A carrier actually has to work at it sometimes to make sure the load progresses thru the channels...
The Plastic Chair
- Thread starter ATeam
- Start date
So, what plastic chair were you sitting in? Do you keep one on the truck that's like the chairs at the brokers offices?
It is a molded plastic chair without arms in the harshly lit waiting room of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office; one of several prison-like chairs that do not have legs but are mounted on frames that are fixed to the floor to keep people from moving or throwing the chairs around.
I went in, presented my paperwork to the officer at the counter, and was told to take a seat in the waiting room until my name is called over the PA system, and also told to not return to the counter until my name is called. Returning to the truck was not an option and any trips to the rest room must be made quickly for fear of missing the call while you are taking care of other business.
It's nice to have a co-driver in such circumstances. He or she can bring in your Kindle or other reading material when it becomes clear that you are going to be there for a while.
Without reading material, your options include amusing yourself or doing work on your smart phone, iPad or other such device; watching a TV with the sound turned down; contemplating the pattern on the tile floor; counting the ceiling tiles; tracking how often the motors in the vending machines cycle on and off; looking out the window to watch trucks go through the X-ray station; and visiting with other drivers who have also been directed to sit in a plastic chair.
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greg334
Veteran Expediter
Yep and that's the problem. They seem not to care enough to train their people to do the right things first. This goes to a mentality that the contractor is a child, who can't be trusted.
It isn't brain surgery, it is customs.
Maybe a few of the heavy duty fines that DHS can assign to the carrier for not doing it right is in order....?
There was a Can carrier lost border privileges for too many border violations...like improper paperwork and badly trained drivers...
30 day suspension of crossing rights...that had to hurt.
There was a Can carrier lost border privileges for too many border violations...like improper paperwork and badly trained drivers...
30 day suspension of crossing rights...that had to hurt.
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The threat of such a suspension would get a carrier's attention to be sure, but I have no way of knowing if our carrier is anywhere close to reaching the threshold that would trigger such an action.
I would imagine with Fedex's political clout, lobby power there'd be no action taken....
I have been in the past threatened with that $5,000 fine for incomplete paperwork tho back when they first introduced the ACE manifest...and know drivers that got nailed with it....it is $5,000 to you and the carrier and the shipper...it gets their attention real fast to details....
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Why?
I mean so things get messed up but having the solution from DHS or customs opens the door for other things from them.
Maybe if the driver is selective and proactive about making sure the process is followed for those carriers who treat the driver like a kid, things may actually change.
Phil: Just HOW did you know that it was a "Broker Screw Up"? Did your dispatcher tell you that? It could have been a problem with the paperwork and the person at the shipper or consignee who knew the details had left the office for the day. It happens.
Brokers actually have a hard time screwing up.
We can only work with the information we are given.
Sometimes that information is wrong or incomplete.
We try and get the correct information as expeditously as we can.
A couple of years ago I had a guy at a border crossing and the information I needed to get him cleared was on a lap top locked up in an office in the Midwest USA! That office was closed for the weekend and everybody gone.
A "Broker Screw Up" is a scapegoat excuse.
Much goes on behind the scenes but sometimes "The best laid plans of mice and men will sometimes go awry."
I've worked as a Broker for over 30 years and have never gone home and left a driver sitting if I could get him moving. Sometimes, things have to wait till the next day so everyone can get the issues sorted out.
Brokers actually have a hard time screwing up.
We can only work with the information we are given.
Sometimes that information is wrong or incomplete.
We try and get the correct information as expeditously as we can.
A couple of years ago I had a guy at a border crossing and the information I needed to get him cleared was on a lap top locked up in an office in the Midwest USA! That office was closed for the weekend and everybody gone.
A "Broker Screw Up" is a scapegoat excuse.
Much goes on behind the scenes but sometimes "The best laid plans of mice and men will sometimes go awry."
I've worked as a Broker for over 30 years and have never gone home and left a driver sitting if I could get him moving. Sometimes, things have to wait till the next day so everyone can get the issues sorted out.
In this case, the dispatcher did not tell me the broker screwed up. She told me there was a problem with the paperwork that could not be resolved until the broker returned to work the next morning. She did not tell us to turn around and drive about an hour to return to the shipper to get paperwork resolved there.
I presumed it was not a shipper screw up because she was not looking to the shipper for a solution. Nor was it a dispatch screw up because our dispatch is open 24/7 and dispatch mistakes could have been worked on anytime.
Again, as drivers in the truck, we know little about what goes on behind the scenes. Dispatch discoverd or learned of the problem after we left the shipper and before we reached the border. Dispatch alerted us and told us to stop before we reached the border.
The load was picked up after normal shipping hours. A man came in special in the early evening to load us and complete the shipping paperwork (give us documents, sign the BOL). Someone else in the shipping office had completed the paperwork during normal business hours. To our eyes, the paperwork looked fine.
It was the broker that was needed to get us moving again and it was the broker that was unavailable. If it was not a broker screw up, it remained the case that we could not move until the broker returned to work in the morning. Screw up or unavailable, it is no different to us. We were stuck at the border for lack of the broker's services.
BTW, I was hoping you would jump into this thread, Rob. A real broker's insight will be valuable to everyone who reads this thread now and in the future.
Anything you can tell us about what should and should not be expected of a broker would be of great interest to those of us who are left with little more than finger pointing and scapegoat excuses when we get hung up at the border.
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This thread produced a number of private responses to me that got me thinking more about border crossing issues. Diane and I have been with our carrier for almost eight years. Even though we do everything drivers are expected to do, and do it right, our border crossing experience is as ragged now as it has ever been.
Private replies and some of those made here have prompted a new curiosity about who the people are behind the scenes and what they do. I came across this site that explains in basic terms what a customs broker does and how to become one.
It appears that getting a Customs Broker license is not such a difficult or expensive thing to do. I have no desire or plans to become a Customs Broker but it is interesting to take a peek into this side of the business.
Note that getting the license makes you no more of a broker than getting a CDL makes you a truck driver.
Private replies and some of those made here have prompted a new curiosity about who the people are behind the scenes and what they do. I came across this site that explains in basic terms what a customs broker does and how to become one.
It appears that getting a Customs Broker license is not such a difficult or expensive thing to do. I have no desire or plans to become a Customs Broker but it is interesting to take a peek into this side of the business.
Note that getting the license makes you no more of a broker than getting a CDL makes you a truck driver.
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greg334
Veteran Expediter
what an obtuse but in the box observation.
Go through the process, take the test and see how hard it is before you make a stupid statement like that.