Load Cancellations

Whether you’re operating as a broker or a carrier on the Exchange, consideration for someone else’s business is crucial to maintaining good relationships and reputations. Last-minute cancellations are inconvenient and costly to a member who invested time and energy in finding the right member to trade with.

Please note: Due to the nature of our eQuotes system, it is essential parties communicate their intentions to allocate the load or their inability to complete the assigned load as soon as possible. 

To carriers: Before accepting a load from a broker, ensure you can meet the pickup and delivery times.   

If you receive a booking confirmation for a load you can no longer carry out, please notify the member first before declining so they can allocate the load to another carrier. 

To brokers: Ensure the carrier has acknowledged your payment terms and understood all instructions before sending the load confirmation. Additionally, if some time has passed since the carrier has quoted on your load, reach out to them and check that they’re still available. They might have accepted another opportunity whilst waiting for your quote acceptance.

We recommend you contact the carrier by phone, e-mail or on our Freight Messenger facility 5-10 minutes after the quote has been submitted to confirm they are still available.  

If a broker or carrier disregards our load cancellations policy, we have the right to impose warnings and suspensions on the account or, upon full review, entirely revoke their membership.

How we enforce this policy: 

Types of carrier-related cancellation offences:

1. Rejecting load allocations due to prior engagements

• First offence – Warning
  If the broker accepts a carrier’s quote, it is the carrier’s responsibility to ensure they can meet the pickup and delivery times requested. Rejecting a load allocation as a result of conflicting pickup/delivery times or having already accepted another allocation is inconvenient and potentially costly for the other member, and we have the right to impose a warning on the account.

• Repeated offences – Suspension or membership revocation
  If a member already has a warning on their account, and they continue to reject load allocations after accepting, depending on the severity of the after-effect, we have the right to revoke membership. 
  

2. Rejecting load allocations after receiving confirmation

• First offence – Warning
  If a broker accepts a carrier’s quote, it is the carrier’s responsibility to carry out that business agreement and transport the load. Arbitrary cancellation after allocation is improper etiquette on the Exchange, and we have the right to impose a warning on that account.
  
  
• Repeated offence – Suspension or membership revocation
  If a carrier already has a warning on their account for troublesome cancellation history and they repeat the same offence, we have the right to suspend that account or, upon full review, entirely revoke their membership.

Types of broker-related cancellation offences:

1. Retracting a load allocation for a more attractive quote

• First offence – Warning
  If a broker accepts a quote and allocates a load to that chosen carrier, but later retracts that allocation and re-allocates it to another carrier for a more attractive quote without compensation to the previous carrier, we have the right to impose a warning on that broker’s account. 

• Repeated offences – Suspension or membership revocation
  If a broker already has a warning on their account for retracting load allocations and they repeat the same offence, we have the right to suspend that account or, upon full review, entirely revoke their membership.

2. Cancelling a load already in progress

• First offence – Warning
  If a broker cancels a load for which a carrier has already started the transportation, we have the right to impose a warning on that account. We will also request that the member undergo further training.

• Repeated offences – Suspension or membership revocation
  If a broker already has a warning on their account for a last-minute or load-in-progress cancellation and they repeat this offence, we have the right to suspend their account or, upon full review, entirely revoke their membership.