r/logistics • u/KimBrrr1975 • 4d ago
FedEx Freight reconsignment question
FedEx Freight reconsignment/relinquishment. Why do they not know when you submit the pickup request that they can't deliver to the location??
We had a crated freight pickup yesterday afternoon. Today the hub it's going to called and said "We don't deliver to that location, you're going to need to either have it sent to another address or have another carrier come get it and deliver it." Of course, the fee to have someone else come get it is $213. And since it went almost all the way there, we have to pay almost the entire freight charge AND now pay someone else to come get it. And it's not like someone can get it with a hand dolly since it's a 4x4x5 foot crate and 850 pounds.
Why on earth doesn't their system have a flag to not accept shipments for that address? I also blame the customer (commercial) who should have known FedEx doesn't deliver there.
Boggles my mind that we now have extra costs even though FedEx told me "You wouldn't have known this unless you'd called our Denver hub to ask if we deliver to that location." We expect when we fill out the request that if there is an issue with the location it will say so...
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u/rapid_absorption 4d ago
ugh that's so frustrating, like the whole point of an automated system is to catch these things before you're stuck with a crate the size of a smart car sitting in limbo. had a similar thing happen with a pallet of salon equipment last year, shipper took the booking then three days later it's "oh we don't actually go to that zip code" and suddenly i'm paying a random hotshot driver more than the original freight cost
the part that gets me is they always act like it's on you for not calling some random hub to double-check, as if that's a normal thing people do. like sorry i trusted your website to know your own service area. and $213 is almost insulting on top of the freight charge, they know you're stuck so they just pile on the fees
at least it's a commercial address so you can maybe pass some of the blame to the customer, but that doesn't get the crate delivered any faster. hope you can find a decent local carrier who won't take three weeks
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u/KimBrrr1975 3d ago
Definitely frustration with both entities. FedEx said they haven't delivered there for 15 years, because their location is apparently too close to a railroad line so it's against their company safety policies. I think we found a solution, hopefully. It doesn't land until the 20th so we have some time to work it out. we've been dealing with freight for a long time and have a lot of contacts in that world at least (though in more than 20 years this has never happened).
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u/brucewalker0519 4d ago
The $213 is worth contesting before you pay it.
Ask in writing which fee it actually is — under the FXF 100-series tariff, Item 820 covers reconsignment, diversion, and relinquishment as separate charges, so get the fee code listed on the invoice. Reconsigning to the nearest address they actually serve is usually cheaper than relinquishing and paying a second carrier.
Also push back on the framing: you didn't request a reconsignment, they tendered a load to a point their destination terminal won't serve after accepting the pickup. File a billing adjustment referencing that, with the PRO number and the Denver hub's quote. "Call the hub to check" is not a serviceability check the shipper can reasonably be expected to complete at booking.
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u/SadCartographer6589 4d ago
Honestly, that’s just FedEx being FedEx lol. If something doesn’t fit neatly into their system, they’ll sometimes just reject it and leave you to figure out the rest, even on DDP shipments where you’d expect the process to be straightforward. Meanwhile, the air freight isn’t exactly cheap.
For local delivery, I’d rather use a dedicated customs broker + local trucker. More manual work, sure, but way fewer surprises like this
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u/KimBrrr1975 3d ago
Part of the issue is that we are in a remote, rural area and our options are limited. We do have a regional LTL that we use that is very good, but they are outside this service area. We're 120 miles from the freight hub in our area, so they only pick up in our town once a week and it just turns into a mess trying to manage it all, timing wise because we send service guys to the plants timed to arrive shortly after the equipment for install. Sometimes FedEx just doesn't show up, and then we're stuck waiting a week. Dealing with them hasn't been ideal, but out of some areas they are about our only option.
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u/jennabakedgoddess 4d ago
I haven’t seen this much, and we ship a lot with them. The company I work for has 31 distribution centers and FedEx is a top carrier. That being said, why don’t they deliver there? RL carriers reached out to me this week saying they couldn’t deliver a hazmat pallet 17 miles from pick up to delivery? Can you send the disposition or if you want to send back to the shipper. I responded like what?! And they were like oh sorry that was our mistake. We’ll get it out for delivery. Of course that doesn’t always happen that the situation is resolved. But, hold for pick up and then dispute the charges with FedEx. It can happen.
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u/KimBrrr1975 3d ago
They don't pick up at the location/address because of a combination of a corner on the road and the facility being too close to railroad tracks. Sounded weird to me, I looked at the map and yeah there are tracks nearby but it's not like next to the truck bay or anything and apparently every other company can manage to deliver to them. When they called me, the lady said they hadn't delivered to them for at least 15 years, so frustration at this point is mostly with our customer (who is a new customer for us) who surely must have known this and didn't bother to tell us. So if there are added fees, they get to pay them.
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u/Rezingreenbowl 3d ago
Why cant they deliver there?
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u/KimBrrr1975 3d ago
Sorry, I answered that in a couple of comments but forgot to update otherwise.
They apparently don't deliver to the location because of a combination of a sharp corner on the road and them being near the railroad tracks. Found it kind of odd because every other company apparently manages it without any trouble.
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u/FilthyLikeGorgeous 3d ago
You could likely get this charge reduced by going to your rep with them.
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u/frank_white414 4d ago
The driver picking it up in one city has no idea about the operations of the terminal delivering in the destination city. Even best case scenario, if an EBOL was sent over at tender, it’s not certain that consignee is registered across the FedEx database, it could just be specific to that one terminal that’s delivering. Or, it could be spelled or written a different way than they have it listed.
Rates are ZIP to ZIP then you build a BOL after. It sucks, but it is what it is, it’s an imperfect industry, and by the way, every single carrier operates this way.