Freight Fraud, Dispatching, and TWIC Cards | Final Mile 114

Welcome back to the final mile. It's our episode or our guess our segment here where we answer all of your listener questions. We've got three good ones today. But make sure to check out all of our other content at freight360.net, including our Freight Broker Basics course for an educational option for yourself, for your team as you're growing. Check out the sponsors down in the description and leave us a review, share, comment, like, all that good stuff. Our first question. This came, I believe, from a YouTube comment. Said, are dispatchers, especially foreign dispatchers, damaging the industry and what could be the possible reasons behind it? I'm asking this because a while ago, some of my posts didn't get a good response. Also, I'd really appreciate it if you could share some suggestions on how I can improve myself to be a better dispatcher and play a positive role in the industry. All right, so this one was our Facebook group. This guy is a he's a foreign dispatcher and he he just wants to do good in the industry. And I think a lot of people are kind of jumping on him because they just assume um that he's you know, because of there's a there's a reputation around him. So what would you say? Because you you personally have used a lot more independent dispatchers than me and have had a lot of success with it. So what would you say, whether someone's foreign or in the US, how can they differentiate themselves and be a true value ad as a dispatcher?

Well, I use them in very specific scenarios. So like the first thing I would say is like, I don't necessarily or have ever had a preference to where a person is located. I my preference is to the value they provide to the business, right? Like I don't care where a human being is that I'm working with, if they're adding value and they're helpful, right? So probably it's just a lot of fraud and things tend to originate overseas. So there's probably just a lot of frustration, I think, that is getting pointed at folks that probably don't deserve it. I mean, we talked about this and fraud, we've talked about this in the CDL issues, and like to be honest, like in a lot of these circumstances, like they're also the victims, right? So I don't think there's much you can do about where you're located. I think you focus on what value you add to the industry is the important part because one, you can't do anything about it anyway. But I think the other important aspect of this, right, is where and how do they provide value. So how they're providing value that I've worked with is like they're able to source a lot of capacity through one point of contact that is really helpful, right? Now they change the guidance on how dispatchers do this, though. So to be honest, like how I got value out of working with them isn't in along with the guidance anymore. Like they did things that they're not supposed to be doing currently. And like that's where like this, I feel like kind of gets at a hard question because like for me, for example, like I use dispatchers related to drayage. And where it was really helpful is like the person who I worked with, she had a lot of family that all owned like one truck or two truck trucking companies. So instead of me having to contact literally 12 different trucking companies or 25 drivers, right? She was, she just kind of knew where all of her cousins and friends' trucks were every day. So I would book loads under different MCs through her, but I only had one point of contact and she knew where all her drivers were. She did all their paperwork, organized everything. So everything was run very, very well from my point of view. And it was super helpful because again, I'm talking to one person who was always available, who would text me back immediately, communicated fantastically. I would say that's probably the one thing that every dispatcher could do to add value is like really effective and accurate communication, being available, knowing where your drivers are, and being honest and open about what is actually happening. Because the biggest frustration with any dispatcher, right, whether it's independent or not, is like not knowing what is actually happening. And the dispatcher's saying, like, oh, the guys delivered there a bunch, he'll be empty in a half an hour. And then you call the driver, and the driver's like, dude, this is my first time delivering here. There's nine trucks ahead of me. I'm not gonna be out of here until the end of the day, right? Like that is the thing that I think is the most frustrating dealing with any dispatchers.

So I'll add in guidance or no guidance on dispatchers. In practice, it's still they're still operating in a similar way that they used to. Um, because the the law hasn't really changed, or it just hasn't changed, and that's one of the things that we we had lobbied for was uh inclusion of the um you know language on dispatching services. But to the question here, echo everything that you say on adding value and understanding you know what the need is. The other thing is, and I'll address the the foreign part, and you could just switch to any other industry and any other country and answer the question this way is if I live, let's say I live in Germany, and um in Germany we have plenty of um auto parts manufacturers, right? And some foreign person from uh China wants to come and do a job for me in Germany, and there's people in Germany that can do that job for me. Um, there may be a stigma that why would I work with this foreign person when I'd rather just do it in my own country? Well, the reason I would work with someone from China is that if the person from China can put themselves in my shoes and understand what it's like to operate in Germany, and if they can do that job for me successfully, just as good or better than someone that's in my area, that's why I would work with them. So if you relate it to brokerage and dispatching, let's say this guy's in, we'll just say he's in Europe. I don't know where he where he was, um, and he wants to be a dispatcher in it for the US trucking industry. He needs to understand what it's like to be in our shoes. So if I'm a motor carrier um or a freight broker in the United States with our with my company, um, what are the issues that they're running into in the United States, right? Where where can a dispatcher add value, right? That's that's really addresses the the where the country you're living in. Part of it is just it doesn't matter what country you're in, as long as you can understand the landscape of where the country in which you're trying to add value, right? And not to mention, we there's a ton of brokers and motor carriers that you're gonna talk to on the phone that also aren't they're not American, right? Or maybe they became the US citizens, but a lot of them, um, they like you might have uh trucking companies that they have offices over in Europe or brokerages that are over in Europe or where wherever in the world, like not everybody in our industry in the United States is like is all the same like American people. Like we we are a melting pot of of all kinds of um what's the word I'm looking for? Like heritages or backgrounds and nationalities and all that stuff. So but yeah, understand the market you're trying to add value in and be able to add that value with expertise. You can't just like if you're brand new and have uh no knowledge of the industry, you're not I mean you're not gonna succeed, right? You have to you have to learn it, and that's that probably means working for somebody first with their dispatching company. Um so anyway, good discussion. Next question. This was a YouTube comment. This was after I think it was our one of our recent like fraud discussion episodes. Somebody said, I had this thought listening to the QA. Could a brokerage limit the carriers they're willing to give loads to to only carriers that will ensure GPS tracking by cell phone is carried by the driver and will do a small video from their phone to send to the broker when they arrive at the pickup and when and the side of their truck to see what it looks like. And then in addition to a do not load unless direction you gave your shipper, is it possible for them to not load unless they get the go ahead from the broker? Could it be a text? Just a go no go to that truck that pulled in, a preemptive no-go if a carrier um was not meeting requirements. There's more scrutiny walking out of a Best Buy than with a truck picking up$100,000 loads. I also made a suggestion about FMCSA verification. I keep thinking of ways to prevent fraud that's workable. Really good points here. And I thought it was funny. He's not wrong. You walk out of Best Buy and like their loss prevention team is like looking at you like you stole something, but like, yeah, dude, someone just rolls up, gets loaded with$100,000 of cargo and rolls down the road. Um so to these suggestions here, um, not bad suggestions. I don't personally think that's enough. Um in my depending on the relationship, but like some of the some of the things that we do at Pierce, um, like we used to do it this way, you know, GPS tracking and pictures at the pickup. And that was like, yeah, that's good. And then you realize that like people are spoofing pictures, people are spoofing GPS tracking. So now we'll do you know, Quickscope's a great one. Um, partner of ours too. Good friends with the the guys that created it. That's load level uh fraud prevention. So like driver gets to the pickup, you send a text from Quickscope, driver opens the it's not even an app I have to download. It just opens up their camera on their phone, they take a picture of the side of their truck, right? Quickscope literally geotags it so they can't spoof it with a fake picture that they uploaded from you know two weeks ago. It has to be taken right then and right there. So we know where the picture was taken, it reads the side of the truck, it reads the MC number and all that good stuff. And as long as everything matches up to what you told Quickscope it had to be, so here's the MC number and here's where they need to be to verify if it passes, they get released the pickup number or whatever identifier that customer requires to get loaded. Another option, um, ELD tracking, right? You can do it through highway, through trucker tools. Um I don't know about Macro Point, maybe, um but the ability to take pictures and stuff that way as well. The re regardless of what you do, you need to be able to make sure that with without a shadow of a doubt, the truck that's getting loaded is a um the right truck in the right place at the right time. Right? Those are the things, and how you do that is up to you. And your level of um trust and comfort with one carrier might make you check those boxes easier than with someone that you've never worked with before. Right? Someone that someone that you um have worked with for years that has their own, you know, fleet track uh tracking link that they want to send you, if you're comfortable with that, cool. If it's John Doe's trucking that you just met, maybe you want to, you know, you want to get verification at pickup of the right truck that's on the insurance certificate at the you know, the MC number's clean. Maybe you run them through gen logs, make sure they're not running under like four different MCs. Like there's there are so many tools out there, but creating a process yourself and understanding what that process is doing for you and how it could be harming you if it's too much of a process, that's what I think is important. Anything to add there? Because I think everyone's gonna be a little bit different.

Yeah, I think one using vetting software like gen logs and verifying who you're working with, I think is something you need to be doing ahead of time for sure. I think there are more things that you mentioned you should be doing. And like the thing I would point out is like you to implement which I think is well thought out, you really need a shipper that's willing to work with you, which is sometimes you can get that and sometimes you can't, right? And at the end of the day, if the customer is just gonna load anybody that shows up that asks for a load heading to wherever, all the safety precautions and things you do in the beginning or preventative kind of go out the window. Yeah. Like you said, because it's like, where does Best Buy do that? At the point of sale, where the person picks it up and walks out of the building. Where does that happen in our industry when the truck is loaded, as he's going to be literally leave the shipper? So you need somebody that's physically doing that to work with the broker to make sure that these things are true.

Yeah, and having a good, like, I know we've said this before, but having a good process with your with your shippers on, hey, um, like if they don't know what you're doing to to vet carriers, it doesn't do them any good, you know. Correct. That's cool, but they have no idea what you're doing. But if you're like, hey, here's everything I'm doing, this is how serious of a problem it is. Um, when I send you somebody, I have full I have high confidence that it's the right person, but can I just ask that you double check that the information I send to you is accurate of who you're loading before it gets loaded?

Correct.

That's that's simple.

I'm gonna let you answer the last one. I gotta jump into a customer call, actually, with something that just came up. So if you just want to wrap, you can do the last one.

Alrighty. Um, all right. Our last question here, Ben, uh, give us your sign-off first.

Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right. All right.

So going fellow here for the last one. Um, can you explain the difference of a Twitch card, TSA certification, and TSA indirect air carrier? So I think this question has something to do with our talk about the the suggestion of having a Twick card for motor carrier owners to check for background and all that stuff. Um, so the Twit card, that's the Transportation Workers Identification Credential. Um, if you've ever um, you know, flown in an airport and you see TSA with the little ID card with a chip in it, or if you've ever seen a military ID card, um, they look similar. Twit card is it's it looks the size of like a debit or credit card and it's got a little chip in there with a picture and everything. Um, these are issued to individuals. So think drivers that are going to be going into a secured port facility to pick up or deliver a load. All right. They go through TSA um, which you know, Coast Guard and TSA background checks, fingerprinting, all of that. Um, that's the Twick card. TSA certification, um, sometimes it's also goes by the um known shipper. So the same way there's like TSA pre-check as a known traveler, um, TSA certification for shippers is it's the known shipper. So the shipper would go through a vetting process themselves, and that would allow them and their screening process to be uh easier or expedited when it comes to um shipping. So lastly, the TSA indirect air carrier. This is one that's issued not to a shipper or to an individual, but this is uh a company, like a freight forwarder. Um, and this is gonna be a a similar thing if they're doing any kind of air-related cargo uh with the airlines. So think about if they're putting cargo onto a commercial um or passenger plane in the belly, things like that. Um, and they have to go through or that they've got to follow TSA protocol and standards to stay compliant with that. So again, Twit card, think about driver, TSA certification, shipper, TSA um indirect air carrier is gonna be a company, um, uh a logistics company like a freight forwarder that's gonna be um issued that. So great questions, keep sending them our way, and we look forward to uh seeing you guys on the next Freight 360 podcast and final mile. Um Ben's already off of here, but until next time, go Bills.