The Freight Doctor

One good question I like to give people to ask about with whom they should choose as a their freightbroker or 3pl company is, “Do you use major freight carriers?” If the company you are working with uses major trucking lines, such as Yellow, Saia, Con-Way, Estes, ABF to name but a few, then you should be comfortable working with the freight broker or 3pl. This is because these trucking companies are huge operations with great tracking systems of your freight when in transit and chances are, even in this down economy, they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Also, if the logistics company has accounts with these trucking companies or similar sized trucking outfits, they probably move a lot of freight with them. How does this help you? Well, if they move a lot of freight, then they’ve probably been able to negotiate and justify to these large trucking companies for amazingly cheap shipping rates. They’ve probably also negotiated having an FAK which means better rates for you. You, as Joe Customer, will not be able to come in off the street and demand the best rates with little to no volume and no track record. If the freight broker or 3pl has been around for awhile they’ve done all the hard work in getting freight rates down so all you have to do is swoop in and take advantage of their great rates. It’s just up to you to shop around and find the best freight quote!

Something a little distressing has been brought to my attention recently. The appearance of a new charge on the freight bill:
The Freight Reweight Charge. When did this happen? In all my years in the freight buniness, I’ve never heard of a reweigh charge on a bill before. Evidently, this fee can range anywhere from $20-$50 depending on the freight carriers that have begun to implement this fee.
The reweigh fee on the freight bill has only recently been popping up with a few of the more bold freight carriers. I just can’t see how these freight carriers can justify this new fee. Generally when a freight reweigh is called for, it’s to correct the weight because the freight carrier believes that the shipment is heaveir than the customer stated. I haven’t ever heard of a trucking company calling for a reweigh because they felt that the shipment was estimated as being lighter than the customer stated. That said, when a reweigh is called for you can expect to be charged more on your freight bill even before paying any reweigh fee.
Now again, as I’ve said in the past, shame on the customer who ball parks the weight or dims of their shipment because of ignorance or trying to round down their shipment’s weight in the hopes of getting a better price. You’re not usualy going to get one over on these guys and you’re just asking for trouble down the line when a revised freight chage shows up in the mail, however, this isn’t grounds to double charge customers. Especially because this new re-weigh charge was never part of a freight bill until very recently.
I say to anyone who sees this new fee on their freight bill to contact their agent or broker immediately to dispute this new fee as the freight carrier will get their money from the reweigh itself. At very least demand a certified document that explains the freight reweigh for your approval.

As a continuing part on my series explaining accessorial charges, today I’ll go into Residential Pickup and Delivery Charges.

The reason for Residential Delivery and / or Pickup Charges for non commercial locations is due to the fact that there are a number of factors that impede a prompt delivery or pickup to the location. The reasons can vary from there being no loading docks or forklifts, the streets may be narrower and harder to negotiate in and out of for the truck driver and as general rule of thumb it’s simply just more difficult to pick up and drop off shipments in non commercial environments. Typically you can also expect a liftgate charge attached because there isn’t a loading dock for the driver to back into as discussed in my previous post.

You can expect fees for residential charges to range anywhere from about $50-$100 tacked onto your total freight quote or bill.

Freight Carriers will charge you for storing your shipment roughly 48 hours after they first attempt delivery.   If for some reason you are not available past that first 48 hours storage charage will begin to accrue. After the typical 48 grace period, you can see a fee of anywhere from $100-$130 depending on the freight carrier. The next day $130-$160. The day after that, anywhere from $200+ and so on.

However, there may be a perfecty understandable reason that you were unavailable. Possibly some sort of emergency. If you know that no one will be able to receive the shipment within the first 48 hours, the best thing for you to do is to get on the phone and call the local terminal where yourshipment is coming into. The idea is that you can speak to a real person there and you can negotiate to have the charges waived or at least reduced as long as you can give them a definite reasonable time for a postponed delivery.

If you missed my previous post about protecting yourself with freight damage or freight claims here’s a reminder:
Always Be Sure To Write Down Any Damage On The Delivery Receipt And Have The Driver Sign Off On That As Well Before You Take Receipt Of The Item.
A clean Delivery Receipt is basically telling the trucking company that the item was delivered in perfect condition and they’ll stick to that. I recommend that not only do you insepct the box, but you open the item as well while the driver is there. Make note of the outside of the box at very least no matter how trivial or minute it may seem. Even the most minor of blemishes on a box may be an indication of much bigger damage on the inside i.e., scratch on box, tear in corner, missing shrink wrap. So be sure to write this down on the Delivery Reciept and have the driver sign off on it as well.
This will give you the leverage to make a freight claim should any problem be discovered after the fact. If you don’t make any note on the delivery receipt, you have 15 days to make a claim, but don’t even rely on this. Do yourself a favor and make sure to make some notation on the delivery receipt for your own protection.
If you don’t you will lose 100% of the time against the freight carrier.
Don’t let the driver rush you or intimidate you, and if you feel like this is happening, call your freight agent immidiately and have them speak to the driver on the phone at the time of delivery about what you need to do in terms of making any notation on the delivery receipt.
If you don’t have time to do this, then get someone who is there that does have the time to receive the shipment. What takes a few extra minutes could potentially save you a ton of greif and money!

It’s not unreasonable to have your load pick up by the freight carrier the same day as your request. The trick is to get your load booked BEFORE NOON ( 12 p.m. ) at the location of the pick up. As long as you book your load before noon, the earlier the better, then most likely, unless there aren’t any drivers in the area, you’ll have your load on it’s way by the afternoon that same day. If you book your load after, chances are it’ll get picked up the following day. So get your freight quotes in during the morning. The earlier the better!

Freight Carrier Trucking Companies, try to fill their trucks as efficently as possible to maximize the amount of loads for each trucks delivery route. This is accomplished by trying to fill as much space as possible within the truck’s trailer by stacking lighter items on top of heaver palletized items.

Shipping items of excessive length also known as Over Dimension Shipments presents a challenge when attempting to fill up dead space within the trailer as the the freight carrier would like. Due to the fact that the trucking company will need make up for having less loads because your shipment is of excessive length, the freight carrier will make up the difference by charging you an Over-Dimension Shipment Charge.

The length that falls into Over-Dimension Shipments varies from Trucking Company to Trucking Company, but it will usually reside anywhere from 12 feet to 14 feet in length.

So how much should you expect to be charged for an Over-Dimension Shipment? Look for your freight quote to have an additional charge of anywhere from about $75-$150 depending on the freight carrier and the type of commodity that you’re shipping. If you’re asked to pay any more than that, then it’s a good idea to negotiate this fee down to fall into a more reasonable price range as noted above.

When you’re in a rush to get a freight quote so you can book your load, you may think it’s okay to give guesstimated shipping weight and dimensions just to get your freight quote, BIG MISTAKE. When you try to cut corners like this, all this does is give the freight carrier wiggle room to tack on hundreds of pounds to your order. And to put it in its simplest of terms more weight amounts to more money.

Although a re weigh sounds professional competant and accurate, most of the time they end up being way off. Never ever give the freight carrier the opportunity to give you a reweigh. It’s just not in your best interest.

When a re-weigh is called for, you need to be aware of how the reweigh was done. Was it re-weighed by floor scale or by forklift? 

You should always be cautious a forklift re weigh. Why? Because forklift re-weighs are notorious for adding hundreds of pounds to your loads. This is because the forklift scale can be extremely innacurate.

If there needs to be a re weigh, a floor scale reweigh is always the most accurate choice because they have to be certified. However, I have seen with my own eyes, loading dock personnel add boxes or even stand on the scale to boost the weight in order for the truck company to boost your bill. While I don’t claim that this is standard practice by any means, it DOES happen! It’s a lot like the classic “butcher puttin’ his finger on the scale” routine.

So what can you do to protect yourself from a re-weigh?

• Know your freight’s dimensions and weight before you even call for a freight quote. 90% of all products already list the shipping weight and shipping dimensions on the box. If you don’t have the item, ask the shipper if they have this information. Someone needs to get out that measuring tape and scale and if at all possible do it yourself.
• If your freight is based on a density calculation (size of box and weight) have the truck driver verify and initial the box dimensions on your bill of lading before he loads it onto the truck. Give him a measuring tape if he needs one. The driver won’t be able to weigh it, but at least you’ll have the dimensions variable nailed down on record.

 If you want to challenge the weight, call the trucking company ( Good idea to follow up with an e-mail ) and request a reweigh at the destination terminal.  Make sure that when you have this conversation that you request that the trucking company take a photo of the item on the scale for verification and as proof that there wasn’t anything added to the scale at the time of the re-weigh. And to take it a step further, if the item makes it to the delivery destination and they have a scale at that location, have the receiving party reweigh the item before they sign for it. It there are any discrepancies, they should be sure to note it on the bill of lading and delivery receipt.

Bottom Line: Do yourself a favor. Know your shipping dimensions and weight at the time you request for a freight quote.

I’ve had a number of readers bring up instances where a freight company revises their bill after they’ve agreed to the freight quote. I’ll address several situations that seem to be the most common in terms of revising or adding to the initial freight quote.

When is it fair for a Freight Company to charge you AFTER the Freight Quote has been agreed upon?
When you have given them inaccurate or “ball park” information with regards to the weight and dimensions of your load or incorrect information about the type of delivery or pick up location is. Guessing at the shipping dimensions is a gamble. On the one hand, if it appears close enough, then it may go through without a hitch, however, if it’s obviously not what you told the broker and the freight carrier gets suspicious, it will call for a re-weigh (I’ll talk about re-weigh issues in another post) and if it proves to be different than what you told the broker, than the difference will be charged to you and rightfully so. This brings up the question how much more will I be charged?
Here’s just one example: If you guessed that the item was 500 lbs and it is reweighed at 600 lbs., expect roughly to be charged an additional $50 - $100. Again this is just one example, and the type of commodity the item is will play a factor as well.

When is it NOT appropriate to be charged AFTER the Freight Quote has been agreed upon?
It is NOT appropriate for a Freight Company to charge you for an Interline or Agent Transfer (when there is a hand off to another freight carrier that finishes the last leg of the delivery.) How it gets there is something that should have been worked out before the freight company ever issued you a quote. The freight company already has their lanes figured out and should an Interline or Agent Transfer occur, you should never be involved in this detail. It’s not your problem as a customer. You are paying the Logistics Company to take care of the logistical issues.

You as a customer will never be able to negotiate directly with a main freight carrier unless you are part of a large business that can negotiate volume discounts for better shipping rates. Well, sure you can go direct, but you’ll be charged astronomical freight rates so it doesn’t make any sense for you to go direct without any volume and frequency to command better freight rates.

Whether you have the volume or not, the best thing to do is to use a Third Party Logistics Provider. The 3PL is a business that has accounts with large freight carrier companies or uses independent owner/operator trucks. 3PLs have a number of customers and that gives them the negotiating power with the freight carriers or truck drivers to negotiate better freight rates than someone just coming in off the streets such as yourself. This way they can pass along a better price than if you were to go direct with a freight carrier. Some logistics companies pass along their savings to you while many keep margins strong for themselves. The farther they are removed from directly negotiating with the freight carrier, such as in the case of an independent agent or broker, the less margin they have to pass along to in order to tack on their own charges to turn a profit.