Friday is always a good day
Jan. 31st, 2003 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2So this lady calls me for a quote today. Our driver is there, ready to go, but the customer is cash-listed so we need a check before we take their freight anywhere.
Only she doesn't know where it's going. Or how much it weighs. Don't we know that? She faxed a pickup sheet to us only an hour ago!
My first thought is, wow, what wonderful organizational skills this company possesses. I mean, they just handed the freight off to our driver, and they don't have written down anywhere, like, say, on a BILL OF LADING, what the shipment weighs or where it's going? It makes you wonder (not) why they're cash listed in the first place.
I also like this idea that, just because they sent a fax to someone I don't know who may or may not even be at the same terminal I am, I should have instant access to all the relevant information on a shipment that we're still in the process of picking up. The fax arrived at work an hour before I clocked in -- even if it had gone to Gary, who sits at my desk in the daytime and does more or less the same job, I might still not know anything about it, because Gary leaves a half hour before I arrive and doesn't leave me a lot of notes. But most likely, she faxed it to our Spokane terminal for pickup.
So I heard a rumour today that Les Schwaab Tire Company was sending people into the terminals of one of our competitors and actually removing tires from their trucks, because they were owed a lot of money and weren't recieving payment.
And it sucks when a company goes under and people lose their jobs, but I also feel a bit vindicated. In any case, we all saw it coming a long time ago.
The day I started working here, April 15 2000, was the day another big regional carrier, Silver Eagle, went out of business. It was just a coincidence that I started work the day that we suddenly got a lot more business due to the disappearance of a competitor, but anyway, we soon learned that another company based in Idaho was severely hurt by Silver Eagle's demise. They had used Silver Eagle to move freight between the coast and the area they covered in Idaho/Utah/etc., and with Silver Eagle gone, all of that freight was moving via other carriers.
At the time we didn't move a lot of freight to or from Idaho, but we made a deal with this company, in part to help them out. Our sales people worked hard to sign up businesses that moved freight through this corridore. And then, within a year, this company in Idaho decided to switch from us to one of our direct competitors. The plan was for the two companies to merge, which we also knew wouldn't happen because this other competitor was not a very professionally run company. The Idaho trucking company and the competitor promised not to back-solicit on our freight, and the very next day sent salesmen out with their delivery trucks to try and capture our customers from us.
Well it's not always true in business that honesty is the best policy, or that bad people come to bad ends, but in this case, the Idaho company quickly figured out that they'd made a bad deal with a bad company. They broke off their deal with our competitor before the two companies could merge.
In the meantime, we'd found someone else to handle our Idaho freight. Someone who, to be honest, was a much better partner -- better run, more efficient, a better representative for us, etc. The other company wanted to work with us again, but that wasn't going to happen. They'd basically shot themselves in the foot, at a time when they weren't doing so well to begin with.
So it only seemed a matter of time before they went under. It was quite surprising, therefore, that last year one of our Vice Presidents, head of our sales staff, and another salesman decided to leave us and go work for this company in Idaho. I guess they wanted a new challenge? I really don't know.
And then, the new (rumour) today that Les Schwaab was removing tires from their trucks as they sat in the yard. Apparently this Idaho truck company doesn't own its own equipment -- it leases everything. We also heard that Penske was reclaiming trucks from them -- Jim said that he hoped Penske brought their own tires. ^_^
I don't know much besides a few rumours, but I can't imagine this company will be moving any freight next week, or ever again.
And then Laura was laughing tonight about a bill that had printed in big bold letters "Section 7 INVOKED". When section 7 of a bill of lading is signed, it means that we cannot deliver to the consignee and ever try to collect freight charges from the shipper. It's a legal definition of collect, that we MUST collect charges from the consignee. When a consignee won't pay freight charges, it's common to reverse charges to the shipper, but if section seven is signed then that's not an option.
Of course, many people don't really understand this. A lot of shippers mark a bill prepaid and then sign section seven. And you can't explain to them why these two things are mutually exclusive; they just get confused.
In any case, we'd never seen section seven "invoked" before. Laura and I were trying to imagine what arcane rites were required, and what the priest/druid/accountant might look like. ^_^ Just struck us as a funny way to say it.
Only she doesn't know where it's going. Or how much it weighs. Don't we know that? She faxed a pickup sheet to us only an hour ago!
My first thought is, wow, what wonderful organizational skills this company possesses. I mean, they just handed the freight off to our driver, and they don't have written down anywhere, like, say, on a BILL OF LADING, what the shipment weighs or where it's going? It makes you wonder (not) why they're cash listed in the first place.
I also like this idea that, just because they sent a fax to someone I don't know who may or may not even be at the same terminal I am, I should have instant access to all the relevant information on a shipment that we're still in the process of picking up. The fax arrived at work an hour before I clocked in -- even if it had gone to Gary, who sits at my desk in the daytime and does more or less the same job, I might still not know anything about it, because Gary leaves a half hour before I arrive and doesn't leave me a lot of notes. But most likely, she faxed it to our Spokane terminal for pickup.
So I heard a rumour today that Les Schwaab Tire Company was sending people into the terminals of one of our competitors and actually removing tires from their trucks, because they were owed a lot of money and weren't recieving payment.
And it sucks when a company goes under and people lose their jobs, but I also feel a bit vindicated. In any case, we all saw it coming a long time ago.
The day I started working here, April 15 2000, was the day another big regional carrier, Silver Eagle, went out of business. It was just a coincidence that I started work the day that we suddenly got a lot more business due to the disappearance of a competitor, but anyway, we soon learned that another company based in Idaho was severely hurt by Silver Eagle's demise. They had used Silver Eagle to move freight between the coast and the area they covered in Idaho/Utah/etc., and with Silver Eagle gone, all of that freight was moving via other carriers.
At the time we didn't move a lot of freight to or from Idaho, but we made a deal with this company, in part to help them out. Our sales people worked hard to sign up businesses that moved freight through this corridore. And then, within a year, this company in Idaho decided to switch from us to one of our direct competitors. The plan was for the two companies to merge, which we also knew wouldn't happen because this other competitor was not a very professionally run company. The Idaho trucking company and the competitor promised not to back-solicit on our freight, and the very next day sent salesmen out with their delivery trucks to try and capture our customers from us.
Well it's not always true in business that honesty is the best policy, or that bad people come to bad ends, but in this case, the Idaho company quickly figured out that they'd made a bad deal with a bad company. They broke off their deal with our competitor before the two companies could merge.
In the meantime, we'd found someone else to handle our Idaho freight. Someone who, to be honest, was a much better partner -- better run, more efficient, a better representative for us, etc. The other company wanted to work with us again, but that wasn't going to happen. They'd basically shot themselves in the foot, at a time when they weren't doing so well to begin with.
So it only seemed a matter of time before they went under. It was quite surprising, therefore, that last year one of our Vice Presidents, head of our sales staff, and another salesman decided to leave us and go work for this company in Idaho. I guess they wanted a new challenge? I really don't know.
And then, the new (rumour) today that Les Schwaab was removing tires from their trucks as they sat in the yard. Apparently this Idaho truck company doesn't own its own equipment -- it leases everything. We also heard that Penske was reclaiming trucks from them -- Jim said that he hoped Penske brought their own tires. ^_^
I don't know much besides a few rumours, but I can't imagine this company will be moving any freight next week, or ever again.
And then Laura was laughing tonight about a bill that had printed in big bold letters "Section 7 INVOKED". When section 7 of a bill of lading is signed, it means that we cannot deliver to the consignee and ever try to collect freight charges from the shipper. It's a legal definition of collect, that we MUST collect charges from the consignee. When a consignee won't pay freight charges, it's common to reverse charges to the shipper, but if section seven is signed then that's not an option.
Of course, many people don't really understand this. A lot of shippers mark a bill prepaid and then sign section seven. And you can't explain to them why these two things are mutually exclusive; they just get confused.
In any case, we'd never seen section seven "invoked" before. Laura and I were trying to imagine what arcane rites were required, and what the priest/druid/accountant might look like. ^_^ Just struck us as a funny way to say it.
