Truck demurrage

This subject started the first fight I had with my broker. Truck was at Mid South Milling in KC KS. Got there the night before, but still 5 trucks ahead of him. Driver sent me a text @ 8 in the mornig, all is good, should be out by 10. I talked with him again at 3:30 and still 3 trucks ahead of him. Called broker and was told Mid South does not pay wait time. Driver tells me they went 4 hours without unloading a truck, they were milling as they were full.

Needless to say, I lost it with the broker then. Told her waiting is one thing, but now they are renting my truck for storage without my permission. Told her I want 500 for the day which is very fair for a truck and driver. She called the next day and said "I got you 200, that is great because Mid South does not pay". My question to her was, "why does Mid South get to set the rate for my truck and driver, and why do you think that is fair?"

Had I been in the truck, after watching them not unload a truck for even a couple of hours, I would have more than likely walked in the office and told them they had 30 minutes to get me unloaded or to show me where in the parking lot they wanted this.

Hey Mike I load at the same place you guys do I've often ask myself the same question I've asked many people about that and I'm always told because that's the way it is I just shrug my shoulders and you know

Good morning Alfred, as you know I follow your posts closely and feel the need to voice my opinion on this subject. I agree with you 100% on the need for demurrage, BUT, 1 hour is slightly aggressive, it's been my experience that some facilities actually take more than 1 hour to unload a hopper. I guess my thoughts are after 2 hours the clock should start. As for facilities NOT paying demurrage does NOT seem fair, you guys bust your asses to get the feight there when they need it and then forced to sit sucks. My job is to be the mediator between the trucks and shippers sop I hear both sides every single day, the driver claims they need to be paid for waiting in line because he got there when he was asked to, now on the other side of that coin I always hear, "Well if he hadnt gotten here on time would he be paying me for lost time in production?" to which I generally reply "NO" because the driver has multiple more reasons for not being on time that are well out of his control and in response to that I usually get well breakdowns are out of our control as well. I'm sure you all have heard the same arguments. You mentioned just leaving with the product and dumping it somewhere, well thats fine if you can get by with it without having the law on your day and lawyers collecting clean up charges or theft of product charges etc... I wish I could just play dumb to this subject but unfortunately I've experienced it as a driver and dispatcher/broker. There are many places who will not pay detention time no matter the circumstances, I've spent hours on the phone trying to convince them to be fair to the drivers with little progress. I've made it my policy to NOT even take a load from any place with this reputation without a written agreement for a per hour charge after 2 hours signed by someone with the right authority. this is only my opinion and it seems to be working for me but everyone is different. I'm sure there are certain portions of this post that will be picked apart and singled out by a few as being "Typical Broker" but thats alright.

Alfred, I agree with you on many things, this is no different. I am just as disgusted as all of you guys are when when of my trucks is held, it costs more thna just the time wasted there, it costs the revenue for the loads set up behind it as well. This is certainly a subject I spend a lot of hours on almost every single week with shippers, my job is to make my O/O's as much money as I can and often times it means spending hours on the phone but we all know thats just part of the job. I am in favor of any kind of system used by anyone to help alleviate this problem, especially if it works better than what I'm doing. As of right now all I do is try to avoid those places without an agreement ahead of time.

WellPet in Mishawaka. Avoid if possible

PetSolutions down in Arkansas absolutely sucks I dumped 26 ton of their crappy product on the ground because they could not get their product up to standards for the pet industry so they kept pulling out a ton or two trying to manipulate it correctly that way when the receiver probed it would look like the whole load was correct after they use my trailer and me as a guinea pig for a few hours they found out real quick Scott Fair Grove Trucking don't screw around either the shit was on the ground I was gone. Another shitty one is Tyson Pine Bluff Arkansas I left 25 ton of DDG on the ground for them almost 3 years ago never been back I'm not a holding tank they wanted to hold me over till Monday because they did not have the room whatever with no pay

I realize that things happen on both sides but for the companies that do this day in and day out, well it is not right and they shouldnt have even said anything like that at all because we are not storage. Period. My husband has waited any where from 6- 24 hours to get unloaded. And it is crap. That ia a full days work. There should be a law that makes them have to pay.

Thought you would get a kick out of this from the FMCSA: I guess we are only worth min. wage

Fair Pay for Long-Distance Truck & Bus Drivers: Many over-the-road truck and bus drivers are compensated by the mile or on a fixed-rate per load. As a result, they are not paid for extended periods of time spent on-the-clock when they are detained by waiting for shipments to be loaded or unloaded at shippers’ or receivers’ facilities. Similarly, over-the-road motorcoach drivers are often compensated in a manner other than an hourly wage. As a result, they often face pressure to drive beyond hours-of-service limitations as a matter of economic necessity, risking driver fatigue and jeopardizing highway safety in the process. The GROW AMERICA Act addresses these problems by providing the Secretary authority to issue regulations that would require motor carriers to compensate drivers for detention time and other similar non-driving work periods at a rate that is at least equal to the federal minimum wage. (Section 5507)

Exactly, so if that is forced upon me the carrier, then I have no choice but to pass it onto the shipper or broker. I don't have a problem with it, my operators make more than minimum wage as it is. Shippers are now asking us to up our Worker's Compensation for them. We have Occ/Acc and that more than covers us, I am thinking their legal department has realized that when a driver is out there unloading their product that technically he is working for them at that moment in time. Our operators just open the doors and turn on the vibrators, it the stuff does not drop out then that is not our problem, that is their product to get out of our trailer. Our operators are not qualified under OSHA standards to get into confined spaces nor will I allow them to get into the hopper with any product in there. If we have to start carrying work comp in addition that is ok. I will just add it into the calculator and charge for it. The more the customer ask for the more they have to pay, very simple equations. Most of us country boys have heard the expression why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free. This is what is being used against all of us, why pay for something when nice guys are willing to work for free?