…the app usually gets loads booked fast, which saves us time, but it's frustrating when the live-tracking freezes on the map. I've been managing ten trucks on the West Coast for about a year, and the mobile proof-of-delivery uploads work most of the time, yet intermittent push notifications and occasional crashes mean I still call the broker half the time. It's a mixed bag.
Nestor Stiedemann
Member since January 2026
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91 reviews · average 2.7
What I disliked most was how a single misrouted pallet delayed a cross-border delivery and left one of my rigs idle for 36 hours. I manage a small fleet on the West Coast - ten trucks - and with barely a year in the position that downtime hit scheduling and margins hard. FedEx Logistics eventually located the pallet and provided a partial credit after persistent follow-up, and their ocean freight tracking finally offered clarity; still, the initial silence and the customs holdup felt reactive and costly. Mixed feelings: competent recovery, but the avoidable disruption undercuts confidence.
Bottom line: Ruan kept a critical shipment on schedule and remained unfazed under pressure. When our driver called out sick the day before a temperature-sensitive load, they rerouted one of their refrigerated units, coordinated pickup with minimal disruption, and prevented spoilage. I manage ten trucks on the West Coast and after a year working with them this level of responsiveness is precisely why we continue to partner. Their clear communication and reliable follow-through earned my trust.
On my first attempted cross-border refrigerated load with Scotlynn the dispatch sent incomplete customs paperwork and the trailer sat idle at the border for 18 hours. I manage ten trucks on the West Coast, and getting fully set up in their carrier portal dragged on for three weeks - repeated document requests and an often-unreachable onboarding rep cost us roughly $1,400 in detention and missed revenue. This level of friction made a difficult start that left me unwilling to trust them with time-sensitive produce until their onboarding process is overhauled.
Last Tuesday a time-critical pallet of medical parts booked with Forward Air missed three scheduled airport connections and sat at their terminal for 22 hours before anyone could give a clear update. Compared with our previous carrier - who moved the same lanes same-day with predictable scan-ins and proactive calls - the sparse communication and missed checkpoints forced us into a $3,200 overnight drivers' overtime and expedited rerouting cost, plus a client penalty; that expense wiped out any hoped-for savings. I run ten trucks on the West Coast and after a year of side-by-side trials their unpredictability means we will not be switching permanently.
Our initial shipment sat idle for 72 hours when PSA BDP failed to activate our portal account and misclassified two hazardous line items, forcing a rushed refile with customs. Getting started turned into a slog - duplicate forms, an account manager who changed twice in the first week, and no clear onboarding checklist cost my fleet of ten trucks significant idle time and nearly $3,000 in detention fees. If you need to move quickly, budget extra time and money for their setup.
Bottom line: Mode Global's customer support was unreliable when it mattered, and that unreliability cost my operation time and money. A three-day lag in responses to a detention claim left two trucks idling at the terminal and resulted in avoidable detention charges and a missed retail cutoff. Phone reps repeatedly transferred us, promised escalations that never happened, and follow-up emails went unanswered - not acceptable for a carrier-facing service we were told would provide visibility and timely support.
When a delayed berth in Long Beach forced us to reroute a refrigerated load to Tacoma last month, Maersk’s tracking and replanning tools made the diversion manageable and the cargo arrived without spoilage. However, the expedited inland rebooking and the premium charged for that visibility pushed the invoice up by nearly 20%, which is hard to justify for a ten-truck operation running on tight margins. I value the reliability in a pinch, yet I remain undecided whether the recurring cost is worth it for regular use; mixed feelings about the price versus benefit.
After a last-minute reroute on an urgent medical parts shipment added $1,200 to the invoice, I had to stop and ask whether the cost matched the value. Their initial quote looked competitive, but surprise surcharges and accessorial fees pushed the effective price well above what my small West Coast fleet of ten trucks can absorb, and that sting is hard to ignore. The shipment arrived on time and their tracking and customs handling were competent, so I’m torn - not a total loss, but not clearly worth the premium either.
Customer support response times were inconsistent. One representative acted decisively to resolve a temperature-alert routing issue that might have ruined a load - which impressed me - but billing disputes and scheduling errors lingered for weeks despite repeated calls; I've been managing a small fleet of ten trucks for a year and that kind of uncertainty makes planning difficult. They can be effective in a pinch, yet the unpredictable follow-through leaves me cautious about relying on them for critical shipments.
The biggest sticking point was price - DB Schenker's freight and warehousing fees felt high for the actual value delivered. Their portal provides useful visibility and the network handled tricky cross-dock moves well, but with a West Coast fleet of ten trucks and only a year relying on third-party logistics, the per-shipment surcharges and minimums quickly ate into margins. I'm torn: they executed reliably, yet I can't say it was worth the premium for a smaller regional operator; larger volume shippers might justify the cost, but for my setup the math fell short.
On my first scheduled integration call the Hub Group rep did not show up and our API credentials sat pending for two weeks with no clear owner. Getting Hub Connect activated became a slog of manual paperwork and handoffs - I'm the manager of a small West Coast fleet of ten trucks with one year in the role, so those delays immediately strained our operations. The holdup cost us over $3,000 in extra deadhead and churned customers, and we ultimately canceled the rollout.