Is it legal to shave a drivers miles?

[greg334]

You know I think people need to start being a bit more business like and actually asking for addresses (or zip codes) to check the mileage.

Regardless if the company is 'shaving' miles, the issue isn't that but what you need to do to ensure you are not being screwed.

As said, you are accepting an assignment to haul freight from point A to point B for a set amount. You agree to the amount or reject it, sometimes you can negotiate it but without knowing what the miles are going to be from another source, you don't have anything to back you up in any negotiation.

 

[BigRed32771]

Over time I've learned a few of the places that we go frequently that have different mileages.
Some of the places are 15 to 20 miles out in the country from the town named, so I add (or when appropriate, subtract) those miles when I calculate the all-miles rate for the load.

The grossest example of this has to be Kennedy Space Center. Apparently it has its own zip code, which is a code out of the Orlando Central area. In reality, it's about 60 miles east of where the code indicates it to be, so I always have to add those miles when figuring the pay on the run. I discovered this because, living in the Orlando area when we started so that I knew it pretty well, I noticed that the run directions would dump the truck into downtown Orlando. The local directions would get you to the right place if you knew how to get to starting point for them, but there was about a 50 mile disconnect. I called it to the attention of dispatchers, etc., and was finally told that they knew about it but didn't want to fix it because KSC was a big customer and it would cause their rates to go up if they figured the actual mileage. So I just add the miles into my calculations and see if it pays with real miles. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Turtle]

Legal definition of fraud: A false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury.

If that doesn't show it to be illegal, I don't know what will. The company is looking to gain by concealing the fact of the load from the contractor. The contractor loses what would have been more money, or a legal injury. But the extent of the injury is so small, no DA would press charges, IMO. You would likely be luckier in civil court.

Some carriers engage in various degrees of fraud, absolutely. None will admit it, tho. But it depends with regard to mileage. If the paying customer is paying for 580 miles, and the carrier in turn in paying you for 580 miles, but the actual loaded miles is 650, there was no intent to to deceive, unless you can prove the carrier gave the customer a mileage cut as a discount, part of which then comes out of the driver's pocket. But if the customer is paying for the same amount of miles that the carrier is paying you for, even if the actual miles are different, it's not really a deceptive fraud. It be incompetence, but it's not fraud.

But like Greg said, you have to be diligent on this stuff and check the routing and mileage before you accept the load. And not just with one mapping program like the Garmin or Streets and Trips or whatever. One program may be very different than another. I've run routes on 4 or 5 different programs, none of which came close to the mileage offered, but then PC Miler or some other program matches the offer. The route might suck in those cases, but at least it's legit.