Do you know what a double blind delivery is? It’s almost like Mission: Impossible.
Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to deliver the cargo to this address, but do not release the shipper’s name or location to the recipient.
In this crazy logistics world, hiding a shipper or a recipient is now a happening thing. A blind shipment is common today in the trucking industry. Blame Amazon? Probably. Once it became possible to sell products online through a third party website like Amazon or eBay, double blind delivery became important. Amazon wants to look like they provide everything a customer might need. The actual shipper likes the Amazon reputation of good products with rapid delivery, especially if they have no reputation online or they don’t have a safe order processing system.
But how do you manage the double blind shipment?
Need to Know
As a trucker, you need to know
- where to pick up the load
- who is shipping the load
- what the load is
- where the load is going
- when is the delivery expected
- who to bill.
After all, you’re responsible to transporting that load properly, safely, and legally. So getting the details from the beginning is critical. You don’t want to find out that you’re carrying hazardous waste during a road inspection, right? You have to have a pickup and delivery location to be sure that you’re going to get paid fairly for the trip.
But if the shipper wants to hide their details in the shipment, it comes down to the trucker to keep that information private. This “need to know” situation requires complicated paperwork management.
Bills of Lading for the Double Blind Shipment
It’s very possible that the double blind shipment will have multiple bills of lading (BOL). The job of the trucker is to make sure that the shipper sees the correct copy, and the receiver gets their correct copy. Neither of them should see the other’s copy.
This is often complicated. The first time I handled a double blind shipment, I nearly left the identifying shipping tag on the cargo. (For the record, it wasn’t my fault. It was dark.) (Ok, yeah, it was my fault. But I found it before the shipment was delivered.)
Take your time with a double blind shipment.
If you have any questions about a double blind shipment, get your answers before the delivery. If necessary, you can create extra bills of lading using TruckingOffice PRO. You need to produce a paper copy for the necessary signatures, but you can print those out from the TruckingOffice PRO dashboard.
Be careful with double blind shipments. You don’t want to give the shipper any excuse for not paying you, like mixing up the BOLs.
Invoicing
In this double blind shipment situation, make double sure you know who to build and what address to send the invoice. You can use TruckingOffice PRO to create the dispatch and the invoice at the same time, so you don’t have to wait to send that invoice. A complete trucking management software package that allows you to run your trucking business from your cab is the key to making a profit. Every hour you have to stay at home or in the office instead of on the road costs you money. So get a complete package that
- creates dispatches and routes
- produces invoices with customer information you entered at the dispatch creation
- tracks IFTA and IRP miles per state and produces a report to allow you to file without extra data entry
- maintains your maintenance records and schedules.
That’s TruckingOffice PRO. Don’t waste your time or struggle to run your trucking business. TruckingOffice does it all!
Recent Comments