#2 Reason for not making money hauling cars is DAMAGE CLAIMS | General Auto Transport Discussions | Forum

Damage claims come in two categories REAL and BOGUS. Documentation is important in both categories. When a customer submits a bogus claim for pre-existing damage you will need to be able to clearly prove it was there prior to loading. I recommend a signed inspection report and pictures of all damage. Sometimes a loading inspection signature is not possible but you should always be able to get pictures. They may not be the best quality but you want all the protection you can get to defend claims. Real claims are inevitable because nobody is perfect. Here you have a balancing act because the trucks with the largest capacity are the stackers that also gives you more opportunities for damage. Whenever you move a driver to another truck or route the chance for damage rises. Minimizing the changes that a driver has to adapt to will help keep damages down. Sometimes the cheapest way out is to buy the damaged vehicle rather than try to repair it for the customer. My Wife is still driving a Toyota Highlander that we bought to settle a damage claim when we owned a transport business. For those of you who use EZDispatch, there is an easy way to attach the pictures to a load for easy retreval if you ever need them to defend your self. This also time-stamps the upload so you can prove that the picture was taken before a given date.

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