Cargo rejections can happen for a number of reasons. Moisture damage, cross-contamination with another product, packaging errors and damage, or just catching an unloader having a bad day are some of the reasons I have experienced.
But there can be a silver lining in this situation. When freight is rejected, a call to the cargo claims department of your carrier, insurance provider, or brokerage sometimes ends with the product being donated to a charity instead of the dumpster.
The Telegraph Herald of Debuque, Iowa recently had the story of NEY Trucking and their thousand pounds of rejected fresh chicken. A bag had burst open in transit somewhere between South Alabama and Waterloo, Iowa.
In typical receiver fashion, the entire pallet was rejected. Now Marvin Ney, owner of NEY Trucking, had to work the phones to figure out a way to handle the situation.
He could not ship the birds all the way back to Bama, so he went with the more charitable approach. With the approval from the shipper, Ney went around the local food banks passing out chicken.
The chicken was donated to area nonprofits, including Dubuque Rescue Mission, Dubuque Dream Center, and the local Salvation Army. In total, he estimated it was between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds of food.
According to estimates from the Salvation Army’s Captain David Amick, it was enough chicken to last nearly a month. Along with another load of rejected hams they had received that same day, they had enough to cover the meals for 50-60 families.
Rejected freight, if at all possible, should be donated to those that will make good use of the product before it is disposed of into a landfill. Times are hard and anything a driver can do to help their community should be done if possible.
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