Always have a recorder when pulling reefer.

We received a confirmation on October 25th to pick up a load of "Cherry Tomatoes " on October 26th near Fayetteville NC and deliver on October 28th to Cambridge On Canada at 8:30am.

Load was picked up on time and the driver came to our yard on October 27Th # 3:30pm. When the truck arrived I asked the driver how things were and if there is any problems with the equipment. I looked at the reefer temp, setting was 55F and temp was 56F. The next 6 hours I checked the reefer temp a couple of times and each time it showed 55F.
This morning October 28th 2010 I got to the truck to take the load in. The first thing I looked at was the reefer temperature which showed 56F. During the next 15 minutes I heard the reefer turn on and shut off after a few minutes. During my pre-trip I glanced at the temperature and it was displaying 55F.

I got to the receiver and was given a door right away (235). Two hours had passed and trucks that came after me were leaving. I walked over to the receiving desk and asked them what was going on?

Me: I'm at door 235 could you please tell me what is going on I'm still loaded?

Receiver: Quality control is going through the product; there is a problem.

Me: Is the problem result of reefer not working or poor quality?

Receiver: Poor quality. Temp was 58F

Me: Would that cause a problem with the product?

Receiver: Not really. iT SHOWED 58F because your doors were open.

I called my wife and informed her of what was going on. She called our broker and was told to keep them informed.

Two hours passed by I again walked to the receiver, at this time I was informed that there was mold growing on the product. Because of this the process will be longer. I just stood there for almost 30min, when a quality control personal informed me that they were refusing the load due to poor quality. At this time I was told that I might have to take it to another company 65 miles down the road.
I called my wife and asked to inform our broker. A few minutes later she called me back and explained that the load has to go to another buyer about 60miles away and we were going to get paid $100. I did not like the offer at all. I called the broker and explained to them that this would add another 110miles to my trip. The $100 being offered does not cover the expense. Not to mention I have been sitting here for almost 4 hours and by the time I get to the destination I would have to sit for at least 4 to 6 hours to be unloaded since I don't have an appointment.

Broker: That's all we pay. Take it or leave it.

Me: I need at least $250, it's not my problem product is bad. My reefer held the temperature.

Broker: That's all we pay end of discussion. We had similar problems and all we pay is $100.

Me: Why is it that when there is a problem it's always the truckers fault? Our company did the job properly and to go to another location is a new contract. Please take the load off my truck and give it to another company that is sitting here. You know it and so do I nobody will do it for $100.

Broker: The load is yours deal with it.

I called my wife and explained to her of the situation. I told her I'm not pulling any load for $100, it's a slap in the face.
At this time I'm at the receiving counter asking again for any information on what is going on. This time I was told the load is being refused due to high temperature. QC pulled out a printout from the recorder which showed temperature of 65F- 70F.

Me: Impossible the reefer temperature was within the parameters.

QC: No look, high temperature, load is being rejected you need to call your insurance company.

Me: Even if the reefer failed how can product go bad in 36hours when the temperature over night was down to 40F and the recorder shows temp to be holding at 70F, something is wrong with the recorder.
QC: We go by what the recorder shows.

This is when 3 other QC personal showed up.

QC1: The recorder has been on for five days and shows the temperatureto high.

Me: 5 days how can that be we picked up the load less then 2 days ago, something is messed up with your recorder.

QC1: We can only go by what was recorded.

Me: It does not make any sense to me at all. How can a recorder be on for 5 days when we picked up the load less than 2 days ago?

QC1: Recorder written start date was October 26th which means only 2 days ago not 5 as the recorder shows. You are right it does not add up.

QC: We go by what the recorder shows anything else is not our problem, we will give you back your paper work and you need to leave.

Me: Not trying to be difficult here however I'm not leaving until we figure this out. You are all I have that might get me out of this jam. You can see that something is wrong.

This is when they all left to their office and asked me to stay outside like some school kid. After 20 minutes they came out and explained to me that the 1st 3 days recorder shows high temp. After the 3rd day it shows a drop to almost the recommended temperature and the last day it shows holding at that temperature. Therefore it we picked it up on day 3 it is not a problem with our reefer and this is all that they can say. During the conversation I had the broker on the phone and at this time handed the QC personal the phone and asked him to explain to the broker what their finding was.

During this the shipper where we picked up the load from called my wife and asked for our insurance information. My wife asked them to call me.

Shipper: Is this the driver doing the load from NC to ON.

Me: Yes.

Shipper: I heard your reefer failed and the product spoiled, we will need to place a claim and I need your insurance information.

Me: How do you figure? According to the receiver the product was hot even before it was loaded onto our trailer. As for insurance, we are going to have to wait and look at the report and then decide what the next step is going to be.

Shipper: The recorder was turned "On" on October 26th. If it shows hot temperature then we need to call your insurance. Recorders either work or they don't.

Me: How do you explain the recorder being "On" for 5 days, when we picked up the load 2 days ago?

I look at it this way;
If you turned the recorder "On" on October 26th and it shows 5 days of recording then there is a fault with the recorder and anything it recorder is flawed, in court of law I win.
If the recorder is showing 5 days of recording and on the day we picked up to the day we arrived it showed the correct temperature, we win.

Shipper: I'm going to have to call the broker and get to the bottom of this.

Me: Fine with me, while you are speaking with him please keep in mind that the rate has changed.

Finally I came home; the load is valued at $70,000 and still loaded on my trailer. My truck was supposed to leave early tomorrow morning for another run and I had to cancel because I still have the load.

The bottom line is always "Pulp" your reefer loads and always have a recorder on board some shippers will do anything to blame the carrier.

 

We are a small company and I have drivers. We started running under our own authority February of 2009. This is the second time that we have experianced a problem with our load.

Out of the 1000+ loads that we have done this is the second time that we expeirianced a problem and I'm sure we will have more.

And no you are not trying to be rude.