It's a Team's Life

IF it fits, it ships?

How many of you have taken a load based upon the information you were given only to find out that the freight will not fit on your truck? We are not novices to expediting. We have been in this business for nearly 10 years. Granted, some of you reading this may have many more years than that. Surely, many of us have encountered this situation at least once in our carriers. 

Awhile back this happened to us for the first time. We were given dimensions that were tight but doable. In good faith, we accept the load and deadhead over 350 miles to get to the shipper. 

A little back story as to how we arrived at deciding the load would fit in our box. My co-driver insisted that the freight would not fit. I insisted it would. After convincing my co-driver that the freight WOULD fit, we agreed to accept the load.

Fast forward 350 plus miles and we are at the shipper’s dock, looking at the freight that was meant to go on our truck and realizing that the freight would not fit! The dimensions we were given were slightly off. In the expedite world we know that accuracy is very important. No? 

How would you have handled this situation? Would you have become frustrated? Maybe even downright angry? Here is how we handled it. First, we worked with the customer to see if there was a solution that would still allow us to take the load. There was none. After speaking with the customer at length we were informed that they had ordered a 24 foot long box. Now, there may be some 24 foot box expedite trucks out there; however, a very small quantity to be sure! I informed the customer that the only type of truck they should have ordered was a tractor trailer. Why? Because each pallet was 52 inches wide! There were six pieces that were 63 inches long. The pallets should have been loaded down the center of a 53 foot trailer. Second, we apologized several times for waisting there time. Finally, we did not point fingers at each other saying something like, “I told you it wouldn’t fit!”

What was our next move? We went back to the truck stop, dusted ourselves off and found another load. We may have lost a day of work. We actually found a better paying load. In all of our years of cancelled loads or loads that we never got, one thing we have learned along the way: something better usually comes along. The new load usually allows us to avoid bad weather or other dangerous scenarios. And often times it pays much better too! So, here’s to having to walk away from a load that would not fit or to that cancelled load! Something better is right around the corner!

Here’s to millions of safe and prosperous miles!