Here' s my story for Monday. Sort a view from the other side of trucking.

Friday: Booked a load that paid $1500 for 485 loaded miles. That's $3.09/loaded mile and $1.82/ESM (every stinkin' mile) after permits...think it's BS? Keep reading. It's 9' wide x 10' tall, requires a top tarp and a double drop trailer. Pickup at the pier in Newark at 09:00 Monday and deliver in Toronto the next day. I fill out the permit app's and fax them away to the permit service and $70 later it's sitting on the fax machine. So far so good.

Monday: Delivering the head haul Sunday and spending the night in Mahwah, NJ he braves rush hour and arrives at the P/U. The guy with the crane says we ain't loading you until you pay $400 loading fee :shock: Driver calls me. I call broker. Broker denies any knowledge. Broker calls customer (who come to find out is actually a trucking company). Trucking Co. makes a phone call and next thing you know we're getting loaded. Hmmm. LOL.

Driver gets loaded, tarps (in the rain) and is on his way. Driver stops for supper at NY/PA line and calls me. Says shipment is supposed to cross at Niagara but wants to know if he can cross at A-bay so he can stop at home. Only 25 miles out of route so he faxes me BOL and invoice with PARS sticker, I fax to Customs broker. I call customs broker to confirm that we're cleared. Yes. Few hours later he's in Canada and home by 11:30pm. Woo Hoo gotta love easy money back hauls. :roll:

Tuesday: 08:00, approx 100 miles from delivery, in our warehouse our trailer is ready to leave. We call consignee to ask for directions and he knows nothing about the shipment. :shock: :shock: He was supposed to call when he wanted the shipment. He has no crane scheduled for off load. It was a good call to stop at home.

Back on the merry-go-round. I call broker. Broker calls shipper. Few hours later, we talk to consignee and say screw it, arrange it for tomorrow. Then I get a call from a nice (somewhat tense, but not as tense as me) lady who asks where her shipment is. I say who are you. I am freight forwader and you are late with my shipment. :shock: :shock: :shock: I take a deep breath and say hold please.

A couple minutes later she is still holding and I say, who are you again? She says I have contracted XYZ Trucking to move my freight. I said well I'm working for L***** on this one. It seems that Freight Forwarder contracted XYZ Trucking and XYZ called L***** and L**** gave it to us. She said REALLY? This has been brokered more times than I can count.

I forgot to make one call. The one thing I took for granted was that the consignee knew it was coming. Now the load sits on our trailer....all $200,000 of it. We lost a head haul tomorrow because we cannot reload until it's off. Just another day in the trucking biz.

Who knows what Tuesday will bring, but I know this. We're loading a vehicle in Newark tomorrow at 07:00 that's getting an RCMP escort into Ottawa. This should be interesting.

 

reading this makes me not want to buy a truck and quit while i still can.....

 

you know i love to drive, i love being alone and just rolling and i love driving a big truck to top it off and have a place to sleep when i pull over but i HATE DEALING WITH BROKERS, TAXES, DOT, PAPERWORK, PEOPLE TRYING TO RIP ME OFF EVERY TIME I TURN AROUND.
some times i wonder how this business will be in 5 years. at the rate its going now you will not be able to fart in your truck with out getting it brokered first and having to pay a tax for it and to top it off you might get a ticket if it don't smell right. thats were i see this business going.

 

that`d be when the people who saved their money and invested it instead of pissing it away will get out of trucking :wink:

 

Here's another way to get screwed. The pretty voice on the phone says $1533 (2.70/mile for 568 loaded miles) from Petersburg (Richmond) VA to Missisauga, ON. 45,000lbs.

What's wrong with this picture?????????????

 

That means you have to go down the QEW!


EWWWWW!

 

How about 667 mapped miles vs paid 568????

 

If everything were easy, life would be boring. 8)

 

I never had a problem on the QEW
I'm taking it that you don't care for it? :P

 

for us dumb people explain why it is bad cause i would jump at it.