I Hate Freight

EXAMPLE I : A customer needed to go to the terminal to pick up material, because the freight company that posted a 2 day transit, still did not deliver on day 4. So what the did the freight company do? Hit us with a $30 pick up fee for their inconvenience!

Shipment was picked up Monday 01-27-2014 with an ETA of Thursday 01-30-2014. On the following Monday 02-03-2014 we were notified that AAA Cooper has lost a roll. US Fabrics notified our customer on 02-03-2014 of the missing roll and he agreed to have AAA Cooper deliver the roll that they had. We advised him if it was not found the next day we would ship another roll out to him.

On Tuesday 02-04-2013, we waited as long as we could to see if AAA Cooper could find the roll. At 2:30pm they still had not found the roll and we could not get a truck back into our location so we shipped the roll via UPS.

According to the rules of “lost” shipments we have to give AAA Cooper a week from the day we are notified that the shipment is lost to find the shipment. We are going to say the clock started on Friday 01-31-2014 when they received the shipment at 5:03am (because you know they don’t call to tell you they’ve lost anything, they wait for you to call them and check on why the shipment has been delivered yet)….so they have until Friday 02-07-2014 to find the shipment.

We chose to ship UPS instead of AAA Cooper because we have an obligation to our customer – “To get them the material they requested in a timely manner, which is what we pay the freight companies to do.” Our customers are in the construction industry, they order material so it can be delivered to complete a job. Typically those jobs require backhoes, bobcats, workers, gravel, etc….so we can’t ask our customer to wait a week for someone at the freight company to find what’s lost! We won’t have the freight companies dictate to us how we meet our customer’s needs.

02-21-2014: Shipment was picked up Wednesday 02-19-2014 by Dayton Freight in Cincinnati, OH 45227 with an ETA of Thursday 02-20-2014 to Gary, IN 46401. At 5:17am on Thursday 02-20-2014 shipment was unloaded at the Lowell, IN terminal. On Friday 02-21-2014 when we checked on the status of the shipment, we were told that the driver pulled the freight off his truck on Thursday 02-20-2014 because the driver was afraid he would have problems getting the material unloaded at the final destination. Last time we checked, the driver doesn’t unload the truck, the consignee does – so the driver should have done what we paid them to do – DRIVE the shipment to the consignee.

Then we were told that Dayton Freight only delivers to that location on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As you can see below, Dayton’s Transit times from 45227 to 46401 shows ONE DAY. There are no special notations about limited delivery. SO, if the driver knew that they only delivered on Tuesday and Thursday….then when he had the load on his truck ON THURSDAY he should have delivered it.

R&L Carriers picked up our shipment on Wednesday 02-26-2014 at 5:00pm in Athens, GA 30601 for delivery to Ironton, OH 45638. R&L shows a 2 day transit time – so this shipment should arrive to our customer’s construction site on Friday 02-28-2014. This shipment arrived at the origin terminal in Atlanta, GA at 7:22pm on Wednesday 02-26-2014. When we checked on the status of this shipment on Friday 02-28-2014 we discovered it is still sitting at the Atlanta origin terminal.

According to R&L the shipment did not get loaded onto a trailer Wednesday 02-26-2014 because they did not have room. R&L did not have any excuse as to why the shipment did not get loaded onto a truck Thursday 02-27-2014. We have been assured that the shipment will get on a trailer today Friday 02-28-2014 and it will be at the destination terminal Monday 03-03-2014. Unfortunately winter storm Titan is supposed to hit the area Sunday 03-02-2014 into Monday 03-03-2014 bringing ice, sleet and multiple inches of snow.

So thanks again Mr. Freight Carrier for giving US Fabrics a poor name. Now, the next excuse on Monday will be the shipment is delayed due to weather….how many days will you use that one?