10 things you MUST do if you’re arranging transport for your dealership!
- Check the carriers’ FMCSA to make sure it’s active. Hiring an inactive carrier or a carrier not being licensed for the particular task can leave you open to liability.
- Check the carrier’s Safety Rating for excessive violations and accidents. Hiring a carrier with a bad record can leave you open to liability.
- Become a certificate holder on the carrier’s insurance, and make sure the insurance certificate comes directly from the insurance company and not the carrier. There are some bad actors in the bunch, and they can alter documents to make you think they have insurance. The best way to avoid a fraudulent insurance certificate is to require it to be sent only from the insurance company. You need to update this if you’re using a carrier for the first time or you haven’t used them in 60-90 days.
- Cargo Insurance, the law requires a carrier to have 1 million dollars in general liability, but that doesn’t do anything for your vehicles in transport; those are considered cargo, and there are no cargo insurance requirements. Make sure you verify the cargo insurance and compare it to the size trailer they have. Do they have $150,000 in cargo and a 10-car stinger? That’s not going to work if you’re shipping brand new cars. Maybe you should know how much YOUR deductible is if you choose to hire them.
- If you have never used a carrier before (especially if it’s an owner operator or a leased on vehicle), ask them for a picture of the sign on the side of their truck and a picture of their VIN. Cross-reference this with the insurance certificate and the license to make sure everything matches. This should be the same truck that shows up to pick up your vehicle.
- Google search the carrier. Carriers come and go like the wind, but there are signs when a carrier is about to fail. Catching this ahead of time is critical, and that starts with a good Google search. You can’t solely use the reviews on the boards, they make it difficult for a bad review to stick, you want to see views from people outside the industry. Remember, you might be sending these guys to your customers.
- Check their deductible. Lately, we’ve seen deductibles as high as $10,000. It’s the new way of avoiding claims, because with most auto transport damage, the claims are almost always lower than $10,000.
- Relationship matters when it’s time to make a claim. Who is going to gather all the evidenced and submit it? Who is going to make sure the carrier responds in his/her legally required time frame? Who is going to make sure the insurance company doesn’t simply deny the claim, which they often try to do? Who is going to follow up with the carrier and the insurance company to make sure things are moving along? Do you know what to do next if the claim is denied? Do you have to go to your insurance? Our clients can fall back on our contingent cargo policy, but what will you do? Who has the stronger relationship with the carrier to get them to facilitate a claim? Someone who gave them one car or someone who gave them 100?
- What happens if the truck breaks down? How do you back-fill it? Do you verify it’s really broken down and get the name and address of the shop? Do you get a picture of the car on the trailer to make sure your car is safe and not damaged? What do you do if the carrier isn’t taking your call?
- Consider whether this is the best use of your time and your staff. How valuable is your time? How much additional accounting must be done to set up vendor after vendor and get payments to them? How much end-of-year back-office work is being added to the dealerships’ costs? Is it really saving you money to do it yourself if you’re doing it the right way? What if you could just deal with one company?
