I was recently contacted by a one off customer to handle a shipment from the port of Philly to a local facility elsewhere in PA. It was one crate, nothing special at first, box truck or a sprinter van would have been more than sufficient to handle the delivery so I started working on the quote. Once I broke it down and had an idea of who I would be contacting to handle the load and reach out for a quote I got back in touch with the potential customer for a few follow up questions. How much did the crate weigh and most importantly what was inside of it. This shipment wound up being a crate of artwork valued at close to $100k. I had to turn it down. Why? Well most people don't understand that commercial cargo insurance has a list of exclusions that are not covered due to the high probability of damage during transit. With artwork this can be bumps, rips, and tares sure. But it can also be humidity damage that may not have even happened on your hired truck but could have been done during transit on the airplane or even from sitting inside of the warehouse in which its being stored in. In the end, your carrier will be the last to touch the freight and where they deliver to will be the first people to open and inspect the artwork since it was packaged at its original starting point, in this case Italy. There is no proving where the humidity damage may have taken place, there is no opportunity for the hired carrier to open the crate and inspect the artwork for damages prior to his securement of the crate, and there is no way any general insurance company would honor any claim made on behalf of this artwork if it was to arrive damaged. All in all if I were to take responsibility for this load, even if the damages occurred long before my hired carrier entered the picture, I would be held fully responsible for $100k in damaged artwork. Long story short, not every load is worth winning. Make sure you don't bury your business with one simple mistake that could cost you everything.

Its been incredibly busy over the last few months as many can probably see by my absence on here. So lets talk productivity and time management! When the shift goes from hammering cold calls trying to build your customer base to no more time for sales calls and 14 hour days of moving freight, a lot can get left in the dust. This is when special tools and structured systems come in to play big time! What are you using to help maintain prime productivity throughout your week? Are you switching to digital document systems like e-signatures through your tms? Are you subscribing to AI systems that can maintain your social media presence without your repeated attention day after day? How about your emails? Do you have separately categorized inboxes for each customer, or each type of email? Or do you have separate email addresses for each type of email like freight management and invoice management? All of these are key to staying productive, on schedule, and holding true to the superior quality of which you advertise to your customer base. Lets talk!

I was recently invited on the This Week In Trucking podcast. Check out the video here!

What's up team! With only 10 days left to Christmas are you preparing for any last minute loads that may come through? With the expected carriers taking off like usual, are you making sure you reach out to carriers you have used in the past during this time of year that may be able to help with any last minute loads your customers may need moved? Capacity is getting tighter and tighter as the days go on and will continue this trend until after the new year. What strategies are you implementing to help with any capacity shortages on your lanes?

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Welcome back to the trenches lets get some freight moving! How's everyone's week looking so far?