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May 4, 2016

Allen Lund Company Newsletter

Emergent Issues in Distribution and Transportation

In This Issue
The Phone, It Still Works

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Jenn Cole, Editor  
Allen Lund Company
Grand Rapids Office
(800) 641-5863 
The Phone, It Still Works

Nowadays we don't have many landlines, and those who do are VoIP instead of an actual phone line.  Most people have a cell phone, and most of the time it is used for everything except...phone calls.

Back in my truck driving days you had one way to contact your job, family/home, and that was by pay phone.  Whether it was the phone booth on the corner, at the rest area, or the trucker's section at the truck stop, that was the only way to communicate with home or to do business.

When a driver called a broker about a load that was posted on DAT, they both had a lot riding on that phone call.  There was no trying to "work it" with the delay callback for a better rate. When you were calling from a pay phone at the New Jersey Turnpike rest area, you most likely got a busy signal and lost the chance on that load.  Once the broker and dispatcher connected on the phone they both had to make a quick decision based on price, mutual trust, and if the deal worked for both of you.

This ability to determine whether to trust someone, and if you were getting the best deal, was all based on experience you had developed from talking to people on the phone.  There is no doubt that an experienced broker, if he/she takes the time to really talk to a driver, can know whether they want this driver on their load of strawberries or not.  The same is true for the trucker; he/she can tell whether or not to trust that the broker is telling him the whole story on the load or not, and if he/she can be trusted to treat the driver fairly if there's a problem.

There's no science to it, this ability is a learned talent that is invaluable.  As an office manager, I can look back at any service issues and/or claims the office has had, and if I'm honest with myself when digging into the root cause most of the time the broker either didn't talk directly to the driver, or didn't communicate enough with the driver when dispatching. 

The bottom line is that it is in both the trucker's and the broker's best interest to save the emails and text as documentation purposes, pick up the phone, talk, and get to know each other, you never know you may meet a new friend. If nothing else you get to talk to each other and who knows, you might learn something new.



Scott Fletcher
Manager, Dallas

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Scott Fletcher
Scott Fletcher is manager, Dallas office, which he opened in 2008. With 28 years of experience in the transportation industry, Fletcher was formerly with Coca-Cola North America and Menlo Worldwide Logistics; additionally, he completed the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business Supply Chain Management Program.
2016 Top 3PL Provider.

About Allen Lund Company: Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices and over 400 employees, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to arrange dry, refrigerated (specializing in produce), and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has an international division, which is licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC #019872NF, and a logistics and software division, ALC Logistics.  

 

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