canceled confirmed load

[truckwife]

tenten
We are contractors with FedexCC and own our truck. We were dispatched
on a load 6\24 at 0530 on a confirmed load to pick up at 0800 on
6\26. This was a reefer load. We of course received our critcal checkout message at 0530 on 6/24. At that time we started our reefer
to get temp to 35 degrees and arrived at shipper which was 10 miles away a little after six and waited until 0730 to check in. We were told the pu # given by dispatch was incorrect and so let dispatch know. Informed by dispatch that they didnt think anyone would be up at this time but would try to see if they could do anything. We let them know we really appreciated them doing the job they were receiving
42% to do and let them know to take their time since this was and confirmed load and we would be receiving detention time. About 1000 they let us know the load was canceled and we could go back to Newark
and wait on a load. How nice of them. We informed them we were going home. Immediately we were offered many local runs that could pick up the next day. When we checked the vehicle activity board we it showed us turning down a load over the weekend which was not true and showed the load of which I am speaking as having been dispatched at 0730 on
6/26 not 0530 on 6/24. I guess my question is now to terryandrene as they seem to be a type of representive of this company. We are not afraid to take any loads offered by this company because we are not sure if they are really loads or not and have begun to look into other companies. We did let our cc know how much we were disturbed by what had happened but as usuall nothing has been done about it that we are aware of. WE werent sure of any higher powers we could contact with our grievances but feel this was a grave injustice. By the way I forgot to mention that a few hours later the same load was sent to our truck for about $500 cheaper. What would you suggest to be the best way to handle this situation? If you dont want to respond on this open forum we can understand. Our email is [email protected] and phone number is 7316146582. Feel free to use either. Thank you for your time.

 

[terryandrene]

Truckwife:

Check your mail for my response to your concerns. And, for the benefit of others, Neither Rene' nor I are representatives of FedEx Custom Critical and do not speak for them. We are, however, satisfied contractors of many years and generally speak favorably of the company and its people.

It would seem that we are all plagued by the occasional dry run. They occur for many reasons and, generally, none of those reasons ease the pain of miles of deadhead, lost revenue, lost time and operating costs that often exceed the modest deadhead/dryrun pay when offered. One thing we all need is for our respective carriers' agents to consider the hardships the drivers must endure when they provide inaccurate directions to or addresses of the customers; when they fail to obtain accurate dimensions of the freight and send a van for a straight truck load; when they send a van to pickup dockhigh freight; when they send two trucks after one load; and, when they subjectively determine that no pay or dryrun status is available.

 

[truckwife]

Thank you Terry for your response. All these things are true and I might add also they should keep in mind the consequences of holding a truck up for a load tomorrow that the customer would have been more than happy to have shipped today. With my experience I hear alot about satisfying customer needs but in reality those needs are not met alot of times because of trucks not being available because of owners having been held up unnecessarly and other owners not wanting to incur the unreasonable amount of deadhead to pick the load up. I am not unrealistic and know it is not a perfect world but know for a fact that there is alot of game playing in this industry and dont really feel there is any accountability required of those doing this.
As we all know everybodys got one and this is mine. I only speak from my experiences and not what others are saying.
Again thank you for your clarification and I am sorry I did not
receive your reply in my mailbox as of yet. Again thanks and safe travels to you and yours.

 

[Broompilot]

Such CLASS, got to admire Terry's dedication to both this site and FECC.

 

[arkjarhead]

Truckwife,
My 2 cents worth is that it doesn't matter what company you are with they reserve the right not to do what they say they will. On the other hand most dispatchers/carriers thinks no driver/owner operator has the right to not do what they say they will, but the company belives you should keep your word and then some. The part about to many game is part of the industry. Expediting is a form of trucking and trucking is cut throat, therefore expediting is cut throat as well. The company might think if you hauled for 500 less they can put an extra 500 in their pocket.

 

[davekc]

tenten
We are contractors with FedexCC and own our truck. We were dispatched
on a load 6\24 at 0530 on a confirmed load to pick up at 0800 on
6\26. This was a reefer load. We of course received our critcal checkout message at 0530 on 6/24. At that time we started our reefer
to get temp to 35 degrees and arrived at shipper which was 10 miles away a little after six and waited until 0730 to check in
=============================================
I may be misunderstanding this post. If you get a load offer on the 24th for a load picking up on the 26th, why are you starting the reefer on the 24th?
If you received a load offer on the 24th and picking up on the 26th, why wait two days for a load? I'm totally confused. You could be halfway acrossed the country in that time.

In expediting, there is no such thing as a "confirmed" load unless you have a agreement on compensation. Doesn't sound like one exists. If so, I know our carrier would pay a dry run and if you waited two days, they would send layover pay PRIOR to your load acceptance. Why layover? Because they already know it is two day before pickup. If you had arrived, then detention pay. The second item is phone numbers. I would call the customer ahead of time to "confirm" that the load actually exists and is going to happen. If the carrier can't provide a phone number, I would refuse it without sufficient information. Without giving you the phone number to the shipper, how do you know they didn't give it to another driver? Never assume anything.
One thing for sure in trucking, Nothing is CONFIRMED until it is on your truck.
If the load was reoffered at $500.00 cheaper, then they pocketed the layover or the customer found a cheaper carrier and they were trying to save the load.
Hopefully, it is a one time occurance.









Davekc
owner
21 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[truckwife]

Davekc,thanks for your reply.My husband wrote about the canceled confired load that we had.Your right why would we start our reffer on the 24th when were to pu on the 26th.Of course we started the reffer the morning of the 26th.Typing mistake on our part.We did get dry run pay of $150.00 for our troubles,but your know thats pocket change to what we could of made all those days we waited on that load.It was confirmed and was a profitable load to wait for,if we had got it.Our company doesn't give us customers phone #'s.It would be great if they would.I feel alot of problems like these would be elimated.Alot of our customers feel the same way.They tell us they would rather talk directly to us.Alot of info gets lost in never never land when too many people are involed.We have many times gone to a customer and they would tell us that the load has changed and even sometimes been canceled and that they told our company the day before we got there.Yes we got dry run pay,but look at the money your've lost.Then you've got to get at the back of line on the load board and wait again.Well personal i think its like this in all expediting and trucking in general,no matter what company you work for you have to take the good with the not so good.I dont feel that the grass is always greener on the other side,you may just be changing the name on the side of your truck.

 

[Doggie Daddy]

Just a couple of comments on this.First off you are right about the fact that it would be great to have the shippers phone number,and for the reasons that you listed.More than once we have deadheaded to pickup a load only to have them tell us that they had cancelled the load right after they had booked it. (c'mon dispatch is it that difficult to pass this information onto the drivers that are enroute?)And the last thing is that when you have a dry run,you also get less than 75 status so that you do not have to go to the end of the line. :7

 

[jackdixon_2000]

Cancelled loads are just part of this business. Luckily I have only had 3 or 4 over that last 7 years that I sat over a weekend waiting for. The above mentioned load was probably created during the week and was dispatched out on Saturday morning. Even if the driver had a phone nimber all they would have probably got was voice mail.
When something like this happens to me I try and rationalize it by saying "well it was a Saturday offer and I probably would have not gotten anything else for p/u that day aqnyway" You got $150 over nothing and an under 75. I know thats not much consolation if the load you were pickin up was in the 4 or 5 thousand dollar range but thats expediting.
One of the reason's I have hesitated going "White Glove" is that a large percentage of their loads are dispatched a day or two in advance. Some people like to know in advance and have the free time but I prefer the dispatch and go now loads.
As far as runs cancelling and not being told about it? I have never had that happen. I always check my run number on the computer and see when the run cancelled and when I was told. (I personally give fedex 10 min from time of dispatch to load cancellation before I hit them for dry run pay)
As an example. I delivered in the Fresno,Ca area Friday evening and was offered a load picking up Sun night at 11pm in Las Vegas going 240 miles to the Los Angeles area for $1030. The thought crossed my mind that if this load cancelled it would really suck. I would be 550 miles from home on the 4th of July holiday and I also don't like doing overnight runs so I refused it. Last month I was offered a load on Friday afternoon picking up in San Francisco on Monday morning. I don't mind taking a chance on weekend waits when I am home.
When I got to the shipper they said they were running late and it would be a couple more hours till freight is ready. After a couple hours they realized they were not going to be ready that day.
You just have to learn to shrug yer shoulders and say "thats the way it goes" its not fedex fault that the shipper ran into problems.

 

[truckwife]

jd2000
You are probably right. Its really not that bad for a team to empty
out on thursday evening. Get a load offer on Friday evening and it cancel. Get another load offer Saturday morning to pickup Monday morning . Deadhead 175 miles to pickup. Wait 2 hours for detention time to start and be told load canceled. You just said loads offered the next day or day after. You receive 150 dollars dry run pay . I try to rationalize also but if I can rationlize this as an acceptable way to do business or just go on with business as usuall it seems to to me that I am giving a silent statement that its alright to continue
this practice with my truck. What do you think?

 

[LDB]

I have had a few loads cancel although I don't recall one where I waited 2 days and then it cancelled. I'd be very unhappy about that due to the lost potential jobs. I've also never had a load cancel and then be offered back to me at a lower rate. If/when it ever happens I'll just politely say my rate is $xxxx and quote them the original rate. The company can either absorb the difference or disappoint the customer. That's their choice to make. It isn't my job to take a $500 loss to service their customer and it isn't my customer until an agreement is reached and the freight is on my truck.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5507, 5508, 5509
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[jackdixon_2000]

Leo, we have many Monday loads that get dispatched on Fri night or Saturday. After the customer calls in the order Fedex can't force em to load the truck if the freights not ready. My comment on rationalization is that if I accept a load at noon on Saturday and it cancels on Monday morning I don't feel I lost much because most likely I would not have been dispatched on Sunday anyway. Now if the offer was givin out on Monday morn for a Wednesday p/u that would be a different story.

The point I wanted to make was that on occasion loads cancel and to be aware thats the risk you take when you accept a weekend layover. I guess the debate is what you think is fair compensation? The customer agrees to pay a cancelation fee when they book the order but if the trucking company trys to hit em for a much higher fee then the going rate we probably won't see that customer again?

Truckerwife, I understand you wanting to stick up for you're rights. I assume you talked with you're CC and you could also talk to Contractor Relations but I doubt that it would have any major effect. But if it makes you feel better to air yer grievances have at it.
I along with many other contractors and the Contractor Council have been pushing for 2 years to raise the DH pay. The answers are "We are looking into it" for about 6 months then the latest I heard was that its off the shelf and DH pay is staying the same.

Now that freight has heated up and with lack of availability of trucks in hot areas there are trucks being asked to DH as far for p/u as the freight is going. 20c a mile just don't get it most of the time.
Ok, I got off subject here, but thats my one grievance

 

[LDB]

I understand what you are saying and I agree with you. I mistakenly thought this booked early on a Friday for a Monday pickup so that all day Friday with it's potential runs was lost. I've found that if there isn't an offer by Saturday morning it's just as likely there won't be one before Monday as there will. More than one offer on a weekend is more rare. I'd still be unhappy but at least I'd get a dry run and maybe a little more for what probably was a sitting weekend anyway.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5507, 5508, 5509
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[davekc]

I think Jack has it right. If the run comes Sat or late Friday for a Monday pickup I would do it. During the week, I wouldn't even consider it. Two days is alot of time for a carrier to reshop a better rate during the week.
Also agree that .20 per mile deadhead is a waste as well. That is essentially saying all the costs are on you but we will buy you lunch at McDonalds.
The other issue is customers phone numbers. Bottom line, they should be supplied to eliminate a bunch of unnecessary bs. At least when something does happen, you get the right information rather than a dispatchers spin that may be true or untrue.







Davekc
owner
21 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[truckwife]

to jd2000
You are 100% right. Few loads are dispatch over the weekend and you need to evaluate these loads before acceptance. If this load was an unconfirmed load I would have to say to myself well you could get there and maybe have a load and maybe not. Am I willing to take that risk? Now if it is sent out as a confirmed load then I am willing to say . Yes there is significant wait time involved but when I get there all negotiations on the load are completed and I am compensated for the wait time in the run itself. Maybe I am wrong. Perhaps unconfirmed means travel at your own risk and confirmed means travel at your own risk also. I guess communication is the breakdown. Tell me as a owner all details of this load have not been completed and that we are in the process of negotiating the price before you send me the load. Otherwise send the load as unconfirmed and let me make that business decision as whether accept or refuse.You have my truck tied up and off the board for loads. How many loads were dispatched after my truck was locked on this load? I know of a few.
You keep wanting to add the fact of the less than 75 as a carrot. Forgive me but I dont see the great advantage to this. All team loads have already been dispatched and your stuck with the choice of which solo run you want to accept for a tomorrows pickup. Please feel free to correct me in my misconceptions.
I only base my statements on personal experiences not hearsay.