Posts Tagged ‘Tips and tricks’
Protect Yourself: 10 Tips to Avoid Double Brokering, Loads Held Hostage, and More
There are a lot of practices going on right now that you need to avoid like the plague. Double brokering, loads held hostage, advance scam, so on and so forth. As bad as that freight needs moved, it’s going to end up even worse if it gets put in a warehouse and someone demands 10k from you. Or if you take a load from someone that has stolen the identity of another company, you’re in for even worse trouble. So here are some tips for NOT having a very bad day, week, or maybe even a month.
- Make sure you have caller ID, and do not deal with anyone that calls from a private number. We are in business, there is no need for private numbers. Simply ask the company to hang up and dial *82, which will disable their private feature. If they refuse to do so, you did not want to deal with them anyway.
- Make sure the phone and fax number match the authority. If the authority says they are out of PA and the numbers are Miami number, question them, if they say they are an agent, call the home office to make sure. Its better to take the extra minute in the long run!
- DO NOT give out advances. I’m sorry, I know that may sound like a hard stance, but just dont do it, especially if you have never used the company before! If you do, you are just asking for trouble.
- I know it has become popular for people to give out the dispatch info on confirmations, but really, what are you thinking? If you are a broker, you should be the point of contact with your customer, you need to service them rather than given out the info to every single person. Get directions for the carriers, they are your customers as well. This will also make sure they you speak to the driver personally and get to ask him everything you need to (like what it says on the doors of his truck, and so on and so forth)
- Do not give dispatch info to the dispatchers. I dont care if they say the driver doesnt speak English. I have heard that again and again countless times. 60% of the time it has been from a company double brokering the load. and of that probably 80% of the time the driver spoke English.
- If the driver calls in for dispatch, look at the caller ID. Is the call coming in from his terminal? Guess what? Its not the driver, its a dispatcher pulling the wool over your eyes… bad news right away! Or is the “trucker” on the phone inside an office with the phones ringing? Another bad sign!
- Insurance certs. Only accept them from the insurance company. If the phone number doesnt match the area, again, look in to it.
- If you have a good working relationship with your shipper, ask them to verify the name on the truck each time, this is an easy way to stop a lot of problems.
- Use www.safersys.org Check and see how many trucks they run, not only that, but check and see how many inspections they have had. If the carrier says they run 40 trucks and show no inspection in the last 24 months, you know something is bad wrong.
- And last but not least, we have… Dont threaten the carrier! I dont care how upset you get, sometimes you can turn a bad situation worse by getting upset. Dont threaten the carrier and try to work things out reasonably!
Do business ethically and honestly and stay safe!
