3PL Perspectives
MANY AREN’T AWARE that there are three reports available in the TIA Watchdog platform that allow you to isolate issues and yield a better response.
The most common report is the Carrier Report, affectionately known by many simply as The Watchdog Report because it is used for most of the common and general infractions that brokers encounter daily, including the following:
- Unauthorized re-brokering of shipment
- No show and no call
- Canceled after accepting load
- Held load hostage
- Back-solicited shipper
- In-transit agreement modification
- Theft or unjustified loss of freight
- Persistent cancelling
- Unauthorized re-brokering of shipment
- Payment issues
- Brokers freight without broker or freight forwarder (FF) authority
- Operates without bond or trust fund
- Operates under alias
An Agent Report is more specific in reporting the infraction as it relates to the term and conditions of the agreement and agent’s business practices. This report also allows you to direct the report to more than one contact, enabling you to notify the agent and their management team.
- Booking false loads/providing false documents
- Failure to perform as agreed on advances or loans.
- Inflating margins
- Credit terms violation
- Carrier qualification process violations
The third report is a Fraud Report, which may contain critical information that brokers will want to know about, and in many cases should also be reported to the authorities, as these tend to be more serious in nature, including:
Fraudulent Incidents
- Identity theft
- Cash advance scam
- Missing driver
- Stolen truck
- Stolen cargo
Falsified Documentation
- Falsified authority
- Falsified bill of lading (BOL)
- Falsified insurance certificate
- Falsified load/rate confirmation
- Falsified proof of delivery (POD)
Knowing which report to use and incorporating a search on all three reports will yield more consistent results and allow you to rate or assign the reported infractions accordingly.
Watchdog was developed by TIA for TIA Members and aligns with our Ethic Statement. The platform is purposely designed to help create a reporting process that is fair and balanced and encourages both parties to try to resolve the issue on hand with a response code and report process as outlined below.
Watchdog Reporting
All submitted reports are held for 72 hours before being posted on the site. This allows for the broker to review and edit accordingly.
When submitting a report, click descriptors under Choose All That Apply and add comments in the dedicated area. Comments are limited to a maximum of 245 characters to encourage factual content. Knowing precisely what you are reporting, and which report is most suitable for that infraction, will enable you to separate crucial issues more effectively and help drive concise search results.
Reports may be removed from the Watchdog platform by the following manner:
- At any time by the broker who posted the report
- At any time by the administrator on an active Watchdog Account
- If approved through the Removal Request Process
- Reports are Archived automatically after 24 months if No Other reports are present
Saving a report is not recommended and may create false results due to the removal policy.
When there is more than one report posted on a specific DOT/MC, then all reports will remain active indefinitely, or until removed by the broker or an approved Request to Remove.
A Request to Remove a report must be submitted with a completed request form and supporting documents for review by the TIA Ethics Committee. The review process can take up to 30 days. All requests are reviewed with written confirmation and response that is managed by an Ethic Committee correspondent.
Carriers and Associate TIA Members are not permitted access to TIA Watchdog.
Request for a TIA Watchdog Account can be submitted online at tiawatchdog.com/registration.
For additional information about TIA Watchdog, please visit our common question page located online at tiawatchdog.com/common-questions or contact Wendy Emerson at [email protected].
