Dusty W.
1/5
We booked this carrier to move a 120,000 lb piece of machinery going from TN to CO on a time-sensitive move. The carrier’s rate was quite higher than other rates we received, however they assured us that they had just moved this piece of machinery and that this load would be picked up on Thursday and would be delivered the following Monday. The customer agreed to pay the significantly higher rate based on the carriers stated experience level and infrastructure the carrier stated they had, as all parties were convinced by the carrier that this would be well-handled.
Carriers statements to us at time of booking: They have their own permit department; they would avoid traveling through MO, as permits are often are delayed; they have their own pilot cars; they had just moved the same piece of machinery recently.
Unfortunately, it appears the infrastructure and experience level were expressed to ourselves, and subsequently our customer, was utterly false.
Our customer advised us that upon arrival at the shipper, the carrier informed the shipper that they had never used this trailer before, and ultimately requested the shipper call someone to see if they were able to assist with the trailer setup. The driver remained on site from Thursday until Friday as they were not able to load the machine due to their lack of knowledge regarding the trailer, and despite having told us they had just moved this same machine recently. Further, the shipper also informed us the driver attempted to move the 120,000 lb machine to the scales with only two chains “securing” it to the trailer; an extremely dangerous and negligent practice that was ultimately shut down by the shipper.
Throughout the duration of this haul, we were provided incorrect information multiple times regarding the permit status and the location of the carrier, which in turn caused us to relay incorrect information to our customer time and again. We were informed that permits were delayed at the border of MO, the state the carrier informed us they would be avoiding. After that delay, the carrier was again delayed at the border of KS as those permits had not gone through either. This machine ultimately got delivered the following Friday, 5 days after their initial delivery date. The customer had booked flights for technicians to come work on the machine at its drop-off location upon delivery, which had to be rescheduled multiple times due to these delays, and also ended up having to pay overtime to their employees to help with the offload which went well into the evening.
When attempting to present these issues to the owner of the company via multiple calls and emails, we received absolutely zero response. While the permitting issues may be legitimate, the rest of the experience with this carrier was, at best, completely amateur and, at worst & frankly more realistically, completely negligent. This ended up costing our customer, and us, thousands of dollars and unequivocally jeopardized our relationship with them. Would under no circumstances do business with this carrier in any capacity again, and have informed all of our partners, affiliates, and corporate parent as such.
