ISSUE
The truck has arrived, but your materials handling equipment is not working. Maybe your dock system is broken, or the door has come off its rails, or your forklift needs service, or your pump truck won’t pump, or you’re having a power failure so you can’t raise the dock leveler: for some reason, you are unable to load or unload your shipment.
ACTION
- In a perfect world, you are able to alert us to the problem well before the truck arrives at your location, as time is of the essence in developing options and controlling costs.
- We will explore possible options with you, such as borrowing a lift truck from a neighbouring business, or receiving the shipment at a neighbour’s dock.
- If there are no immediately satisfactory options to proceed at or near your location, we will recommend:
- For a pick-up, cancel the current truck a reschedule once the equipment has been repaired. This will generate a “truck ordered, not used” fee.
- For a delivery, we will have the freight delivered to a local cartage company, where it can be held until you are able to receive it. This will generate an unloading fee and a cartage delivery fee, as well as possible fees for an extra delivery, for waiting time, and for storage.
- It is important to identify options and make decisions quickly, as waiting time can accrue and options can foreclose if too much time is spent searching for the perfect approach to the broken equipment problem.
EXPLANATION
This is a straightforward, but unpredictable, situation: a critical piece of equipment broke down.
IMPACT & TYPICAL RESOLUTION
There will be both delays and extra costs, particularly in the case of a delivery that is unable to be made.
Typically, a pick-up is postponed, or a delivery is temporarily made to a local cartage company, repairs are made, and in 1 – 3 days we are able to re-dispatch shipments on your behalf, and things return to normal.