Well campers I sure hope you enjoyed your time down at the lake swimming and boating and fishing. But here we are around the campfire again. So let us jump right into this.

Today we are going to talk about getting paid for the services you just did. How many of you campers out there have done the work, fronted all the money for fuel, maintenance, and driver wages, just to sit back and at sixty days you still have not seen a payment? Can I see a show of hands please.

Yeah. I figured. That is a lot of hands.

Now I know a lot of you are going to say well I have a factoring company that handles all this for me. Yeap you are right. I work with Apex Capital out of Fort Worth and have since almost their beginning. And yes they handle most of the collections for me. But campers know this. You are in the end responsible for the money they cannot collect.

I know, I know. I have a non recourse contract with them. Yeap, you do. But how long do you think they will keep that up without changing something if they are constantly having to pay claims? Yeap they will go after the bond of every lazy good for nothing broker who does not pay. But hey, I talk about integrity all the time. So I back that claim up. I do not just hand it off and walk away. I run my company.

So here is what I do.

I keep a close eye on my receivables. I make dang sure the people I work with are paid. I run a load, send the paperwork into Apex, and then I watch. Folks, terms are thirty days from receipt of invoice and paperwork. How many of you send the paperwork to your factoring company and then say okay that is done? Do you also send the paperwork to the broker or the shipper at the same time so that clock starts on the thirty days?

Because factoring companies are quick but sometimes it takes them a few days to get to your paperwork and get it sent out. Or look at your rate confirmation. A lot of them say must have paperwork within twenty four hours or we fine you two hundred dollars or some stupid number like that. They do not care that you sent it to the factor and the factor dropped the ball. They will fine you anyway.

So why not just go to the factor’s website, grab the AR email address for the broker, and send it yourself? Folks, always to the AR email address. Never just to the broker direct. That is how double brokers get you and then never pay you. It will take you five extra minutes. Then the clock has started.

And here is something most campers do not do. Set up your email with a read receipt or delivery receipt so you know when they opened it and looked at it. Save that email. You will need it later.

Now the thirty days starts.

When you see it approaching the thirty day mark fire off a quick email to that AR department. Just want to make sure my payment is going out on this date. Give them the actual date. Then wait. When you hit forty five days and it still has not landed, that is when you go to work.

You do not call the broker. You do not email the broker. You fire off an email to their bond. I do not care if you sent the thirty day notice on time and they replied or they did not. That is their problem, not yours. The contract says thirty days from receipt.

Remember that email I told you to save? This is where it comes in handy. Gather all your information, find the bonding agent’s email, and submit it over. Yes it will ruffle some feathers. But hey, you did the work, now it is time to get paid.

Here is the real problem campers. Brokers are dropping like flies out there. You do not want to be number one hundred that submits an invoice on a bond claim because you decided to wait until day sixty. Because that bond is only good for seventy five thousand dollars. What happens is the bonding company gets all these requests stacked up and you get what they give you. Might be your whole amount. Might be one dollar and twenty eight cents. Because so many people lined up before you.

If you have an SOP like I do where this is done by day forty six I am usually one of the first in line. And here is the other thing. The bonding company will call that broker and say hey, we just got this invoice, what is going on? Get enough of those calls and the bonding company starts looking hard at that broker and starts wondering if they really want them on their rolls.

Also with the new rules in place that broker has seven days to replenish the bond or bye bye authority.

So here is the moral of the story. Once again, you run your company and you must run your company. Yes it will ruffle feathers. Yes you will probably get a call from the broker asking why. And yes you will have all the paperwork to back this up.

I have received numerous calls from AR departments telling me all you had to do is call me or email me, I would have told you the check went out on X day. I simply say I did call and I did email on this date and you chose not to reply, so I used the next step after the forty five day mark.

Now campers listen up once again. There are a lot of great brokers out there who pay their bills on time without much issue. And sometimes they run into a situation. Maybe the computers were down. Maybe your paperwork got lost in the shuffle. It happens. But when you call or email and they communicate back and explain the situation, do I give them a little more time? Yes I do. But at the end of the day the contract says what it says and I try to hold their feet to the fire the same way they hold mine on moving the load.

So once again, make the best call for your company that you can.

Now this afternoon the golf course is open. So go enjoy a round of golf and enjoy the sunshine. Until next time we meet back here and have some more learning.