Southern Refrigerated apparently will hire anyone
 

Saturday, May 17, 2008

The difference between 23 degrees Celsius and 23 degrees Fahrenheit is about $883,000, according to a lawsuit filed this week by Samsung Austin Semiconductor.

Samsung filed a federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of its insurance companies, seeking to recover the cost of a wafer analysis machine rendered useless when it was shipped at too cold a temperature.

The machines test the semiconductors that the company produces at its Austin plants.

The chip maker and its insurers want three shipping companies to pay $883,000 for the equipment, according to the complaint filed Monday at U.S. District Court in Austin.

The suit names Air Express International USA Inc., DHL Global Forwarding and Southern Refrigerated Transport Inc. as defendants.

According to Samsung's complaint, a Southern Refrigerated tractor-trailer hauled the machine from San Jose, Calif., to one of the chip maker's two factories in Austin. Because of its delicate, temperature-sensitive optical devices, the equipment had to be kept at temperatures around 23 degrees Celsius in transit.

A message left for Tony Smith, president of Texarkana, Ark.-based Southern Refrigerated, was not returned Friday.

"(The) driver incorrectly set the temperature on the ... trailer at 23 degrees Fahrenheit," Samsung said in the complaint, adding that the "sub-freezing temperatures damaged sensitive portions of the machine" and left it "worthless but for salvage value."

Ya - that driver must've been a complete idiot, not noticing the c/f thing. Wow - they should take him out and shoot him for doing something like that.

OMG - it was an honest mistake - I guess you've NEVER made a simple mistake in your life.

I've had shipping documents that listed BOTH C and F. Sorry, but I'd say "X" gets the square. In a country that mostly goes by F, the shipper should have known better. WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS DO. In THIS country, list it in F.

As far as that goes, his dispatch most likely simply told him it had to be kept at 23 degrees. Very likely, they did not say anything about C or F. What would you set it at? Also, it's been so long since I've done any of the converstions between C and F, I don't remember the formula anymore.

The difference is about 50 degrees. At 23 degrees C, it would have been equal to 73.4 degrees F

Yes of course I've made mistakes before however none that costs $883k. I never said it was his fault although if I was hauling high $$ cargo that was temperature controlled I would make darn sure it was the right temp.

Agreed. What would you guys have done? I don't haul refers so I am not familiar with the proceedures on what to do before taking such loads. btw I would have had them verify F or C before I took the load. If I knew it was computer related cargo I would have used my common sense to reason that they don't react too well in below freezing temperatures, unless of course your overclocking..... :lol: Then again common sense is not very common

do we know if that was a live load or a preloaded trailer?
I'm guessing it was live loaded, but i've done a few preloaded reefer pickups .
now, if it was preloaded, the driver would have had to have changed something to be at fault.
now if they were loading it at the plant, i would like to think someone somewhere would have verified the temp, especially if it's the difference between room temperature and below freezing.
now, me, not knowing anything, i would never think cold would bother electrical instruments.

It really doesn't matter what the truck driver did. He was told "23 degrees" and as WW already pointed out..This is America..."WE" use "Fahrenheit" as our temperature desiganation standard...not "Celsius". The ultimate responsibility falls on the shipping clerk, for not having stressed that the machine needed to be "Kept Warm".

Yes...the driver should have read his or her paperwork and questioned the shipping clerk...but ultimately the shipping clerk is going to be held accountable, for failing to stress the accurate temperature which needed to be maintained.

Quote:

Samsung filed a federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of its insurance companies, seeking to recover the cost of a wafer analysis machine rendered useless when it was shipped at too cold a temperature.

Why do you suppose this law-suit was filed by Samsung, and not it's insurance carrier's ? If the insurance companies thought it was a shoe-in, they would have paid off Samsung's claim, then sought repayment on their own. Samsung filing the suit against the "Carriers" involved, gives them (the insurance companies) that much more time, to earn interest on the money they will eventually be paying out.

In my opinion.

I pulled reefers for about a year and every dispatch I ever got that involved temp sensitive product simply said to set the reefer to "X". None ever indicated For C. Also only about 1/3 of the shipping papers ever had any kind of temp on them and about 1/2 of those that did usually said something like 'Keep below O" or "Do not Freeze."

The driver would have seen the reefer setting in two places. On the bills and on the load records on qcom.

Then once he is ready to leave he has to use a Leaving Stop - Reefer macro specifying among other things what the bills say for the reefer setting. At that point, if the numbers are different he will start getting qcom messages.

Sorry dle, I've seen plenty of bills that do not specify a temperature.

OTOH, at least with Schaffer, when a temp was put in the loaded message that didn't jibe with what had been negotiated, we did get an error. I'm not sure that that would have helped in this situation. You put in '23' and it comes out okay, because nobody specified F or C.

This was a meeting of two different business worlds and their languages....the high technology/scientific world who all work in Celsius and the rest of us (in the US) who use Farenheit.

Be interesting to see if the shipping documents had both C/F stated...if so then the driver screwed the pooch on that and created an $900K paperweight...and will put several lawyers kids thru school :?

Any expediters on this forum that transport temperature regulated medical goods? Is the temp stated in F or C, or both?

Don't know who you drive for, but I can tell you that there are as many differences in the messages as there are companies out here dealing with them. And, as far as temp setting on the bills... I have a couple that I am just ready to turn in... They say:

Keep from freezing.
Keep chilled
Keep chilled
Keep at 0 degrees
Keep at or below 0 degrees
Keep at or below 0 degrees

The load had two bulkheads in it, and there is absolutely NOTHING on any of the paperwork to say if it's 0 degrees C or F. The reefers are all set to read in F. While I'm sure they can be set up to read in C, how many companies in this country do you know that have them set to C?

If the difference between C and F amounts to that much money, the shipper should have been VERY CLEAR about it. My guess is they were not. They most likely asked what the temp setting was, and may even have looked at the reading themselves. "Ok, 32 degrees, that's good. Your fine." And when he got to the other end, it was not fine. These same people listen to the weather reports, don't they? When the weather man says it's 100 degrees, to them, does that mean you can boil water on your lawn? No wonder CA is having problems with wildfires.

I still say X gets the square. The shipper was not clear enough about the requirements in a country that uses F as a standard. That's like going to China and expecting everyone to understand what you say in English. Ain't gonna happen. Or going to Greece and speaking English... Same thing. I've been out there, and I know. I spent 3 weeks so drunk I still don't remember it, and woke up to find myself married to a girl whose full vocabulary in English was "DON'T UNDERSTAND". But, after two weeks, we both got to be pretty darn good at sign language.

I'd bet my life that the shipper didn't make themselves clear enough when the equipment was shipped.

Those are some LOOSE temp specs there WW....
"Keep chilled"... my grandfather was chilled when it was 80 degrees (F). :)

My point exactly. Do I keep chilled in C or F??? And, there are just a wee bit of difference in the performance of 0 degrees C, and 0 degrees F.

And, if that's what these guys do, did the shipper of the equipment even specify C or F?

Windwalker, you and I gotta hang out more; I need to meet a woman like that. Communication is overrated.

:?: :?: :?: Don't hang out with me. I'm not in Morocco anymore, or Ethiopia either. But, you'll easily find all kinds of them there if you want to go there. And, the 'DON'T UNDERSTAND" part isn't all that good either. At least American women do understand what you're saying, even if they do not want to comprehend it.

How do we know the driver was American. Maybe he was British and he was doing 100 Kilometers per hour with his 23 degree celsius and never thought anything of it.

Hey windwalker, i drove for srt.

What we were supposed to do if there was no temp stated on the bills then we were to use the one stated on the load recs and then contact dispatch to tell them there was no temp on the bills.

Sorry, but I don't remember any bills that did not have temps specified. Guess I just wasn't lucky enough.

I want to know what knuckle dragging dock worker loaded this trailer and why he isn't named in the suit. One would think that upon enetering a 23 drgree F trailer his first thought would be "hmm... this seems a bit cold." It's not like we load the freight then set the temperature. Normally, the trailer is precooled, normally it won't be loaded unless it is.

VERDICT: Innocent . . well, the driver, at least. This is a case of specialized transport . . the specific needs (celsius v. farenheit) should have been communicated and verified right down the line. I'm guessing the "Origin Carrier" will be the culprit and pay the bill.

i always double check with shipper about the temp . :roll:

Drop & hook maybe at 2:30 am?

I was gonna mention something along these lines. Specialized equipment generally is a bit different from a truck load of cabbages.
I agree - this is a bit of information that should have been made completely clear from start to finish.

Now - it's *possible* that it was a pre-loaded trailer, and the trucker was told "23 degrees" - and freaked out when he saw it set at 74. It's also *possible* that he's uneducated enough to not realize there IS a difference - in which case, he's gonna twist in the wind.

I'm guessing this was sent from overseas, as I really don't see an American-based company using Metric measurements in their shipping instructions. Personally, I don't blame Samsung for suing, since they probably had nothing more to do with the freight brokering process than to simply order that it be delivered to them. Whether it was a honest mistake, someone getting the papermork mixed up, or whatever else, there was still something improper done somewhere, and the end result was that this almost $900k piece of equipment was destroyed. I don't see how Samsung wouldn't be entitled to compensation for it.
On a side note, I got a good chuckle out of the Bullwinkle badge :lol: