...support was hit-or-miss - dispatch could be great getting a load rolling, but anything involving temperature paperwork or billing turned into a game of phone tag with three different reps while a reefer sat idling. After twenty years driving around the Midwest I'm honestly split: equipment and lanes are fine, but the customer service holes make certain runs more headache than they're worth.
I dispatch about 60 trucks in the Southeast and after nine years in the biz, a midnight load of strawberries with Scotlynn taught me a lesson. The reefer alarm went off two hours into the run; their U.S. rep arranged a swap and a transload, but approvals dragged for four hours and most of the fruit was ruined - driver said the people on the ground were helpful, which made it harder to stay mad. They picked up a good chunk of the cost, so I'm torn: decent response from staff, shaky paperwork and slow decisions, 3/5.
...took me less than a week to get rolling with them. Signing up was mostly online, but the thing that actually made me happy was my recruiter - answered texts at weird hours and pushed my carrier packet through so I wasn't sitting around waiting. Truck assignment had a couple hiccups, but for getting on temp-controlled produce runs from Indiana down to Florida they got me on the books fast.
I've been using Scotlynn Group for about three years. Last summer one of their drivers picked up a pallet of U.S.-bound berries and the trailer's reefer alarm went off en route - by the time we reached their operations center the fruit had already suffered, but their claims team did move quickly to cover part of the loss. After 28 years in the industry and managing 150 trucks I appreciate the quick escalation from their Florida office, yet the handoff between their owned fleet and a partner carrier was confusing and cost precious hours. Not great. Their cross-border paperwork and temperature-clearance experience save us time on several lanes, so I keep them on the roster, but that spoiled load cost a major account and left me wary.
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