Distribution centers know your time is valuable, but do they care?

OOIDA member Mark Mounsey’s family has owned and operated trucks since before he was born. MSM Transport, out of Huntington, Ind., has 16 company trucks, 38 trailers and 14 leased owner-operators. They haul everything from eggs to building supplies and have done so for more than three decades.

Last week, Mark posted an interesting photo from the receiving office of McLane Co. in Temple, Texas. The sign states, “OUR COMPANY DOES NOT write TIME In/TIME Out On ANY BOLS.” The picture caught my eye. I wondered why, beyond just being difficult, McLane would refuse to write, stamp, or acknowledge time in and out on any bills of lading.

Before we go any further, let’s establish that a lot of brokers require time in and out noted on bills of lading for detention pay. When you’re submitting invoices as an independent or owner-op, brokers don’t ask for your HOS records. They ask for your bills of lading, and the time stamp or notation on the bill determines hours paid for detention time.

So you can understand why my thoughts went immediately to “being difficult.” This was a grocery load. Grocery wait-times are notoriously lengthy on third-party brokered loads. It was also McLane, which doesn’t have the greatest word-of-mouth reputation for being Johnny-on-the-spot among experienced drivers.

In an effort to clarify and perhaps further understand why McLane would refuse something as simple as writing or stamping the dock time on bills of lading, I called the receiving department.

(Side note: While this piece isn’t about my experience with McLane, I feel like it bears noting that after more than an hour of listening to their recorded message, “We realize no one likes to wait on hold…we care about your time…a representative will be with you shortly.” I do not believe the statement to be true or factual in any way, shape or form.)

In the end, after all the waiting, the McLane Co. declined to comment.

Mark Mounsey showed up on time for his appointment. He was made to wait several (unpaid) hours.  He then had the pleasure of being extorted – I mean, unloaded – by a lumper service. Asking the company who made the appointment in the first place, to write the actual time it took to complete the appointment doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Is it just McLane being difficult, or do they have a valid reason? If they do, they’re not telling, and believe me they had an opportunity.

(I have since been told by another driver, who asked the same question at another McLane facility, that McLane uses a third-party “unloading service” and they have no way of knowing for sure what time loading/unloading is actually happening. This has not been confirmed or denied by McLane.)

Mark took the whole thing in stride, he didn’t contact me – I contacted him. He wrote the times in and out himself, and he’s on an ELD, so they’re electronically recorded. The point is, a company who professes to “care” so much about your time, and “realizes no one likes to wait on hold,” certainly doesn’t act like it when it comes to making a driver’s life a little easier.

Just be advised, if you’re negotiating freight rates for a McLane load, you’ll want to take the lumper fees and load times into consideration. Make sure to ask for compensation that reflects enough profit to forget about the “difficult” nature you might encounter.