Ah, claims… a nightmare for both shippers and carriers. If you’ve never had to deal with one, consider yourself lucky! A claim is a request (or, if it comes down to it, a demand) for a carrier to pay for the loss of freight. This loss could come in a number of ways. There could be an unexplained shortage… the driver could get in an accident, causing damage to the shipment… the load could be stolen… the list goes on and on. Sometimes, if a carrier refuses to pay for a claim, the shipper will have to take legal action.

As a service to our customers, Trinity will assist with filing any claims that arise when we have arranged the transportation of a shipment. Although we do offer to help file the claim for the customer, we are not legally liable for the loss of cargo.  We essentially act as the liaison between the customer and the carrier that moved their freight. We collect all the paperwork from the customer and submit it to the carrier (or their insurance, depending on the amount of the claim) on their behalf. We have four full-time employees at our corporate office who are dedicated to offering this service to our customers.

You might be surprised at just how sticky and complicated claims can be. For example: many carriers have exceptions for electronics on their insurance policy. Because electronics are so expensive, the insurance company will explicitly exclude them from their policy in order to avoid being liable for loss or damages to that product. For this reason, Trinity will not knowingly book a load of electronics with a carrier whose insurance company has excluded electronics from their coverage. This is why it’s imperative for our customers to know exactly what they’re shipping so they can relay that information to us and we can accurately select a carrier with the correct insurance in order to prevent complications if a claim happened to arise.

Sometimes, it’s simply not black and white. A carrier traveling in high winds that gets in an accident could claim it was due to an “act of God” and dismiss their liability, but what if they were warned of the winds and chose to carry on? What about a carrier whose trailer is seized by the government, putting the freight in embargo? What if the temperature of a reefer wasn’t maintained and the product spoiled – but there’s no way to check what the temperature of the unit was during transit? Is the carrier really at fault? These are tricky situations, but luckily, we have the expertise to help our customers through the process of filing a claim.

Don’t get stuck with the responsibility of dealing with complicated claims – start using Trinity’s services and we’ll be there to help you take care of it. If you’d like more information about our claims department or general information about our services, you can contact us by clicking here.