Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/947211
32 | Overdrive | March 2018 HIGHWAY ROBBERY Going after payment by making claims on a broker's bond or surety trust in a failure event is unlikely to result in full payment. If claims exceed the amount a failing broker was bonded for, claims oft-as-not get prorated in a well- delayed settlement. Danny Schnautz, operations manager for Pasadena, Texas-based Clark Freight Lines, says the 150-truck carrier going after a broker's bond after a nonpay- ment event might happen "a few times per year." For most truckers, filing on the bond is likely to give the broker the nudge he needs to follow through on the payment. More common are disputes over accessorials, significant sticking points in carrier negotiations with brokers. "The accessorials are what people get burned on" most, Boblett says. "They're not going to pay out on the bond for accessorials," most likely, "but it does get some people's attention when you put in a claim." Brokerages large and small are noto- rious for giving appointment times at what they may know are first-come first-served facilities where undue deten- tion may be more likely — just to avoid addressing detention rates in writing or in conversation, many carriers believe. "We've had appointments not really be appointments," Schnautz says. In 2018, says Boblett, with the ELD mandate in play, "it is now 100 percent OK to bring up detention before you get off the phone" with any broker. "You've got to start bringing it up." If the broker's reluctant to agree to your detention terms, particularly if conforming to the industry standard of two free hours after which detention applies, you're probably going to have considerable detention at one or another of the facilities on either end, Boblett believes. If the shipper and receiver are good about minimizing detention or paying for it, "the broker should have no problem agreeing to your detention time pay" terms. Consider, too, going above the com- monly offered $50 an hour after the first two. "If the third hour is $50" paid, Boblett says, "that's just $16.66 an hour for the first three hours. It's not worth it. If a broker tells me, 'It usually takes three, four hours, but we pay detention!', I don't want any part of that." It's hard to budge any broker off the industry standard of two hours free, Boblett adds. Consider it a red flag when a broker offers you a variation on it. "The broker will tell you, 'We don't pay until after three hours' or 'If there's a problem, let's talk about it when it happens.' " Once one problem like that surfaces, Boblett says, "you're probably going to run into other issues." Schnautz sees some measure of improvement in honest dealing in truck- ing, as with other fields such as car repair and insurance. But like many truckers, he views the "lack of account- ability" with which too many brokers continue operating as troubling. "No leverage over brokers is the deal." Some brokers who don't pay will plead that the "shipper won't pay" and that "I'm trying to get your money," though Schnautz and company "seldom believe that." Until "we know that the broker will keep their word and conform to industry standards," Schnautz suggests, strive to know exactly who you're dealing with. And keep asking those questions. "We are good at that." FURTHER RESOURCES • Tools to check broker credit histories and ratings for intel on business health via load board services' rating systems and other third-party services have multiplied in recent years. DAT today provides owner-operators the oppor- tunity to review brokers using its load boards, and Truckstop.com offers credit letter grades. Both offer other common metrics on brokers' payment speed and more. Search "research broker histo- ries" via OverdriveOnline.com to read a July 2017 in-depth feature on the topic. • In 2013, nearly half of owner- operators reported having resorted to that last-ditch effort to collect from a freight-payment scofflaw: filing against a broker's required surety bond or trust. That same year, Overdrive published a how-to for those needing to file, whether to spur a broker to pay or to mitigate against a broker's business failure. Search "file against a broker's bond" at OverdriveOnline.com to ac- cess the story. • The Baxter Bailey & Associates freight-specialized collection agency publishes a periodic list of brokers about which it's received multiple collection inquiries, often indicating either fraudulent or failing companies. You can subscribe to e-mail alerts via BBCollects.com. The collection firm will handle payment claims as low as $500. Carriers making collections pay for the service as a percentage of the final collection. Chad Boblett, founder of a Facebook group for rates discussion, stresses bargaining for adequate detention pay before ending a negotiation.