Before you haul that TQL load, better listen up

This should be posted as a sticky. Maybe if enough people find out, TQL can eventually go out of business.

This will help:

Tags: TQL,TQL logistics,TQL scam,TQL pay,TQL ship;

thetruckersreport.com has a lot of clout because of the number of members and posts.

It's kinda' like an "internet union" so to speak.

 

Good luck on that.

 

So they go out of business under that name. Same people will just open up another business, under another name, and carry on with their shady dealings. It really sucks. What is needed, is hard jail time for folks who perpetuate fraud.

 

No luck needed.

A few years ago, a company (not trucking related) ripped me off for a few thousand dollars.

The negative websites and reviews that I created were ranked higher than their main website in search engines.

They lost so many sales that they actually contacted me and offered to pay me what they owed me to stop.

I told them that if they pay me double what they owe me I would.

HA! It was so important to them that they actually did!

They drew up a contract and after I recieved the check and cashed it, I followed through with the deal.

Never heard from them again.

Live by the internet, die by the internet.

 

Word of mouth is and always has been the best way to get business. It does matter. Maybe TQL continues for the next 50 years in logistics. So what. I know for a fact this one truck that has 99% on time pick up and deliveries does not even bother looking at their loads. The 1% there was when my truck broke down twice. The first one, when my motor went down, I arranged and managed to get a rental to finish out the load and it was only 3 hours late. The other one, when my power divider crapped out, I arranged for my buddy to bobtail from his house, hook to my trailer and finish the load out for me while I went to a shop to get the power divider rebuilt it was 5 hours behind schedule. Late yes, but I did not call the brokers up in those cases and say, "sorry about your freight it will get there when it gets there" as they hear 95% of the time, I offered them a workable solution within 15 minutes of informing them I had problems with my own truck and a service failure was immentent.

I also know for a fact most of the other 18 trucks at Farm2Fleet with the same on time records feel the same way I do. That is not to say we never haul any of their loads but I know it is not the norm. Now these are the kinds of carriers they need. Sure they'll continue to shovel off cheap freight on questionable carriers, but word of mouth gets around... ...dependable folks know what they are and what they do and the more of those who refuse to work with them.. They lose nothing, but the loss for TQL, no way for them to quantify that but they are impacted by it. Now if they were to stand up and do the right thing in this particular case, then that would be well, and maybe I'd point to this thread in the future and say "look they did right that one time by that driver"... ...in fact there was one case a few weeks ago where they messed a driver over on a 400+ miles deadhead, the load cancelled, but they stood up and gave him above market TONU.. But when you see something like this.... and the continual "ghost loads" trick, well, they have a long ways to go in my book...

 

good point i do the same thing i take care of the load before i worry about my truck or anything. last deer i hit took out my radiator so i knew i was done i called a few wreckers and one had a buddy with a truck that could haul the load i paid that guy more money than i was getting paid off the load and i hauled it half way. This guy was paid soon as we got done not 30 days or whatever its not the shipper or the brokers falt you have problems.

I have had to call a broker before because i couldnt get it moved he reposted the load as a power only that didnt work so we ended up just getting a wrecker to reload it on a truck i paid for that and never asked the broker for a dime told him sorry i couldnt deliver it myself but thanked him for all his help, That broker calls me all the time now and joke about it the thing is just tell the truth and do what you can to take care of it. Dont just say im broke down and your load is here if you want it before next week

One more thing i dont understand about this story is you said TQL sent you a revised confirmation if so were is your copy? your not doing what you should be doing i never do anything without one. So what if they lost theres or cant find it......let me send you a copy if they still wanted to fight me its file on there bond time!!!

 

That comment was kind of confusinbg i should have edited that... ...I have NEVER nor would I ever haul any load for TQL without a confirmation. I have onlyt hauled about 3 loads for them anyways, and that when I first started out working loadboards... Even a confirmation from those guys isn;t worth the paper it's printed on.. I have hauled many loads without a confirmation for a few Landstar agents that we know very well, these of course are stand up people, people we have established ourselves with... I recall the one time Mike left on a load without the confirm for one of them, the load cancelled as he pulled into the shipper after deadheading 90 miles, he never got the confirmation but he got aprofuse apology and a $250 TONU, then a half hour later a call on the phone for another load that was 50 miloes away from where the first one picked up and the pay was better. That with the TONU he made out very well. This is how a real broker, who understands the importance of cultivating reliable dependable carrier relationships, that is how they take care of the trucks they use... ...and they never have any problems covering any of the freight they have, they've got people on speed-dail who will pretty much drop everything and go to bat for them. It's the anti-thesis of the TQL model where they milk everything they can out of all the freight, cheapen everything, have hassles and issues with customer service, etc.. If they had any real freight they wouldn;t know how to cover it and would quickly screw it up...

 

Too many slim shady haulers to put them under.

 

You might need a different attorney. I believe that transportation code requires that the carrier be paid, plain and simple. This means that no amount of shell game or contract clauses can be used to dupe the "carrier of record" out of payment for hauling freight between shipper and receiver. For a dry, non-agricultural load, carrier can definitely get paid for miles, so go after TQL's bond. They have a giant bond amount if I recall. How you handled the TQL confirmation agreement and what you did with the Bills of Lading was very important though. These are important legal basics often overlooked by carriers in a rush to deliver. Was your carrier name and your signature on the BOL, and did you keep a copy? Was the TQL revised confirmation clear in the amount owed for what driving you did? Some BOLs state the broker or some other entity as the carrier, for instance, but this can be fixed with your own official carrier stamp during signing at the shipper. Even if you simply scribbled your signature on the driver signature line, you might have enough evidence for a judge to rule in your favor. What's TQL, the shipper, or receiver going to do, risk further court action and argue that's not really your signature? I have a nice large red stamp with my Company name, MC, DL#, address, and phone number, so that nobody has an excuse for not paying me, and my signature is as distinctive as John Handcock's for being easy to read. Lots of broker accountants don't like you messing up their BOLs, so I stamp in an open spot, leaving plenty of white space for other comments. But, too bad for them if they don't like it, my carrier identification is perhaps the most important part of that BOL. Some shippers won't allow you to stamp their copy for stupid legal reasons, but since they had you signed in at their facility, and sign receipt of the load, so they are liable for carrier charges anyway. So, always keep a copy of the BOL, regardless of situation. If the shipper has a register, your attorney can get to it by court order if necessary, so shippers should be willing to pressure the broker into settling with you. However, the cross-dock procedure was a mistake you allowed. TQL has no authority to unload your trailer without your signature, and if you didn't get a solid confirmation before this transfer, you made another huge mistake. Don't trust the broker to keep YOUR records! But, if you have a copy of the TQL contract and confirmation, study it carefully. Once you picked up the load, that original confirmation has power of contract regardless of what fine print may be in the contract you signed years ago, and they can't just rewrite it without your signature of approval. So then, if the load was properly delivered by the other carrier, the revised confirmation is also a contract they must abide by. If you failed to get an electronic or hardcopy version of the TQL confirmation sent to you, then shame on you. NO TRUCK ROLLS UNTIL A CONFIRMATION IS ISSUED. If you do have a copy, but they can't find it in their computer, then shame on them, especially if you kept a copy of the BOL.

Once, I had a breakdown just 50 miles west of NYC, after hauling strawberries from Salinas, CA, some 2,500 miles. This was a very risky situation because temperature sensitive product needed to be delivered ASAP or risk rejection receiver. When properly notified, the Canadian broker was resourceful enough to get another carrier at the market to bobtail out to pick up the trailer and deliver it for me while I had the truck towed to a shop. We agreed upon a set price right at that moment, a price that was reasonable enough for me and still very lucrative for the other carrier. Later, the broker telephoned me and started talking about problems with the berry quality and how we may need to change the amounts involved. He kept things very friendly, but I tossed and turned in my sleep worrying about lack of solid written contract. I was very scared because I also didn't have the signed copy of the BOL from the receiver. So, in the night I called the receiver dock that had just finished unloading the produce. He reported that all product was received in good quality, and he agreed to fax me a copy of the signed BOL because it was my trailer, not the other carrier's. I also agree to keep the original until I got paid by the broker. He didn't want to get involved any broker-carrier dispute, and there was no reason for him to volunteer a copy to the broker. With signed copy of BOL in possession, the broker had no choice but to pay me in full because I was his only way to get paid his fee. So he sent me the revised confirmation, showing deduction of the other carrier's pay, as it were some fee I owed, which I signed and returned to him by e-mail him, along with a copy of the signed BOL.

Then, at the repair facility, I arranged on my own to pay a local guy to retrieve my trailer from the market. I paid him in cash when the trailer arrived safely. I was worried about my trailer getting dinged around by the other drivers, but luckily everything worked out fine. The other drivers were cooperative, the main worry was the broker. In such emergency situations, the friendly attitude and persuasion of the broker is your biggest worry.