How To Cover Hot Loads Fast | Final Mile 153

⏱️ Covering Urgent, Last-Minute Loads

📦 Who Pays for Freight Damage?

🛡️ Carrier Vetting Prevents Costly Problems

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Transcript

Rapid-Fire Q&A Kickoff

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, it's another edition of the final mile where we answer your questions. Keep sending us keep sending them to us uh either through the website or through YouTube and we'll uh we'll get to them. Um we've got a couple that came through email this week, and then one that was a good comment on YouTube that uh was about a recent video we put out. So um that was our thumb back in. So, Ben, let's hop

Covering Hot Loads With Limited Time

SPEAKER_00 0:22

into it. Our first question if I was to get a load that the shipper says we need to get it picked up within the next couple of hours, is it wise to load it on the load board or just call it carriers myself? So I think what he's asking is I got a hot shipment, you know, customers looking to get it covered. Should I post it on the boards or start making outbound calls? Um, I would tell you that when you, you know, ideally you'd probably want to use as much, as many tools as possible that you have at your disposal. So things like, you know, TMS history, and a lot, there's a lot of like really cool combination tools that you can use depending on your TMS, where you might be able to say, all right, I want to search for the best carriers based on, you know, my history with them. And you know, maybe you you weigh a certain percent on that. Maybe you look at um load boards for so like DAT, for example. Is there a truck posted on DAT is available? Or if you're looking in lane makers, have they been searching for loads in that lane historically and you can kind of create weights on it to give you the best recommendation? But I would say, like, depending on what you have, you're gonna be limited. Um, but I would say if if all he's got is load board and a phone, like I'm gonna be doing both, right? I'm gonna be definitely posted out there. It's it's probably newer if he's asking this question. So he probably doesn't have a lot of you know carrier history in his TMS. So yeah, you mean use what you've got access to. So if you've got a load board, right, look at carriers that might have a load or a truck posted in that area, um, get the load posted up there yourself, and then make those outbound calls. So if you know carriers that might be running a certain lane, depending on again the tools that you have access to, whether it's highway or gen logs or DAT or you know, your TMS, um, I would I would make outbound phone calls as well as having it posted up there. Um again, the more tools you have, the the better this makes it. I usually um, you know, I would I would prefer to cover every load I could without using a load board, but that's just not the reality, you know, in anybody's brokerage career, especially when you're brand new. What's your what's your take on this for hot load, presumably a newer broker?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Well, the thing is like you're it's it's like probabilities. Like if the load's got to pick up in an hour or two, it's just pretty unlikely that any carrier you call randomly doesn't have a truck unbooked and empty where you need it in that amount of time. That's really where the load boards bring the most value because you have carriers that probably had a load that got canceled or rescheduled, and they post their trucks to tell the market, hey, I got a guy that just became available. Does anyone need a truck in the next two hours? That's the whole premise behind the load board is connecting the need for a carrier and the need for a broker. So, like, yeah, I mean, you want to try to use carriers you know or have worked with, but the reality is like you could call 200 of them and probably not find one that doesn't have a truck for the next two hours.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yep, agreed. And again, the you know, the newer you are in brokerage, this is gonna be more and more of a a challenge for you. And that just kind of is the nature of the game. The the longer you've been brokering, or if you're working for a company that's been around for you know decades and they've got years of data in their system, you know, that's gonna be a leg up for you. So, all right, next one.

Damage Claims And Fast Resolution Paths

SPEAKER_00 3:49

I think it was the same guy that sent these two questions. Said, I had a question about obtaining a load and having a load that was delivered but had some damage product reported on the load. Does that fall back to the freight broker or have to adjust the rate that was agreed upon with the carrier? Or is that something that the carrier is responsible for? Would there be reimbursement for the damaged product as well for the consonant? So this is a claim question here. And I would encourage you to check out our episode where we break down claims. I think we did one somewhat recently, actually. Um we've had some other ones in the past with some some experts on, but yeah, I mean, if there's if there's damage on a shipment, um it's you know, instantaneously my thought is assume it's a claim, right? And go through your claims process, which is gonna entail like getting documentation um of you know the condition of the product as it was received, pictures, things like that, if if it's a you know, fresh uh food, like produce, you know, inspection from USDA. Um, and then you're gonna, you know, get get with the carrier's insurance company and start that process. Um, and I'll really emphasize here, and this kind of goes to the we did a podcast episode on importance of details and accurate information, is like documenting the condition of freight at loading and at unloading are crucial because the carrier's insurance company, it is their job as an I mean, I'll say this just blatantly, it's the job of an insurance company to try to pay out as little and as less often as possible.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

That's the business ring. Take your money and not give you it back.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

If they can if they can find a way to deny the claim because there's not sufficient evidence that the carrier was at fault, they're gonna try and do that. Like they they could try and say, like, well, we didn't know oh the the boxes are crushed now. What do they look like at loading? Well, I don't know. We don't have you know any proof of the condition or whatever. Um, that's an issue you run into. So I'm always a big fan of like take pictures of when your freight gets loaded on your truck. And um, you know, if there's a different condition when it arrives, um, the receiver's gonna definitely not want to receive damaged product, so they're gonna want um, you know, a claim file. So that's essentially his question comes down to you know, what is a claim. Um, anything else you want to add in, though, on like, you know, again, I'm gonna presume that he's fairly newer in this, but um, probably just procedural tips to kind of prevent claim disputes and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, because I mean it really depends on what happened. Like there could be some instances where the damage was caused by the driver, and the driver and dispatcher will accept responsibility, and you could just reduce the load pay by that amount if it's small. Like that's a common way. If it's lower than their deductible and they accept and acknowledge responsibility, that's a pretty common way where both would happen. You would deduct it from the carrier pay and reduce the invoice of the customer in that amount, and that's the fastest way to just get this resolved.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

If it's a very small one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

If it's a small one, if they are disputed in the sense of like who was responsible for the damage, like sometimes it's because of the carrier, but sometimes like the shipper or receiver could damage product in some way. Sometimes in refrigerated product, the shipper didn't pre-cool it, and it's not the carrier's fault. It's actually the company that loaded it. That's a pretty common one to produce, right? So you really need to investigate the likely causes at first, right? And then work through them individually to find where and how it will be resolved.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yep. Very good. Um,

Carrier Vetting Data Plus Sales Choices

SPEAKER_00 7:43

all right. Our last one here. This is a comment. We did a recent segment where we talked about highway and vetting and all that. And um, I thought it was a great, great segment, but he said, why is this so accurate? It hurts. Because every time the carrier vetting debate pops up in final mile, I'm reminded how many of us in the U.S. pretend this industry is about luck when the real game is compliance, positioning, and not getting burned by a carrier that looks good on paper, but folds the moment the highway gets real. And I catch myself thinking, wow, this is literally the part nobody wants to admit. More than 40% of disputes in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania come from carriers that were never properly vetted in the first place. It's too real because we've all seen someone jump into a contract without checking insurance limits, DOT history, or on-time percentages, then act shocked when the load goes sideways. And every time I watch this cycle repeat, I'm like, yep, this hurts because it's true. The highway exposes everything you ignored in the vetting process. So I think he's referring to highway, like using highway is uh is uh what's exposing that. So what's kind of your take on this one? Um I'll I'll well I'll give I'll give mine first. So the and if you haven't let watched the segment, it was one of our recent um final mile QA sessions here, but um we I think that anytime you've got a stolen load or a double broker or a you know carrier that does something nefarious, I found that almost every time it was it was preventable through a mix of doing the homework on that carrier with a compliance tool. And again, it doesn't have to be highway, there's a ton of them out there. Um there's not a ton, there's a there's a handful of them out there that are like pretty solid. Um, but then you've got to also like procedurally um you know follow through certain steps to make sure you're doing things the right way. So, you know, different companies have different risk tolerances and you know processes that they want to do. But I found that almost every time, like if you you know, if a if a truck breaks down, then you go and look at its like vehicle maintenance history, you're like, this dude like has been cited for you know tires and brakes and blah blah blah so many times now, put out of service. Um, so having the data is one thing, but if you're not using it, like if you if you don't put rules in place, right, or if you don't have some process that involves the data, this guy's right. I mean, it's like you know, it's it's kind of it's worthless to have the have the tool if you're not gonna use it. But do you have any any take on this? Mine's pretty much the same as yours. But like the industry is not about luck, it's about compliance positioning and not getting burned by a carrier. It looks good on paper.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

I think that's true. Like, I definitely it's an interesting percentage. I'd be curious where it came from. I I agree with the entire sentiment. Like, yeah, having the information doesn't do you any good if you don't know what it's telling you, and it doesn't do any good to know what it's telling you if you don't use it to make a decision. So absolutely. I would say there are certain times where like the customer is willing to take the risk and they say, I don't care, just use the cheapest carrier. Then they complain when there's a problem. That's usually where I think these occur when I was moving freight, but it's my job to explain that to my customer when they're making that choice. This is literally sales in freight brokerage, right? Like my job is not to just get you the cheapest truck or try to convince you to spend more money. My job is to give you options and explain what each option entails, right? Hey, Nate, I know you need this shipment moved. How important is it and how valuable is it? Why do you ask? Well, I have two options. I've got a $3,000 option. The carrier's got quite a bit of out-of-service for mechanical, meaning, like, there's a pretty good probability the guy might break down on the way to delivery, and your load is either not picked up on time or delivered late. But I got a $3,300 option. This guy's got great maintenance records, great driver fitness, great everything else I'm looking at. Which would you like to choose, Mr. Customer? Now, when you choose the cheap one and it's not on time, I go, I hey, I said this was gonna happen or could happen. If you went with a cheaper one, I'll try to fix it. But like, don't yell at me. You wanted to go with a cheaper one. It's our job. Your customer always wants it perfect, cheap, and fast. It's our job to conversationally make them choose two, right? If you want it cheap and fast, it won't be good. If you want it fast and good, it won't be cheap, right? Like that is the sales job, right? So it to me, that is true, but it's also true on how you present this information to your customer when they're directing you which carriers to put on which loads. Like that's the value of the information. It's what am I getting for what I'm paying for?

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah, exactly. I used to have a customer that was like they do LTL, and there was like certain LTL carriers, they would say, like, do not ever book these carriers because they're always the cheap ones that had the highest risk or highest percentage of like damaged stuff. Um, you know, forklift tines going through the boxes and blah, blah, blah. So yeah, it's uh it is a good, a good sentiment to the the sales set of things.

Final Thought And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Good questions, keep sending them our way. Final thoughts, Ben.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

And until next time, go bills.