The moving company responsible for the moving disaster that we mentioned the other day has written in to share some information about the way insurance works in the event of such a catastrophe.
Broadway Express says:
We have been in constant contact with the customer since the accident. Credit cards are charged for these self moves on the day of loading. Standing procedure in the transportation industry is a load must be paid for before a claim can be filed. The customer called as asked immediately after the accident if we would refund the load charges, and we said we couldn’t, but the insurance was contacted and an adjuster was sent out promptly. The salvageable items were loaded on another one of our trucks in the area and is being transported to the customer’s destination.
The standard claim form sent to the customer states .60 cents/lb. This is not the case with a catastrophe. This customer will probably receive full value from the insurance company. An adjuster is also meeting the truck in California to re-evaluate the goods.
They also let us know that the driver is very experienced and has been with the company for 14 years but is from Illinois and was unfamiliar with the Boston area and made a tragic mistake while trying to merge into traffic. Let’s send everyone involved our best wishes.
(Photo: k a t m )
PREVIOUSLY: What Do You Do When Your Moving Company Destroys Everything You Own?
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@hexychick: I would put money on the driver following a GPS device explicity. He’s lucky he didn’t ‘Turn Right’ into an oncoming train.
[www.cnn.com]
[news.bbc.co.uk]
And other blatant stupidity:
[www.engadget.com]
What a bunch of crap to make a “standard procedure” argument to justify charging the customer. Is it standard procedure for the driver to ruin a load? No, it is not. Someone could have waived this charge and chose not to.
Wow.
I used Broadway Express 3 years ago for a move from NY-LA and the SAME THING HAPPENED.
Luckily my stuff wasn’t on the truck yet. On moving day they called to tell me the driver wrecked his truck by driving into a bridge he was too tall for. It almost screwed up my flights out of town and caused a great deal of stress, but BE paid for movers to load my stuff the next day and eventually delivered everything in good condition.
While I have to wonder why this keeps happening to them, at least they man up and help the customer when it does.
I like this response.
Also, a charge makes the contract binding, so that way they COULD get the insurance on their things, etc.
@Me: As the article points out, except in cases of catastrophe, standard insurance is $0.60 / pound.
Commercial movers are fine for washers, beds, etc.
If you literally cannot replace it, and you want to keep it in the family, you should take it with you. Put it in the car, or ship it with a shipper that specializes in high declared-value shipments.
@kretara: if you take “CLEARANCE 10 FT 6 IN” with a “grain of salt” while driving a 13 foot tall truck, you are a fucking moron, Boston or not.
If I had time, I’d collect all the comments from the original story which said that obviously $0.60/pound is the best the costumer could hope for. That would be amusing.
But I don’t have time so I’ll just dream about it and have a good laugh in my head. (That will keep the voices at bay for a bit.)
funny, because the only time i saw or heard of this type of accident was in
illinois, the driver’s home state. the locals tell me this happens often
and i saw it twice in the one year i lived in chicago. (they keep re-paving
old roads and never changing the signs to compensate for loss of inches.)
Kobe will show them all how to drive tomorrow in Boston.
/threadjack
This person should get 100% of the value of the price of replacement items. You move your stuff so you don’t have to lose money rebuying everything. This was a reckless mistake, this is not accidental damage.
@Balisong: I respectfully disagree. I understand that you drive this road all the time, so I can understand how you see it as natural to realize it’s there, but I also think you’d agree that people who do a task repeatedly become accustomed to it and it becomes hard for them to understand why others don’t do it as well as they do.
I looked at your pictures, and I followed it all the way back to the Mt. Vernon street. It’s a sharp turn, and I can see how he could miss the sign that says, “Low Clearance”, but, even if he didn’t there’s one more sign ahead that could cause confusion. Going strictly by the images, and even taking into account the fact that a camera can only focus on one thing, I can’t believe that the driver could have seen the sign on the bridge ahead, but even if he could, I can see how he would have been confused, since the last exit before the damnably low bridge has a sign that says, “Low Clearance 14′”. It’s easy to see how someone could have mistaken the sign he turned off of to mean that sign, and since the road is quite straight, it’s easy to see the bridge that sign is talking about. At no point does it say that there will be an 11′ clearance, so the driver could have easily gotten confused.
All this having been said, most if not all commercial truck route plan software has bridge height built into it, so even if the driver was new to the area, the company should have provided the driver with the instructions necessary to avoid the bridge. Either way, a mistake was made, and it’s up to the company to learn from it or not.
I was going down the 402 in Canada (just outside Sarnia) at 2am. I noticed a truck in the far left lane, and I saw several signs denoting an oddly low bridge (it was an arc). The truck was the extra tall car carrier. I cautiously sped up, as the truck went under the bridge at 65mph it ripped the top 3 cars off. It also stopped the truck dead in its tracks in 5 feet. I pulled over and made sure the driver was OK. I asked if he had seen the sign, he told me he was getting a route update on his computer right as it was happening. It was one of the scarier accidents I’ve ever seen (think full size pickups getting tossed around a road). In that case the driver was distracted… which seems to be common for truck drivers. They have GPS, CB, Laptops, Cellphones, and then traffic. I think the problem is distraction, no matter how experienced you are you still aren’t as alert when you’re trying to dial a cell phone. Simple as that!
While the insurance company is going to pay “full value” for his possesstions, why does he have to still pay for the service? I would think the company would refund his money simply for the inconvenience of having this happen. Additionally – why is his stuff still “en route?” Shouldnt it have been there by now?!?!
I agree that the driver’s unfamiliarity with the area is no excuse. If the moving company didn’t provide him with a route, and if the “experienced” driver can’t read clearance signs, they really don’t have any business charging more than the guys on Craigslist who will just show up and haul your stuff in a van. And I would even expect one of those guys to say, “Hey, that bridge looks low.”
Regarding paying first, I work at a logistics company (actually, a combined
logistics and LTL trucking line) and went and asked the manager of our LTL
trucking line about what they said about the standing procedure in the
transportation industry being that the load has to be paid for first. She
confirmed it, and said that it was “the law” (though I’m not sure whether
she meant an actual statute law, or was just talking about a procedure so
codified by practice that it was like a “natural law”). I would imagine the
insurance company requires proof that what they are paying damages on has
been paid for, so the customer won’t be getting paid twice for it.
I found two companies named Broadway Express:
1. US DOT # 665947: No authority.
BROADWAY EXPRESS INC
DBA
Address
3969WYOMING
DEARBORN, MI 48121
Mailing Address
P O BOX344
DEARBORN, MI 48121
Telephone/Fax
(313) 477-3676/(313) 291-2282
2. US DOT #270552: No authority.
Carrier Name
BROADWAY EXPRESS INC
DBA
Address
3177 IRVING BLVD
IRVING, TX 75247
Mailing Address
3177 IRVING BLVD
IRVING, TX 75247
Telephone/Fax
/
Email
Neither carrier is listed as a HHG mover.
http://ai.volpe.dot.gov/
I would find out who Broadway Express is leased to and contact the insurance
company of the carrier they are leased to.
Whose name was listed on the Bill of Lading?
Since Broadway Express has no authority to move interstate freight I’d call
1-888-DOT-SAFT with as much information as possible so the matter could be
investigated.
Best of luck, it sounds like you’re going to need it.
Mike