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Rules for Shippers
Highway Direct's rules for shippers help ensure that transactions at Highway Direct are safe and hassle-free.
Every shipper must know and follow these rules. The following policy violations are not permitted on Highway Direct:
Shill bidding
Solicitation of an offsite sale
Transaction interception
Misrepresentation of Identity
Shipper Non-performance
Violations of any of these policies may result in a range of actions, including, but not limited to:
Listing cancellation
Limits on account privileges
Account level fee schedule changes
Account suspension
Forfeit of Highway Direct fees on cancelled listings
Notifying the proper regulatory agency and/or law enforcement agency
To report a policy violation, use the Contact Us page and include all relevant information and supporting documentation. Please only report a possible violation once; multiple notifications on the same violation can slow an investigation.
Notes:
Highway Direct will consider the circumstances of an alleged policy violation and the user's record before taking action.
If a complaint can't be proven with certainty, we may take no action.
Due to privacy issues, it's not possible for Highway Direct to discuss the results of an investigation.
Listing Policies for Shippers
Familiarize yourself with Highway Direct's listing policies, user agreement and rules for shippers & drivers before posting a load. You'll have a safe and efficient experience knowing that your listing complies with community standards and guidelines.
Listings that violate Highway Direct's policies may result in disciplinary action. This action may include a formal warning, the ending of all violating listings, or even temporary or indefinite suspension of a user's account. Highway Direct will consider the circumstances of an alleged offense and the user's records before taking action.
Listing Policies:
Circumventing Fees - Users may not use systems or techniques to circumvent, or avoid, Highway Direct fees. Some examples may include, but are not limited to outside-of-Highway Direct offers, listings that offer or require an additional load to be pulled, attempting to use a different mileage count, and listing of multiple loads on one listing.
Duplicate Listings – Shippers may not have the same load being bid on under different listings at the same time.
Misleading Titles - Shippers are not permitted to create titles for their listings that do not accurately describe the load up for bid.
Transactions and Offers Outside of Highway Direct - Offers to ship or pull listed loads outside of the Highway Direct site are not permitted. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both shippers and drivers and circumvent Highway Direct's fees.
Shipper Non-performance - When a shipper lists a load on Highway Direct, and a driver bids for and wins that load, the shipper and winning bidder have entered into a contract. Both members are expected to honor that contract. In accordance with that contract, the shipper may not:
Fail to deliver payment to the winning bidder for a load which was awarded
Significantly misrepresent a load by not meeting the terms and description outlined in the listing
Fail to give adequate notice about any material changes in the terms of the listing or load being pulled to the driver who was awarded that load.
Shill Bidding
Shill Bidding is bidding that artificially increases a load’s price or apparent desirability, or bidding by individuals with a level of access to the shipper’s load information not available to the general Community. Shill Bidding is prohibited on Highway Direct.
Highway Direct strongly encourages shippers with employees to ensure that their employees are aware of this policy and the possible consequences of violation.
If you believe that another member is artificially raising the price or desirability of a load by shill bidding please report it to Highway Direct through the Contact Us page. Please be sure to provide the user IDs and the load numbers in question.
The key issues determining Shill Bidding are manipulation of price or desirability, or bidding by individuals with a level of access to the shipper’s load information not available to the general Community. They are placed or caused to be placed by the shipper or bidders associated with the shipper. Shill Bidding is forbidden under the terms of the Highway Direct Rules for Bidders.
Shipper rules:
A shipper is not allowed to have more than one registered Highway Direct account.
Shippers cannot bid on their own listings.
Friends and people you know can bid on your load if they truly intend to pull your load. Bidding on your load for any other reason is forbidden.
If you bid on some of your own loads, but you did not know this was Shill Bidding, you are still responsible. Under the Highway Direct User Agreement – to which you agreed when you registered to join Highway Direct – you are responsible for understanding and complying with Highway Direct policies.
Offers to Buy or Sell Outside of Highway Direct
Offers to pull or ship listed loads outside of the Highway Direct site are not permitted. Offers of this nature are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and shippers and circumvent Highway Direct's fees.
Some examples of offers outside of the Highway Direct site include:
Using member contact information obtained from Highway Direct or using any Highway Direct system to offer to pull any listed loads outside of Highway Direct
Canceling a listing to award to a bidder who became aware of the load through Highway Direct
Ending a listing early to sell the load at a higher price to the winning bidder
It is acceptable for shippers to end a listing early in order to award a load at the current bid price to the high bidder. Bidders are permitted to contact shippers with requests to end a listing early and award at the current bid price; however, shippers are under no obligation to honor the request.
Misrepresentation of Identity
Highway Direct does not permit members to misrepresent themselves as Highway Direct employees or as other Highway Direct members.
Personal information - such as names, addresses, passwords, credit card numbers – are sensitive and valuable. Personal information can also be valuable to individuals trying to defraud Highway Direct members. To try to get this type of information from a Highway Direct member, one of these individuals might send a member an email claiming to be Highway Direct or another Highway Direct member and requesting personal information. These requests might say it is important for members to reply with sensitive information by email, or contain links to Web pages that request members to sign in and submit information.
Highway Direct will never ask a member to send Highway Direct sensitive information through email. If Highway Direct ever does request sensitive information, Highway Direct will always direct its members to the Highway Direct site. With very few exceptions, members can submit the requested information through the Contact Us page.
Shipper Non-Performance
When a shipper lists a load on Highway Direct, and a member bids for and wins that load, the shipper and winning bidder have entered into a contract. Both members are expected to honor that contract. In accordance with that contract, the shipper may not:
Fail to pay the greater of $40 or 2% of the awarded contract price to Highway Direct for every load that is won and confirmed.
Fail to deliver payment to the winning bidder for a load which was awarded as long as the driver is prepared to or does show up as agreed upon in the terms of the listing, whether the load is pulled or not.
Significantly misrepresent a load by not meeting the terms and description outlined in the listing.
Fail to give adequate notice about any material changes in the terms of the listing or load being pulled to the driver who was awarded that load.
Refuse to allow a driver to pull a load that (s)he has been awarded without paying the driver for the load as agreed upon in the listing.
Further, shippers are expected to perform in a manner that results in a consistently high level of member satisfaction. If a shipper's interactions with the Highway Direct community create unacceptable levels of member dissatisfaction, that shipper has violated this policy.
A member who believes that a shipper has not honored a contract should report that incident to us via the Contact Us page, and we will follow the Dispute Resolution Policy.
Bidding for Others
All loads that are won and confirmed must be pulled by the same individual company that was assigned the load. Highway Direct understands the need for dispatch, even in small trucking operations, and has no problem with an internal dispatch system inside your company. However, The MX# for the winning bidder and the driver’s MX# who picks up the load, must match.
Shippers are encouraged to note the MX# of the driver that picks up the load and question driver’s who arrive with a different MX# than the one provided by the winning bidder. If a genuine 3rd party is detected, please contact Highway Direct Immediately. You may refuse the load on grounds of Breach Of Contract. Highway Direct is not responsible for, and cannot be held liable for the actions or inactions of its members in regard to this policy. Please review the user agreement for further details.
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