The Importance of Checking Out the Freight Carriers

Freight broker training should include the importancehasn't made his check call yet. You call again and this
of checking out the carrier, along with how to do it.time you get him. He says he was in the shower (for
But in the art of freight brokering, brokers/agentsover 5 hours, right) and by the way, he needs an
have a tendency to forget this for whatever reason.advance. You are not in the habit of giving advances,
NEVER forget to do this no matter what thebut you do it. The next morning you go through the
circumstance. Why? Ok, let's look at a little situationsame thing except this time the driver is running 2
here: You have just been handed a reefer load thathours late, he over slept but he can still make the
has to be loaded by 1pm and it's now 11 am. Youdelivery appointment. Fifteen minutes past delivery
have just about exhausted all of your available truckstime, the consignee is calling you to find out where
with no luck. Then all of a sudden a truck calls youhis freight and your truck iare. Forty-five minutes
wanting the load. You send him your information, helater you are explaining to the consignee how the
sends you his, you work out the rate, and BAM... youdriver misread the appointment time. YOU should
load the truck, mission accomplished.have taken the time to check out the carrier. Late
The next morning you call the driver to check onand missed appointments have been documented in
things and he doesn't answer. No big deal, you leavehis carrier performance comments record. Proper
a voice mail. Four hours later and you still haven'tfreight broker training should include important
heard from the truck so you call back and leavescenarios like this.
another voice mail. It's now past noon and the driver