A Cautionary Tale About Shipping - Advice?

Off-Ramp
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I was very excited when my 4xe arrived. I worked with a shipping broker recommended by one of the brokers here, who connected me with a shipping company to deliver my car from the East Coast to me.

My car arrived with damage, and I posted about it in the main thread. Someone else commented that their car had damage, and their shipping company had reimbursed them for the damages, so I initially was not worried. I had pictures and Bill of Lading paperwork showing damage at arrival.

Reached out to the shipper, sent pictures/bill of lading and estimates, had an initial email reply, and then - radio silence. They tell me to email/call the accountant, to which there is no reply. I reached out to the shipping broker, who got me the insurance information for the carrier, but the deductible is ‘way higher’ than the damages.

So that leads me to where I am today, with a damaged Wrangler that has a leaky roof. I wanted to determine the best course of action and get some advice from people who may have more experience with this. From what I gather, my options are:

  1. Small claims court - would have to fly out to PA for the case, assuming it gets to that point.
  2. Hire a lawyer - what type of lawyer would I need? About how much would it cost?
  3. File a claim with my insurance and hope they go after the company/their insurance (Would they even cover the damage?)
  4. Cut my losses, and sell the 4xe with the damage to one of the 3rd parties and order another one (assuming I can at the very least break even).

What would the experts do?

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How much is the damage estimate? I would probably just file with your insurance company and let them decide if it is worth subrogation to the shippers insurance company. You are out a deductible if they do not collect back. However if you are thinking about flying to another city to file a small claim, getting a hotel and flying home I would think you would be out even more.

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Did you call your insurance company and add the car before it was shipped? In California, a car is automatically added to your existing insurance the day you buy it. If you did not call and add it, you need to find out if it is automatically added in your state.

You also need to read your insurance policy to see if there are any exclusions for a car bought but not yet in your possession.

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Damage estimate is $3900, thankfully added before it was picked up by the shipper. Was hoping it would have been straight forward as them cutting a check.

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Did you ship open carrier?

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Open carrier, bottom row. Driver messed up with loading, and the roof rubbed the top rack, causing damage to the windshield frame and soft top.

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Shipping closed carrier down to FL. Ins says I am fully covered under my policy, shipper has ins as well. Suck you have to deal with this. New car, damage, major headache …

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Since the car was delivered to you would that mean the shipper does business in your state and you can file in your small claims court in your state?

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I’d file a claim with my insurance at this point and let them go after their insurance company. If you have the bill of landing and pics at time of shipment it should be fairly easy for them to come to a resolution(at least you would think)

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What’s the best practice to have yourself covered for any shipping damage issues like this in future? Any thread/weblink which has discussed something similar in detail?

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I agree with those who say go through your insurance. Let them fight the fight. That’s what you pay them for.

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When you say the deductible is higher than the damages, what did the shipping broker give you that showed that information?

I’d cross reference the insurance carrier information with the FMCSA Safer database and file a claim with the “shippers” insurance and see what happens. At this point you have it on the BOL and it is free to do, just to throw it against the wall and see.

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Well at least you aren’t Houston at Royalty Exotics when he bought a classic LR and this happens on delivery

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Got that info from the shipper’s insurance carrier. Claim was filed about a week after delivery, when I had no response from the company

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If the carrier’s insurance has told you the shipper’s deductible is less than the damages, they have responded. The shipper needs to cover the cost.

It’s Wednesday, I’d leave the shipper a message that you would like to know by COB Friday when they will be reimbursing you for the damage they caused to your Jeep, and if you don’t hear back from them consider opening a claim with your insurance and let them fight it out.

I wouldn’t sell/reorder without first making a claim against your insurance.

Your username is becoming less valid every day. This is some valuable experience you’re collecting.

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Contracts often have a provision limiting where a lawsuit can be filed. Additionally, there could be an arbitration clause waiving the right to file a lawsuit.

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Nah brah that’s a defender. Keep up with maintenance and rust prevention and they’ll take one hell of a beating.

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Possibly, but if you watch the video they spend probably an hour with a heavy duty forklift to try to get it off with minimal damage…which someone like OP would not have at their disposal.

Also it’s a classic car, any new scratch on it will seriously piss off the buyer… :slight_smile:

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There’s lots of very questionable info in this thread.

So let’s establish some basics about freight and who’s responsible for “what”.

You the customer hired a broker - The broker hired a carrier and you most likely paid the broker.

Maybe you paid the carrier and the broker a small fee separately but regardless you are a customer of the broker.

The “freight” or jeep in this case was given to the broker and assigned to a carrier, via a broker.

You do not have an agreement with the carrier - you have an agreement with a freight broker who hired a carrier to transport your vehicle.

While the carrier is responsible for damage during the transport of a vehicle, it is ultimately the freight broker who should be the one solving this problem for you.

Any freight broker worth their weight in salt is going to carry an additional policy that would cover things like this.

A carrier that keeps a deductible over $3,900 isn’t worth the horse they rode in on.

Throughout my business, I know a lot of transport people that would not accept anything above a $2,500 deductible and that’s pushing it. If you have the shipping companies DOT or MC number, I’m curious to look up their inspection record as well. I can almost guarantee what it looks like based on this experience.

It’s also very unlikely that this carriers policy would cover that damage regardless. 99% of insurance companies in the auto carrier world do not cover negligence.

Frankly, a lot more goes to the shipping a car besides, who has the cheapest price or who is most willing to do it.

This is not a statement about whoever you got the car from nor the dealer, but the transport partner you used is absolutely useless.

Now what you should be doing is contacting the freight broker and telling them, it is their responsible to fix your roof. They’re probably going to say something about the carmack amendment which they’ve never read and how brokers aren’t responsible.

The challenge is you hired them to do a job their contractor damaged your vehicle.

You would be suing the broker, not the carrier.

By the way, the broker has a 75,000 surety bond that you could collect against if they refuse to pay.

That’s literally the point of a surety bond - it is to protect against things like this.

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To echo what you’re saying, OP should be looking at the agreement between the broker and himself to see if there is any venue changing.

I almost guarantee there was not in this case lol.

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