra labor, or extra parts, supplies, one extra tire. Its acceptable.

Why its called a estimate.

Most the time your doing a estimate from a office with customers info over the phone. Getting truck into shop, or showing up on location, things have a way of changing how it was described over the phone.

You have to be profitable or you will not survive. Payment is expected apon service unless you have a prior account in good standing.

 

Still only hearing one side of the story, so unwilling to join any cheering section. But here's some perspective on the carrier side of this.

Not all credit cards have an easy approval method, especially commercial ones. It wouldn't surprise me if they had that payee flagged for a fraud check, just from the nature of the road service business. And situations like this. Already been a couple suggesting to go the chargeback route. Really any service business is a higher risk for chargeback, since their charge isn't only for a product that you can put your hands on, which invites dispute with some people. The vendor usually pays a higher discount rate for that risk, to offer you the card payment option, for what it's worth.

About EFS and Comdata checks and money codes. It's not like a carrier just whips them out whenever the need arises up to whatever limit they have offered. They are also closely restricted on any debit card functions. Anything over a few hundred dollars for a cash advance or purchase will fail. Some times you can call in and get a one time override. Usually that's only offered during business hours when the big brains making decisions are on duty, and even then they aren't generous with it.

EFS: I have an EFS account. In addition to a per transaction limit for fraud protection, EFS only permits a low percentage of the credit line for cash payments during a billing cycle, usually a week. 20% if I recall is the default. A client in good standing can get that limit raised, but it will remain less than half the line. They know if you're spending on fuel, there's revenue to offset and fund payment. Cash usually doesn't, except for routine reimbursables, like lumper and late fees and the like.

Comdata is a bit more complex. Express codes come from a separate cash line that's not the same funding as the fuel card. Payment limits are less troublesome since that credit line exists only for cash payments in the first place. However, most small carriers don't do enough volume to qualify in the first place, and the fees are too high to make sense, until you are routinely moving thousands of dollars across that line every week. Comdata offers small fleets a different product, the Comdata Mastercard. I have one of those too, as a back up to my EFS since the fuel discounts suck. It will start a pump same as a fuel card and offers trivial discounts at various stops. Drivers can also enchash or authorize a Comchek, up to whatever their daily cash limit is. Usually a few hundred dollars. Nobody, not even the account holder, can issue express codes as that requires the cash line I mentioned earlier. This card also is a fully functional Mastercard, albeit with very detailed and restricted purchasing controls. If the service vendor does not code the service charge correctly, the charge attempt will fail. I had this happen once. I've had my drivers close payments at Thermo King dealers all over the country. Truck service or whatever they call it, is an approved purchase and goes through. The one in Tampa used the wrong code, maybe miscellaneous or potato chips, and the charge would absolutely not work there. I guess it was coded into their payment system, or payment processor. I ended up paying another way. The administrative controls I can access are confusing on a good day, and it wasn't worth wasting the time to figure it out. This card also has similar limits as the EFS card does: only a percentage of the line may be used for non-fuel purchases, and there's a per transaction fee that is even lower. You can also request different limits and get them, if you're a long term customer in good standing.

Technically they're the same, time and materials. With the added service of driving out to the job versus having it brought in to them in case of a road service call. At the shop, the time element is actual work time. Simply the time from when the tech puts his hands on the job until he's done. Flat rate quotes normalize that time on frequently done tasks.

Road service time begins when the tech receives the dispatch and starts his truck at the shop during business hours or home after hours. It ends when he returns where he started from and turns the truck off. Some charge additional fees, such as a call out charge or mileage. They usually offer to explain that when you call in, if they don't it's on you to ask. Often they'll quote a two hour minimum, anticipating the round trip and diagnostic time. Once the job is approved, that makes up part of the total and not separated out. Most, but not all, are usually considerate of a short period of time to get payment collected. Especially in the middle of the night. Anything beyond 30 minutes or so, I'd expect the hourly clock to continue running. Not any different than having a taxi waiting while you run into a business for something.

If I remember correctly, the dwell time after the work was completed was two hours. So two hours at the initially offered hourly rate would be good. If there was no hourly rate agreed to before dispatch, then the price is the price and you pay when the service of waiting around two hours is rendered. What you think is fair or good doesn't matter at that point.

 

What I don't understand here is why the OP's employer wasn't better set up to handle the type of thing that happened to her.
If you've run trucks any time at all you know that eventually you'll get that call in the middle of the night that keeps you up the rest of the night getting a mechanic moving, chasing parts, or arranging payments.
Big company, little company, it doesn't matter. You have to be prepared because it will happen.
The OP's company let her down, pure and simple. They ought to be glad she had enough credit to pay for the repairs and kick down a little bonus...if they repay her.

 

Well it was due to EFS. Not the company. They were down for maintenance. OP stated that already. Not a typical situation.

 

You were at I-15 exit 233, Raser road.

You were less than fifteen miles from 3-4 24/7/365 Gas Stations/Tourist traps at Baker. That's where the third shift CHP officers were hanging out drinking coffee all night.

You were only 42 miles from a couple of 24/7/365 gas stations, a small truck stop, and a Travelodge by Wyndham in Yermo.

 

But anyone, and I mean anyone with a credit card can call in and get a comcheck. No account needed.

That's how we used to post bond in MI from a overweight situation.

 

Would you have taken 3500 bucks out of your wallet and paid the bill if you'd been the one broke down and your company couldn't meet it's responsibility?

 

My past employer yes, and I had.
Bought 800.00 dollars of fuel in S Illinois and company card declined. 1am, I just swipe my personal card and get a receipt. I wasn't about to wake the owner up for that. Turned receipts in at office and he handed cash with a extra 100 for taking care of it. It was a security lock for some reason.

Anyone else, absolutely not!