Freight Not Accessible

ISSUE

The truck has arrived to deliver an LTL shipment, but there is other freight in front of your freight, so you cannot access your freight to unload it.

ACTION

1. STOP: Do not move any freight.
2. Call us, and we will speak to the carrier to alert them to the problem.
3. On occasion, it may be possible to shift other receivers’ freight that is on the truck, in order to access your freight. BUT…
   CAUTION: While moving other’s freight may seem like a sensible strategy and might even be requested by the driver, and would certainly result in your freight becoming accessible to be unloaded from the truck, we strongly recommend against doing so.
   We remind you that if you move someone else’s freight on a truck, you are potentially assuming liability for any damage that you do, as well as any damage that might have done to that freight before you moved it, including any undetected damage that was done to the freight when it was originally loaded before the truck ever got to you.
   And we ask, would you want someone else, unknown to you, moving your freight around on a truck after you had loaded it with care?
   However, if the driver wishes to move the freight that is blocking yours, and you are willing to let the driver use your forklift or pump truck if he needs it to do so, then this is a resolution that we believe may be acceptable.
4. We will speak to the carrier to determine why their truck has arrived at your dock with freight on the trailer in the incorrect delivery order. Unless the driver is able to move the freight or you insist on moving the freight yourself, we will instruct the carrier to go away and resolve the problem, and then return when your freight is accessible.
5. If the decision is to send the truck away, we will obtain an estimate from the carrier as to when you should expect the truck to return.
6. There is no fee assessed for sending away a truck to reorganize the freight.

EXPLANATION

Several circumstances can lead to this situation involving LTL freight. For example:

• If the freight has been cross-docked for delivery: the dock crew and the driver did not have the same delivery order plan;
• If the freight is being delivered by a highway truck: the order in which the freight was picked-up resulted in a horrible order for delivering the freight – the freight should have been cross-docked or re-loaded prior to delivery;
• Your facility is located on the way to the driver’s terminal: it would be efficient to deliver your shipment en-route, even though it is blocked;
• The freight ahead of yours cannot be delivered because the receiver’s fork lift truck (or whatever) is broken;
• The driver has free-lanced his delivery order, perhaps to save time or mileage;
• The original delivery plan was faulty.

While many of these circumstances are understandable, they are part of trucking, and the carrier should be prepared to take the steps necessary to ensure that LTL deliveries are made in the order that corresponds to the location of the freight on the trailer.

IMPACT & TYPICAL RESOLUTION

If the driver or you move the freight, there is no impact.

If the truck leaves to re-order the freight on the trailer, there will be a delivery delay equal to the amount of time the truck requires to have the freight shifted – this could be an hour, or it could be a day. There are no extra fees assessed.

Typically, if your freight is blocked by one or two skids only, the driver will usually move them. If the blockage is significant, the truck usually leaves to resolve them problem, and returns later that same day.