Are you struggling with a delayed freight shipment or multiple? Are your truckloads of freight not showing up at all? And are these issues leading to unhappy customers and jeopardizing your client relationships? If so, then you’ll want answers as to why these failures are happening from your carrier, right? But perhaps every time you ask your transportation provider what’s going on, you’re not met with full transparency from them, and they give you excuse after excuse every time.

Well, we’re here to shine some light on the main reasons why your freight shipment might be failing. Understanding the common causes of these disruptions and implementing proactive strategies can help mitigate risks and maintain operational continuity. Keep reading to find out more ⬇️

Common Reasons That Your Freight Shipment Might Fail 👎

1. Communication Breakdown 📞

Miscommunication between shippers, carriers, and the receiver can lead to shipment failures. Factors like unclear instructions, missed updates, or poor coordination, etc. often result in lost or delayed shipments.

How To Avoid It:

• Utilize automated real-time tracking systems, if your shipping partner provides them.
• Establish clear communication channels with your freight partner.

2. Human Error 🤦‍♂️

Human errors happen all of the time in all different lines of work and in our home lives too, they’re unavoidable and mistakes happen right? But, errors in booking, routing or mishandling freight can again lead to failed shipments. These errors usually occur when staff have improper training, or a lack of attention and attentiveness to their work, causing clerical mistakes, and improper coordination often resulting in delays and losses.

How To Avoid It:

This is really out of your hands as the shipper and the responsibility solely lies with your freight partner and their workers. All that you can do is:

• Partner with a reputable freight provider and build strong relationships.

3. Technology & IT System Failures 💻

Modern day logistics relies heavily on digital systems whether it’s for tracking, booking or managing loads. So, as you can imagine system outages, cyber-attacks or software glitches can severely disrupt operations and lead to shipment delays.

How To Avoid It:

Again, this is totally out of your hands and your freight partners hands too. The responsibility of this lies with the software providers. All that you can do is:

• Check what your carriers contingency plans are for these kinds of emergency scenarios.

4. Labor Strikes & Workforce Shortages 👷

Workforce strikes among warehouse employees, dockworkers and truck drivers can lead to a standstill in logistics operations. Whether they’re caused due to strikes, illnesses or any other reason it impacts your service reliability and delivery times.

How To Avoid It:

Again, another one totally out of your hands as the shipper. But one thing that you could put in place is:

• Diversifying carriers and building relationships with alternative service providers. This will mitigate risk and ensure you have another carrier to fall back on, should this become a problem.

5. Mechanical Issues & Equipment Failures 🚚

Breakdowns are not uncommon for any vehicle, we’ve all experienced some kind of problem with our car at some point haven’t we? Whether it’s a flat tire, low gas, low oil, or in more extreme cases a mechanical fault, or engine problem, we’ve all been there! All of these things when not caught before making a trip out can cause serious delays.

How To Avoid It:

• Work with reputable carriers that carry out regular vehicle maintenance.
• Have contingency plans for alternative transport methods if needed.

6. Heavy Congestion & RTA’s ⛔️

Congested highways, motor vehicle accidents, road works and infrastructure issues through built up areas all contribute to freight shipment delays.

How To Avoid It:

Again, this is one of those cases where the issue simply cannot always be avoided. But some things that you can try to do, to minimize the impact of these:

• Schedule deliveries for off-peak and off season dates if possible.
• Ask your carrier for real-time updates of your shipments so you’re kept in the loop and can make on the fly decisions to make contact with your customers if needed.

7. Weather Conditions & Natural Disasters 💨⛈

The weather here in the United States can be unbelievably unpredictable. One minute we’re seeing sunshine, the next hurricanes, wildfires, snowstorms and floods, all of these weather conditions can majorly disrupt day to day supply chains.

How To Avoid It:

In short, you can’t the only thing that you can do is:

• Monitor weather conditions and plan shipments around forecasts accordingly.
• Opt for insurance policies that protect against natural disasters.
• Figure out a contingency plan with your carrier.

Conclusion 💭

As we’ve explained throughout this blog, freight shipment failures are not always due to the fault of the carrier. There are a ton of other outside factors that can contribute to delays, lost shipments and damages that are simply out of yours and your carriers hands and sometimes they’re completely unavoidable too. In fact, we didn’t even get chance to mention every possible cause of a shipping failure in this blog, there are a ton more reasons why you might face problems with your freight.

However, in the cases where the carrier is to blame, it’s important to take the necessary steps to rectify any issues faced, as these failures can have a significant financial and operational impact on your business. Working with a reliable freight partner, who not only has great communication, and a whole book of contingency plans, but also invests in their staff, vehicle and equipment maintenance and technology will go a long way in tackling these issues before they arise.

So, stay tuned to read our next blog that is going to be written all about how to handle freight failures, in case you unfortunately experience any. Our next blog will help you to tackle these problems head on with your carrier and will include a step by step guide to see you through the process of resolving a freight failure.

If you’re interested in partnering with a super friendly, goes all out shipping partner, then look no further. You can contact us using the link below or on our cell: 📞 888-SHIP-911. We would love to hear from you, and we promise we do everything within our power to stop freight shipment failures from happening with us!😊

Want to work with a super reliable freight partner for your specialized or expedited shipments?

Today can be the day you stop struggling with shipping problems.

At PEI, we’re experts in dealing with specialized freight and can handle yours with any custom requirements.