Fair warning, rant ahead. I don't ship anything on a regular basis and my motor freight shipping experience is minimal. I bought some stuff at an auction for my brother and I shipped it motor freight. It was one pallet, 2 used electrical motors that I made a pallet for. I used all 2x4s, bolted the motors to the lumber, but one thing I didn't do was put runners across the bottom. I didn't have any 1x4s and 2x4s are too tall for a pallet jack to roll over. This is of importance later and I blame myself partially for what happened.
I obtained quotes from multiple companies on their websites, FedEx Freight, UPS Freight, Estes, R&L Carriers, YRC, etc.. They are close to my location in Michigan and the quotes were outrageous, $2200 for 1 pallet that I put for 1500 lbs (on the conservative side because I don't have a floor scale). I went through a website called Freightquote, and the quote through the website using Estes was around $350, dropped at their terminal. I looked up YRC, and their quote was right at $200. I called customer service if I could weigh it at the terminal and then ship so I had an accurate weight. Sure no problem. I drive 1.5 hrs only to find out they don't do any sort of shipping paperwork at the terminal, its only done online. I call customer service again, and the representative on the phone said go back inside the terminal and use their computer to create the shipment. Go inside, nope we can't help you, we are using all of our computers right now and don't feel safe you using our stuff with Coronavirus going around.
I said well I will just use my phone only to be informed that the website doesn't work on the final page of paying for the shipment, so you need a computer. I didn't bring my laptop, so with the customer service manger's approval, she creates the shipment for me over the phone and sends an email to the terminal. They take my shipment and we are done. I talk with the service representatives manager and said that she saved from having to drive another 3 hours and commended her for outstanding customer service. Also, it only weighed 1140 lbs, $169 shipping fee.
About 10 days later, the shipment arrives to South Texas, my brother calls to pick up and nope its still on the trailer. 6-7 days go by and finally they bring it out, only to be received damaged. My dad signs for without checking it, so its too late. My best guess looking at the pictures my brother took, they double stacked it, and it fell off because its so heavy on one side, and the fan shroud and fan blade for the motor cracked. It even broke the lumber in two places, so it clearly fell off of something. Just the fan blade is a $200 part. I was going to file a damage claim, but my brother hasn't gotten around to sending me a quote that I can turn into YRC and at this point it doesn't matter. I partially blame myself because I didn't realize how reliant shipping companies are on using those bottom boards for stacking and making sure the pallet doesn't fall off of something.
Okay, we got the items, we can fix it, lesson learned about why YRC was so cheap. Then I received a bill in the mail last week that I was past due 30 days for a surcharge for a limited access delivery fee, $75. They said they delivered it to a farm, which is considered limited access, regardless of the size of said farm or how much room an 18 wheeler has to turn around. My brother and dad's place of business is a cotton gin, not a farm. A farm is land you grow crops on, a cotton gin is a commercial processor of cotton. They also have more than enough room for an 18 wheeler to turn around, the business owns three themselves.
I called the number on the bill, explain my viewpoints, and the guy says send me an email with said viewpoints and I will open a dispute on your behalf with the billing department. Great. Get an email back that they declined it. They looked up the tax records for the address and said it was zoned a residence and the best they could do was reduce the fee from $75 to $60. I replied back to explain that they didn't look up all the tax records and there are two tax ids at that location, one is a residence, one is a business. Also ask if YRC charges a limited access fee for lumber mills, paper mills, textile mills, all of which take a raw agricultural commodity and turn it into a marketable product, same as a cotton gin. The person responds that I must follow their rules like everyone else and offers no other help than to call another number.
To shorten the story, I called and the customer service representative looks at the businesses Facebook profile, Google maps, asks if there is a sign (which there isn't) and says maybe the driver thought it was a residence because there isn't a sign. A cotton gin typically has multiple steel buildings, and has a large footprint in area and no one in their right mind would confuse it with it being a residence, even with a house located on the premises. She calls the terminal manager from which the item was delivered, and she knew my dads business by name and said no its not a farm and she will take care of it. Apparently it was a new driver that classified the delivery location as a farm, which started the whole process.
My main beef is not that the driver made a mistake, but the general attitude that you are at fault from a few select people regardless of how much of a case you can build to show them those charges don't apply. The one guy in the collections department hid behind their policies, "well it says here in tariff number such and such that farms are considered limited access and you owe us the money." I called the customer service number and they couldn't give me a definition of what a farm is! The only person that makes that determination is the truck driver. I can see why companies like Amazon do so well, their customer service department is miles ahead of YRC.
Overall, if there is a significant savings in shipping, build a forklift operator proof skid, and don't need the item in the next two weeks, I would use them again. I will try a competitor first to see if the experience is any better, and if not then the I'd rather spend more money on making the skid operator proof instead of taking chances that a higher priced freight shipper won't damage it.
I obtained quotes from multiple companies on their websites, FedEx Freight, UPS Freight, Estes, R&L Carriers, YRC, etc.. They are close to my location in Michigan and the quotes were outrageous, $2200 for 1 pallet that I put for 1500 lbs (on the conservative side because I don't have a floor scale). I went through a website called Freightquote, and the quote through the website using Estes was around $350, dropped at their terminal. I looked up YRC, and their quote was right at $200. I called customer service if I could weigh it at the terminal and then ship so I had an accurate weight. Sure no problem. I drive 1.5 hrs only to find out they don't do any sort of shipping paperwork at the terminal, its only done online. I call customer service again, and the representative on the phone said go back inside the terminal and use their computer to create the shipment. Go inside, nope we can't help you, we are using all of our computers right now and don't feel safe you using our stuff with Coronavirus going around.
I said well I will just use my phone only to be informed that the website doesn't work on the final page of paying for the shipment, so you need a computer. I didn't bring my laptop, so with the customer service manger's approval, she creates the shipment for me over the phone and sends an email to the terminal. They take my shipment and we are done. I talk with the service representatives manager and said that she saved from having to drive another 3 hours and commended her for outstanding customer service. Also, it only weighed 1140 lbs, $169 shipping fee.
About 10 days later, the shipment arrives to South Texas, my brother calls to pick up and nope its still on the trailer. 6-7 days go by and finally they bring it out, only to be received damaged. My dad signs for without checking it, so its too late. My best guess looking at the pictures my brother took, they double stacked it, and it fell off because its so heavy on one side, and the fan shroud and fan blade for the motor cracked. It even broke the lumber in two places, so it clearly fell off of something. Just the fan blade is a $200 part. I was going to file a damage claim, but my brother hasn't gotten around to sending me a quote that I can turn into YRC and at this point it doesn't matter. I partially blame myself because I didn't realize how reliant shipping companies are on using those bottom boards for stacking and making sure the pallet doesn't fall off of something.
Okay, we got the items, we can fix it, lesson learned about why YRC was so cheap. Then I received a bill in the mail last week that I was past due 30 days for a surcharge for a limited access delivery fee, $75. They said they delivered it to a farm, which is considered limited access, regardless of the size of said farm or how much room an 18 wheeler has to turn around. My brother and dad's place of business is a cotton gin, not a farm. A farm is land you grow crops on, a cotton gin is a commercial processor of cotton. They also have more than enough room for an 18 wheeler to turn around, the business owns three themselves.
I called the number on the bill, explain my viewpoints, and the guy says send me an email with said viewpoints and I will open a dispute on your behalf with the billing department. Great. Get an email back that they declined it. They looked up the tax records for the address and said it was zoned a residence and the best they could do was reduce the fee from $75 to $60. I replied back to explain that they didn't look up all the tax records and there are two tax ids at that location, one is a residence, one is a business. Also ask if YRC charges a limited access fee for lumber mills, paper mills, textile mills, all of which take a raw agricultural commodity and turn it into a marketable product, same as a cotton gin. The person responds that I must follow their rules like everyone else and offers no other help than to call another number.
To shorten the story, I called and the customer service representative looks at the businesses Facebook profile, Google maps, asks if there is a sign (which there isn't) and says maybe the driver thought it was a residence because there isn't a sign. A cotton gin typically has multiple steel buildings, and has a large footprint in area and no one in their right mind would confuse it with it being a residence, even with a house located on the premises. She calls the terminal manager from which the item was delivered, and she knew my dads business by name and said no its not a farm and she will take care of it. Apparently it was a new driver that classified the delivery location as a farm, which started the whole process.
My main beef is not that the driver made a mistake, but the general attitude that you are at fault from a few select people regardless of how much of a case you can build to show them those charges don't apply. The one guy in the collections department hid behind their policies, "well it says here in tariff number such and such that farms are considered limited access and you owe us the money." I called the customer service number and they couldn't give me a definition of what a farm is! The only person that makes that determination is the truck driver. I can see why companies like Amazon do so well, their customer service department is miles ahead of YRC.
Overall, if there is a significant savings in shipping, build a forklift operator proof skid, and don't need the item in the next two weeks, I would use them again. I will try a competitor first to see if the experience is any better, and if not then the I'd rather spend more money on making the skid operator proof instead of taking chances that a higher priced freight shipper won't damage it.
adjusted I was hold on more than one occasion. 
