Detention Pay

[ihamner]

I'm not sure how other companies determine detention pay but our company will only pay dentention IF the delivery time is confirmed and after two hours of waiting. What are your thoughts and suggestions about this? Our problem is that many times the delivery is not confirmed until after we have accepted the load and are on our way to pick up. Twice recently we have had to wait for hours to get unloaded in the middle of the night and we were told there would be no detention pay because the delivery was not confirmed. Last time I told the dispatcher that if it wasn't confirmed and they were not going to pay dentention then we might as well leave and go back the next morning to deliver. Tonight we delivered to a company and no one was around to receive the load. The dispatcher said we would just have to wait until in the morning to deliver and it was not confirmed so no detention pay. I mentioned there were emergency numbers on the door of the company and she said this was not an emergency. Of course it was not an emergency for the dispatcher but when we found a guard at the company, he indicated it WAS an emergency and he called one of those people. Okay, my real question is what do you do about dentention pay and this confirmation of delivery problem?

India Hamner
FedEx CC
D Unit
Life is short.
Stay awake for it!

 

[RichM]

Having spent many years with Fedex the one thing I and others always do is to get the delivery confirmed. make a nusiance of yourself and keep on their backs until some one confirms it. Very important on a Friday load as yo might wind up driving 200 miles and have to wait until Monday. Sometimes you should call and say "I want that run but I need it confirmed" Most of the time they will work with you. This also works to your advantage as after it is confirmed you may have time to stop off,eat a decent meal and not have to push hard in order to wait and sit at a dock.

 

[davekc]

I never did understand the concept of an "unconfirmed load". I don't believe I have ever booked a load that pickup and delivery times weren't known. I would go with Rich's advice. I would ask for the phone number or have the dispatcher call to confirm it. That should have been done in the first place.
If they can't complete a load offer, I wouldn't bother running it.
Time is money.......why go into a run with the prospect you may be sitting all day for nothing? Not in my world.







Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[LDB]

In two years I've had one load that didn't have both p/u and del times in the qc when I got the load offer. Correct addresses and working phone numbers for shipper and consignee? That's a joke and infuriating the number of times they are missing or incorrect but the times are never in question.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA Life Member 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5508, 5509, 5641
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
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[lanier1]

Good point. We should always force them to come up with a confirmed delivery time. I don't always do that but should. I haven't had it bite me yet and would rather it didn't. On the flip side I picked up Saturday the 18th at 1100 and had a confirmed delivery time of 2300 Sunday. I took a chance, drove straight through and got it delivered Saturday at 1900. I did call dispatch and let them know I was dropping it early to cover myself.

 

[terryandrene]

Every FedEx Custom Critical driver either knows, or should know, that the company policy concerning dispatch offers is not necessarily the same as other carriers.

When a customer calls the carrier, they are given a possible pickup time based upon the distance from the shipper's location to the truck most appropriate for the run offer. When the offer is tendered on the Qualcomm, it always indicates whether or not the run delivery time is confirmed. A telephonic run offer does not always indicate a confirmed time so the driver should always ask. My personal policy is to always ask for delivery time confirmation and/or tell dispatch I'm interested but I need the delivery time in order to make a sound business decision. I can't recall a time that dispatch did not attempt to honor my request. If they can't get a confirmed time then I accept or reject the offer for one or more other reasons. It is well understood that if I take an unconfirmed load, I may have to delay delivery until the customer is open for receiving, and detention pay is not available.

There are understandable reasons why a delivery time cannot be confirmed upon dispatch:

A third party that is paying the tariff may not know the operating hours of the shipper or consignee so the carrier makes the best guess, or uses info on record to determine P/U and Delivery times.

Shipper does not know consignee hours of operation and books the load at earliest delivery time possible. Customer service agent attempts unsuccessfuly to contact consignee so load offer goes out as unconfirmed.

One of the reasons that FedEx Custom Critical, and its predecessor Roberts Express, has continued to maintain a prominence in the expediting world is their policy to always accomodate the customer's shipping schedule, not the carrier's schedule. Because of that, they are not always able to get precise delivery times.

Another issue often mentioned is customer telephone numbers. It is the policy of the carrier that they will be the sole contact with their customers. If we need to get additional info from the customer, we've but to ask and dispatch will either set up a conference call or obtain the necessary info, if available. That's the policy, we know it and we've learned to live with it. If they ever change the name of the company to TerryandRene's Express, we might consider a policy change.

 

[Bruno]

I couldn't have said it any better Terry. I always call disbach and ask them to try to get the load confirmed. I do feel that all duel driver loads set up, the customer setting up this load should be told up front that if the customer is not open when the truck gets there D-time will apply because one driver has to sit up with the feight and can't got to sleep. I also think that D-time on these loads should be 24 hrs.

 

[Moot]

Is TerryanandRene's Express presently leasing on vans?

At Con-Way the load offers always showed delivery time and then CONFIRMED Y OR N. If N (no) it was best to call. Especially on a Friday for a Saturday delivery. Same for pick up time. After one hour past the scheduled time detention started. They also adjusted the delivery time according to the departure time from the shipper.

Either hamner isn't getting a delivery time stated on the QC load offer or the company is claiming that the time on the offer wasn't a confirmed time and therefore refuses to pay detention.

 

[RichM]

Another very important reason to have your delivery confirmed is that you generally will not receive a pre-assignment offer unless dispatch has you set up for a confirmed delivery time.

 

[ihamner]

I appreciate all the input. We do receive a pick up and delivery time on QC for every load offer. Our problem is that many of the delivery times are not confirmed. They are given a time we will arrive for delivery but if they (dispatch) have not CONFIRMED the time with the consignee then that is where the problems come in. Many times we are already on a pickup when they finally are able to confirm the delivery. I was just curious about how others handle this problem. Thanks.

India Hamner
FedEx CC
D Unit
Life is short.
Stay awake for it!

 

[Turtle]

If the delivery time is not confirmed, does that mean you can deliver it whenever you want? Just...whenever...will be fine? Not in expediting. And it works both ways. What's good for the goose and all that.

If I'm contracted to pickup and deliver at a certain time, and I fulfill my end of the agreement, I expect the carrier to fulfill their end. If I am delayed to the point of a detention situation through no fault of my own in loading or unloading, I expect to be paid detention time. Period. If they don't want to take the time or make the effort to get the times confirmed that they have contracted me to abide by, or they are simply unable to confirm them, that's still not my fault. The carrier can bill the customer for it, or pony it up themselves, doesn't matter to me. But the more a carrier is allowed to let detention pay slide, the less incentive they have to ensure confirmed times.

There are plenty of very valid reasons for unconfirmed times, I know, and some are simply unavoidable. But I'm not the one who should have to pay for it. On the other hand, if I'm late, for whatever reason, be it traffic, a breakdown, whatever, I expect to have to pay for that, too. It's common courtesy, and respect, in both directions.

 

[TeamCaffee]

We handle it different depending on the situation. If the delivery is on the weekend we usually ask when making our departure call to have them contact the customer to confirm delivery. If we are delivering in the middle of the night we usually let it ride. If we get to the customer and they are closed we call in and see if there is a contact, if not we crawl in the bunk and go to sleep till they open. We have found sometimes it helps us to not have a confirmed delivery and we just go straight through and try to make the delivery when we get there and not worry about a time. This works for us most of the time. We have found staying calm is the easiest because it is a situation where you are not going to win.