After hauling freight for 14 years in the Southeast, I tried to hop on with Forward Air and getting started turned into a three-week circus. Their carrier portal kept rejecting my COI for reasons nobody could explain, the terminal assigned no dock times, and I lost three days' worth of revenue while support bounced emails between “IT” and operations.
…voicemail hell when our pickup window slid and nobody called back, left us sitting at a dock with no direction. I've run two trucks for 30 years on the West Coast - Forward Air's support couldn't file a claim or give an ETA, cost me detention fees and a week's pay.
Bottom line: Forward Air is faster and more on-time than the regional carrier I used before, but it doesn't feel like a straightforward upgrade for my business. I run three trucks on the West Coast and the scheduled airport-to-airport lanes are great when they hit - yet the booking portal is clunky and the accessorials/detention add up so quickly that I end up using my old, looser broker for lots of local runs despite appreciating the speed here.
Bottom line: Forward Air got the job done but cost more than I expected, and I’m not convinced it was worth the premium. We used them for a handful of airport-to-door rush runs - our 60-truck outfit down in the Southeast leaned on them this quarter and they did hit windows with no drama, but the invoices were noticeably higher than other options. For true last-minute, time-sensitive loads I’ll pay the extra, but for routine lanes I’ll be shopping alternatives.
Rate it, and the next carrier reading this page sees what you found.
