Their coverage was strong, but reliability was frustratingly inconsistent. On some lanes pickups were prompt and cross-dock handoffs saved us a day, which kept a last-minute pharma load alive. Other times shipments sat in customs or their ocean-forwarding desk missed a connection and we burned overtime paying drivers to hold loads. I run a 25-truck fleet in the Midwest and after four years with them I’m genuinely torn: when it works it’s a real life-saver because of the FedEx network, but when it fails the fallback plans are clunky and expensive. If your operation can absorb occasional failures and you need wide coverage, they’ll do - just don’t expect every pickup to arrive on the promised day.
Adella Labadie
Member since January 2026
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92 reviews · average 2.7
And the onboarding was a nightmare. They promised a quick start but it dragged on three weeks while contracts bounced back and forth, during which we missed two paid lanes and had drivers sitting with nothing to do. Communication came from three different reps who didn’t have our DOT or billing straight, so I spent more time on hold fixing invoices than running trucks. I run 25 trucks and after four years managing a Midwest fleet, I expected the front end to be smoother; instead it cost us revenue and burned a customer’s patience. Honestly, the setup headaches alone make me hesitant to ever try them again.
Bottom line: the Scotlynn mobile app is a liability - unstable GPS and constant crashes have actually cost me money. On three separate runs last month the app refused to upload proof-of-delivery, so drivers had to stop and fax paperwork, which led to detention fees and one lost backhaul. I manage 25 trucks in the Midwest and the so-called “real-time” ETAs arrive minutes or hours late, leaving drivers waiting or arriving too early with no instructions. Short, infuriating glitches: frozen screens, failed photo uploads, and delayed push alerts - not what you want when every minute on the road equals dollars.
When a chassis failed and a load missed its ocean cut-off the Friday before Thanksgiving, I braced for the usual scramble. One rep from Kerry's U.S. support team - James - took the lead, called three terminals, rebooked the container on a later feeder, and kept my driver posted by text every hour until the new slot was confirmed. I manage 25 trucks in the Midwest and after four years in this job, that kind of ownership during a holiday is rare and worth noting. It shaved two days off what could have been a week-long delay and kept a major store delivery from falling apart. The billing adjustment was handled the next week with no drama, which really closed the loop for me.
…and then the truck that was supposed to be there at 9 rolls in at noon. Forward Air is definitely faster on airport-to-airport runs than the company we used before, and when their schedule clicks it takes real pressure off tight shipments. But their pickup consistency and billing practices are hit-or-miss - notes disappear, dispatch gives conflicting ETAs, and we saw a handful of small accessorials that never showed up with our old carrier. I run a 25-truck fleet in the Midwest and have four years under my belt, so predictable windows and clean invoicing matter; that’s why I’m torn - speed saved us time but the extra admin sucked it back. Three stars: I'll use them for time-sensitive drayage, but not as our go-to for everyday LTL.
Last Tuesday a lane booked for a 9 a.m. pickup in Indianapolis vanished two hours before load time with no explanation and no rebook. Our driver waited, then had to deadhead 120 miles; we ate fuel and extra driver pay and the receiver slapped us with detention, which cost the company real dollars and a client’s patience. Their real-time tracking stopped updating and every attempt to get a human on the phone went to voicemail - the platform looks slick but it didn’t actually connect us to a truck when it mattered. I run a fleet of 25 trucks in the Midwest and after four years of dealing with brokers this was the most unreliable partner we've used. Won’t trust them again until they fix basic communication - lost time, lost money, lost customer.
The pricing was the main sticking point - I paid a premium that didn’t always feel justified. There were times their customs brokerage and compliance reporting saved my skin on tricky chemical loads, but the fees for that attention pile up fast. I manage a 25-truck Midwest fleet and after four years in the game I can spot a markup; some of the digital visibility features felt worth the surcharge, others were bells and whistles we barely used. Support did jump in when things went sideways, though response times were inconsistent enough to make me wince. Bottom line: helpful for high-compliance runs but not consistently worth the cost for everyday freight - I’d shop around before signing a long contract.
After a surprise surge in holiday orders, our small 25-truck Midwest operation needed a 3PL partner fast. Werner Logistics seemed promising and the account rep was responsive at first - until we hit EDI mapping, which dragged on about three weeks because of field mismatches and handoffs across time zones. Not smooth. Once the integration team finally gave us a test environment the tracking portal actually helped and the visibility cut down my inbox; I could see why larger shippers like this. Still, getting drivers set up with the mobile app was oddly clunky and required repeated follow-ups, so I’m left mixed: good tech once it works, but onboarding was more hands-on and slower than I expected for our size.
Bottom line: Mode's mobile app is handy for quick load checks but too unreliable for us to trust it alone. The map-based visibility and rate lookups are fast and usually accurate, so dispatch can eyeball lanes without firing up the desktop. But push notifications drop or arrive late, and the app has locked up twice this month when drivers tried to update delivery status - maddening in the middle of a run. With 25 trucks in the Midwest, we appreciate being able to pull up bills of lading and sign PODs from the field, yet the document scanner is slow and forces a lot of manual follow-up calls. I'm torn: it shaves time on routine checks, but those reliability quirks mean we keep a backup process and treat the app as helpful but imperfect.
I've used AIT for about eight months. We switched from a regional broker that, while smaller, at least kept ETAs accurate and actually called when things changed - AIT's tech portal promised real-time tracking but repeatedly showed arrivals hours off and duplicated house bills our drivers couldn't reconcile. One customs misclassification on an import resulted in a 36-hour hold, $800 in detention fees and an irate retail customer who dropped our lane; that kind of hit matters when you run 25 trucks and operate on thin margins. After four years managing this fleet in the Midwest I've learned slick dashboards mean nothing if the back office can't fix paperwork, and frankly the old broker's people responded faster and owned mistakes. Frustrating experience - switching back and I won't be sending business AIT's way again.
...when our Friday loads went sideways, DB Schenker actually came through. The one thing that made me happy was their live-tracking - I watched an ETA slide and was able to reroute a driver before we hit detention. Their after-hours rep picked up at 10 PM and coordinated a swap with a local carrier; not glamorous, but it kept my trucks moving. I've got 25 trucks in the Midwest and four years managing this fleet, so I don't hand out praise easily. Solid reliability when it counted; that's what matters for us.
Their support line might as well be a voicemail graveyard. When one of our regular cross-docks swallowed a trailer manifest last month their online ticket system churned for 72 hours with automated replies while nobody actually called back. For context, I run 25 trucks in the Midwest and have four years handling tight retail windows, so those 48-hour delays cost us detention fees, a rerouted load, and a client who refused to pay the late claim. The worst part: escalation doesn't exist - after a week we finally got a manager email and it contained no solution, just another promise. If you need a partner that will pick up the phone and own a problem, GEODIS isn't it; their visibility dashboards mean nothing when nobody answers.