Any truckers here? Question.
Whitetail Deer
Contributors to this thread:
I ran out to my local farm equipment dealer to pick up a food plot implement.
While I was being loaded up, a semi showed up to deliver two expensive grain drills. Bud told me it’s been a year long wait for these two units with a 15k price tag each.
Bud had me loaded up when he yelled out an F-bomb. The trucker had unstrapped the drills and one of them rolled off the flatbed then flipped upside down fell 5’ and crashed. Thank goodness nobody was under it as they would have been sliced to pieces by the No till coulters.
I drove off but I was wondering who’s liability it was for this drill? I imagine it’s not salvageable. Tons of moving parts with precise alignment on those grain drills.
Does the trucker’s liability end at delivery or after unloading? .
That's an argument between the trucking company and whoever owns it. (Which is determined as FOB - Free on Board. If shipping terms are 'FOB origin' it belongs to the purchaser when it leaves the factory or warehouse, if terms are 'FOB destination' the shipper owns it until it's unloaded.)
Insurance claims adjuster will determine fault, if memory serves. (Been a long while since I worked freight docks!)
That's a good question! I would think the trucking company is still at fault until lifting or maneuvering to remove, has been established. (Don't hold me to that). :)
We had something similar happen to us, but fortunately it was the trucking company that completely wiped out our conveyor system for our new Ultrasonic testing machine. This machine will convey sheets of plate steel and into probes that look for surface flaws, cracks, seams, or internal flaws. This was headed to Northborough, MA for completion of our 600k machine.
The transportation company would normally carry cargo insurance defined as a specific amount per load (often 100K) This would be applicable as long as the carrier (trucking company) had responsibility and control of the product. No responsible manufacturer would allow a carrier to pick up product without a suitable insurance certificate on file proving coverage....for reasons just like the one described.
In the event the implement had fallen on anything and created a third party damage claim....then as long as the trailer was attached to the semi; the liability coverage of the semi would come into play. That doesn't mean insurance companies will not try to resolve themselves on occasion.
I am not a trucker, but I used to buy a lot of stuff for capital projects. The term FOB or Freight on Board is a term used by the buyer and the seller to determine the end of the responsibility for the seller. If the contract is FOB point of manufacture that means that the seller's responsibility ends with placing it on a truck arrangement for by the buyer. If it is FOB buyer's site, prepay and add, it means that the seller has to arrange for the trucking and is responsible for getting it to the seller but the buyer pays for the shipping cost. There will be separate arrangements for the risk of transporting between whoever arranges the shipping and the trucking company. As a rule the shipper is responsible for loading and the buyer is responsible for unloading while the trucking company is responsible for making sure that the load is secure during transporting. In the case you mentioned I would think that the equipment was FOB to the dealer and if the dealer had not signed for the load the manufacturer is on the hook to resolve the matter. Seeing that the trucker removed the bindings and the equipment was not in the act of being unloaded by the dealer, the trucker's insurance would be on the hooker for the costs but the dealer would deal with the manufacturer. All of this is just a guess on my part.
I worked for a company that assembled huge turbo compressors for all kinds of applications, oil field's, large manufacturing, etc. Truckers obligation make sure load was covered and secure... forklift driver for company let trucker uncover and remove straps. If load was secure and in undamaged condition load was removed with crane or forklift... if something happened at unloading, receiving fault. Sounds like load shifted enroute and the trucker should have had some idea of the pressure on the straps. Always have forklift at truck just for those reasons.
Implement dealer will refuse to accept. No delivery no purchase. Trucking company insurance eats it.
Interesting. I've been in the trucking business for going on 15 yrs and have never heard of "fob" oddly enough. Everything is somebodies fault or negligence. There's usually no grey area. In the case your referring to the trucker is the liable one it sounds like. He has to have a minimum of 100k cargo insurance to have authority and many companies require much more. If it was only 15k you'd probably be best to try to settle it without making a claim as it would cost you that much over the next 3 yrs anyway & you could keep your insurance score low in case you had a similar mishap or accident you couldn't settle yourself.
Pat, I spent the better part of 10 years running long haul, and much of that was pulling a flatbed.
This is on the driver. If they had secured the freight properly it never could have rolled off the trailer, and if there was even a slight possibility that it could roll off, then the load securement (straps, chains and binders, etc) should never have been loosened until provision had been made to safely unload the item.
Pop-r: I've never seen a Bill of Lading that did not include the FOB status of the freight.
Basically FOB determines who gets to fight with, excuse me, 'settle with' the carrier.
Who did the loading - the shipper/manufacturer or the driver? This is where the question of liability argument begins.
"Who did the loading - the shipper/manufacturer or the driver? This is where the question of liability argument begins. "
Doesn't matter who loaded it...the driver is responsible to ensure that the load is secure on the trailer. He's the professional when it comes to load securement.
Even when picking up a preloaded trailer, it is still the drivers job to make sure that the freight is gonna stay on the wagon.
There are a lot of exclusions in cargo insurance policies. Those exclusions vary from company to company. The truckers policy can be the most restrictive. I wouldn't bet more than I could lose on who gets stuck with a loss like this one. Forget to fuel the air king, no coverage. Set temp too low, no coverage. Late on service interval, no coverag. Unstrap a load and lose it, who knows?
I have seen truckers cargo deny, brokers contingent deny and the manufacturer get stuck holding the bag.
I used to load out trucks at a factory warehouse (mid eighties) FOB was standard then. I once got blamed for about 3K worth of damaged product. The driver stated that I was loading recklessly and he attempted to ask me to ease up and I said "mind your own business " (or similar) . I was presented with a written statement of his version and asked to write a comment. My written response was "this driver is full of shit". Strangely though, the load was put on the front trailer of a double. ( the driver had to drop the rear trailer, back in the front for loading then re hook the rear. Trust me when you spend all night loading trucks with a line idling in the lot you remember having to load a front.. The destination stated the damaged load came in on a single. Hmmm......
Rick, Please tell me they didn't just stack the conveyors on top of eachother. Did they even strap the load?
Scent, The OP is not me. I have just scene the fallout on claims being in the insurance business. I no longer insure trucking risks. It is a circus.
Back in the early 90's I was driving for a major us food carrier. I'd hauled a load of triple extra virgin olive oil from Baltimore down to HEB in San Antonio.
During unloading it was discovered that two bottles in a twelve bottle case had broken. They would not accept the remaining bottles in the case. Couldn't believe the amount of hooraw that followed. I told the carrier it was my fault, and that I'd dropped the case (which I didn't, but I wanted to end the drama) and ended up paying the carrier $20 for the case.
Took the ten remaining bottles and gave them to my mom...she was thrilled.
As best I remember, FOB only pertained to who was paying the freight bill. In this case, considering the costs involved, the carrier's insurance would be the one to pay the bill for repair/replacement of the item.
Mike B you probably paid about retail on the oil?
Fuzzy it was some fancy high-end olive oil..no idea what it actually sold for. My mom was happy, and that was good enough for me.
Another time a load was one case over...on ribeye's! Had no way to keep 'em frozen, so I traded them to a truck stop for a Class-A steak dinner, and steak 'n eggs for breakfast.
I was in the trucking industry for 22 yrs...if the driver unstrapped it without the consent or ok from the customer, the driver would be responsible or the company he was driving for. If he was an independent driver, self insured, he personally would be responsible.