Broken down truck question?

[Ghettofab75]

Thought about this on my way to work the other day after seeing a broken down truck on the side of the road. What does an o/o do with the load after their truck breaks down and they know its not going to be a simple fix?

Big companies can send someone to repower the load, but what does a single o/o do in this case? Tell the shipper and reciever it'll be a week, or are they responsible to find someone to power the load and the associated extra costs?

Thanks,
Kevo

[rgarthman1969]

It is always good to have a back up plan. Like having a rental agreement with Penske or Ryder that is nation wide. And the most important thing. A cell phone so that you can make some phone calls.

[GMAN]

I assume from your post that you run your own authority? If that is the case, and you break down you need to talk with whomever you got the load from as well as the consignee and shipper to let them know what is going on. If it is going to be several days and the shipment has a fixed delivery schedule you need to make sure the load is delivered one way or another. This happened to me only a few months ago. I had a truck in California that blew a turbo. I had committed to not only the load we were under but a couple of other loads as well. Rather than break my word I rented a truck. It was a little pricey, but everyone was happy that we were able to get the job done. Neither the broker nor shipper could believe that I would rent a truck to fulfill our obligation to them. They expected me to sit on the load until the truck was repaired. It is important for me to keep my word.

If you lease to a carrier they might re-power the load with another owner operator or company truck unless the load is not critical. You would need to contact your dispatcher or agent who gave you the load to see what they want you to do. Again, you could rent a truck to fulfill your obligation to them, but most owner operators who are leased to a carrier would just let the carrier find someone else to re-power the load.

[rgarthman1969]

GMAN is 100% right. Like always... .. It is important to have that plan just in case and in this industry you word goes a long way. Even if it is meant that you break even or take a small cut. But I can assure you that it will be paid back to you in future business.