Brokers, Carriers Say SMS Causes Them to Lose Business, Unfairly Taints Fleets
Thomas Sanderson, CEO of broker Transplace, Frisco, Texas, said his firm “has lost brokerage business because of shippers that were unhappy with the SMS data for carriers that we were utilizing. Each of those carriers had satisfactory safety ratings and adequate insurance.”
Sanderson, whose company ranks No. 16 on the Transport Topics list of the top 25 freight brokerage firms, wouldn’t say how much freight, or revenue, was lost for that reason.
Another Top 25 broker told TT the company has lost thousands of loads because shippers impose unrealistic contract requirements based on the SMS scores that bar using a carrier that has even a single infraction.
Sanderson added that brokers are being forced to evaluate safety based on flawed information. Safety determinations should be the federal government’s responsibility, he said, because it gathers information on drivers, companies, tractors and trailers.
Two carriers, which also agreed to speak with Transport Topics as long as they weren’t identified by name, confirmed that they had lost business because of the safety rating process.
One operations official at a truckload carrier in the Southeast said the carrier was losing loads from a major customer because a clerical worker was making carrier selection decisions based on SMS scores. That approach is wrong, he said, because safety should be judged by FMCSA’s professionals rather than a clerical worker.
A top executive at a Midwest-based drayage carrier said he lost business because of SMS scores based on roadside inspections that were targeting his firm and erroneous violations that couldn’t be corrected.
