I Need Another Perspective

[McLeod]

Just to give some background, my company is broker/carrier. Most of our freight is handled in our trucks and vans. Last night I had a situation with a brokered load and I need some advice. How I handle mistakes with my customers is totally different than how this carrier treated me. Here is how it went down.

Driver picks up from shipper and notifies our dispatch that he is loaded. He confirms he has 1 pc. 95 lbs. going to the correct consignee. I get a call from the shipper 4 hours later saying that the piece is still on his dock. I have the driver pull over and send me a pic of the paperwork and the label on the crate. He sends me pics and the BOL is correct, but the crate is not. The crate is 145 lbs and the delivery address is not even in the same state. Obviously, the shipper put the wrong crate on the vehicle and I think there is some liability there. However, I think the driver is responsible for what is on his truck. The carrier will take no responsibility for the error and wants $450.00 to return the freight to the shipper.

I can only expect to get the service I give. When one of my drivers picks up freight, they do not leave until everything is verified. BOL must match the freight that's being picked up and it must all match the information that was sent to the driver. If there is any discrepancy, the driver calls dispatch and we will verify everything is correct with the shipper. In this case, the label on the freight didn't match the BOL. I'm not willing to bill my customer for a preventable mistake, but I don't want to eat the entire cost either. I'm looking for some advice on how you guys would handle this situation. In the end, who is liable?

Some additional history with the same carrier. About 6 months ago, they picked up two stops from the same shipper and delivered the wrong crates to the consignees. Crates were properly labeled, they just didn't read. They refused to take any responsibility and tried charging me to fix their mistake. What do you think about that one?

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I appreciate any advice you are willing to share.

 

[terryandrene]

According to your expressed policy, the Driver is apparently responsible to ensure the freight and BOL match the records you received from the shipper. The driver should have ensured that the freight, not just the BOL, matches the commodity for which the carrier was hired. You mentioned the consignee was marked on the container and often times the weight is also shown; therefore the driver was remiss and since the driver is the carriers agent, the onus should fall on the carrier to correct the situation. However, if the driver was not allowed on the dock and the doors were sealed so the driver could not inspect the freight, then you have a clear shipper responsibility.

If the driver was dispatched to pickup a drum and he left with a crate, who would bear the responsibility?

 

[BigStickJr]

I would expect the carrier to return the 145 lb crate at his expense, unless the shipper would allow us to deliver somewhere that could benefit some of us involved.
Not only would I expect the 145 lbs returned, I’d say apologies were in order.

The weird part for me is why you’re loading these bozos after the previous mis-deliveries/problems.

 

[McLeod]

According to your expressed policy, the Driver is apparently responsible to ensure the freight and BOL match the records you received from the shipper. The driver should have ensured that the freight, not just the BOL, matches the commodity for which the carrier was hired. You mentioned the consignee was marked on the container and often times the weight is also shown; therefore the driver was remiss and since the driver is the carriers agent, the onus should fall on the carrier to correct the situation. However, if the driver was not allowed on the dock and the doors were sealed so the driver could not inspect the freight, then you have a clear shipper responsibility.

If the driver was dispatched to pickup a drum and he left with a crate, who would bear the responsibility?

I agree with you 100%. I just wanted to make sure I'm not out of line. Thank you for your response.

 

[McLeod]

I would expect the carrier to return the 145 lb crate at his expense, unless the shipper would allow us to deliver somewhere that could benefit some of us involved.
Not only would I expect the 145 lbs returned, I’d say apologies were in order.

The weird part for me is why you’re loading these bozos after the previous mis-deliveries/problems.

I agree. I'm not sure why I continued to use them. They are great when everything goes well. They just don't handle problems very well. Also, the sales rep gave me small discounts on future loads until I got my money back from the first mistake. I'm done now. You have to take responsibility at some point, right?

 

[piper1]

The risk when you broker something out...

You care more about your customer than the broker carrier cares about theirs (you).

If this shipper is a good customer you want to keep, eat the cost to keep him happy and never use this outside carrier again who obviously doesn't live up to your own internal standards.

If it really bugs you, going forward, change your procedures to require some kind of rock solid proof from your partner carriers that the BOL and the freight on board match (pictures, a text message?). This way you have some more leverage and any carrier that refuses to follow it can also be eliminated from your list.

But make sure everyone you hire CLEARLY understands what you require...otherwise...it's your fault.

 

[McLeod]

The risk when you broker something out...

You care more about your customer than the broker carrier cares about theirs (you).

If this shipper is a good customer you want to keep, eat the cost to keep him happy and never use this outside carrier again who obviously doesn't live up to your own internal standards.

If it really bugs you, going forward, change your procedures to require some kind of rock solid proof from your partner carriers that the BOL and the freight on board match (pictures, a text message?). This way you have some more leverage and any carrier that refuses to follow it can also be eliminated from your list.

But make sure everyone you hire CLEARLY understands what you require...otherwise...it's your fault.

This is true and I will end up eating the cost....again. I'm the customer of the carrier and I spend a lot of money with them. I would think they would help me out, but their policy is to deny responsibility.