Having tight business relationships is extremely important in this industry! There sometimes come a point and time though, that you may encounter a time when you have to cut ties with someone that isn’t willing to uphold their end of their responsibilities. Knowing when that exactly is can be a hard time to deduce. For me it is typically when a broker or customer agrees to disagree on the terms of our service. In other words, when we no longer see eye to eye on what each other should be doing to be mutually beneficial, then it might be time we part ways.
In a broker relationship, this may be something as simple as one of the parties not holding up their end of the bargain. I recently had an instance where a broker had booked a load for the next day to “pick and run” two hours from where the truck was parked. Knowing this, the truck headed out early, already knowing the city it was loading in but not having been sent the pickup number and exact address yet. While en route to the shipper, the broker called the driver to inform him that he would not be getting the info because the customer found someone cheaper to run the load. Typically this would call for us being issued a TONU (truck-ordered, not-used), but the broker fought us on this and I ended up having to eat that one myself. By that broker not holding up their end of the deal by issuing a TONU from a signed rate confirmation the previous day ordering our truck, that was the point and time I decided it was not worth hauling anymore loads for that broker if they were not willing to reimburse us for the truck they wasted that day.
In a direct customer relationship, things may be a little different. A lot of times with them it typically comes down to an issue of service, price, or both. Price can usually be negotiated, should the market dictate that a price reduction or increase is in need. A carrier would probably disagree with an un-warranted price cut, just as a direct shipper might not like an un-justified rate increase! This is when both parties might agree to disagree and go their separate ways if a solution can’t be found. You may find the same set of circumstances when a carrier starts to fail loads or be late on them a lot of times. The same might even happen if a shipper or receiver on a lane starts to abuse the time it takes to load and unload on a consistent basis, especially if they have to be poked and prodded to pay detention fees constantly, or are refusing to pay them all together!
Not all relationships developed as an owner-operator or fleet owner are “sunshine and rainbows” when it comes down to the day-to-day business dealings. I have had the pleasure of making some great connections with brokers and direct customers alike since venturing out on my own as a small fleet owner. There have been those relationships that have been lost though, but not as a result of not trying hard enough. Sometimes things happen on either side of the fence to where it becomes “a must” to respectfully cut ties with one another and that’s okay. It is always important to never burn a bridge if you can help it though, so make sure you thank your severed connections for the business and be polite about your exit strategy if you can. Where one connection is lost, another may be waiting in the wings to take its place!