One of the most frustrating experiences is when a promised back load doesn't materialize. That's when panic can set in!
Organizing the back load
On longer distance commercial journeys, the back load is an economic necessity.
In theory, you could cost the outward leg on a round trip basis presuming that you will need to run home empty. In fact, that might be necessary and even unavoidable in situations where your delivery is to an isolated location where obtaining any form of return load is unlikely.
Sometimes it might be possible to cost the return load on the basis of picking one up, say, halfway back to home base. As a general rule, though, the longer distances you run your vehicles empty, the more likely it is that your profit margins for the trip as a whole are going to look increasingly shaky or maybe even disappear entirely. That's why freight haulage companies and truckers work so hard to try and secure return loads. It is also why the experience of being let down for the back load is so frustrating.
As luck will have it
Okay, sometimes things happen. If your return load is canceled it might be beyond the control of your customer who offered it to you in the first place. Maybe they've been let down in turn by their suppliers and the whole chain has simply collapsed.
What can be more frustrating is when the return cargo is simply canceled without explanation or even apology. Sometimes it isn't even possible to understand just what has happened, all you hear is that the cargo isn't going to be there anymore. That's irritating because most truckers or couriers are actually pretty reasonable individuals and understand that things can go wrong. What they sometimes find it harder to understand is when they're simply told: "Sorry, change of plans - go elsewhere". They're just looking for a bit of common courtesy.
Maybe your return leg price has been undercut or perhaps the customer has just suddenly decided that they don't like you. Whatever the cause, suddenly the economics of your journey look very shaky and that's when panic starts to set in!
Hitting the panic button
What happens then is hard to predict. Some drivers are individual business people and the cancellation of a back load results in them spending a lot of time on a cellphone trying to make alternative arrangements. If they're lucky, they'll have a good office operation behind them who will do a lot of the chasing to try and replace the cargo, calling the driver back when something else is in place.
This is also where the freight broker might be useful in trying to identify alternative options for a replacement back load. So, if you ever see a driver sitting in the cab of vehicle looking depressed and fed up as they clutch their cell phone, you might now have some insight into what's going on!
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