Withholding goods when customer dose not pay

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OWNER AND FLEET OPERATORS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I read somewhere that if a customer dose not pay you are entitled to withhold there ‘goods in transit’ for a while or until they pay
is this true and if so any info on it please

Thanks
B&D

2

You need a “lien” clause in your T&C’s which may also be in the RHA condition’s. This gives you the right to sell goods to recoup monies owed, but you also have to set out the process of informing them.
Rgds

Chris

3

so what your saying is that I need to inform them of this when making the job agreement

4

lien is a difficult one, maybe the bloke who gave you the job owes you money, but the load on the trailer is not his property to put a hold on.

If you are working direct for a manufacturer, that may make things easier

5

Forgot to add, it’s the absolute last resort as you probably won’t get anymore work from them, so it’s got to be a significant amount, but not be all of your work.

6

Wheel Nut:
If you are working direct for a manufacturer, that may make things easier

Even then you could be on a ‘sticky wicket’ because even if ‘he’ owes you £100,000 if you keep a traailer load of his goods, all he has to do is pay you in full for delivering the load your ‘holding’ and your ‘up the creek without a paddle’!!!

Be very carefull!

Ross.

7

bigr250:

Wheel Nut:
If you are working direct for a manufacturer, that may make things easier

Even then you could be on a ‘sticky wicket’ because even if ‘he’ owes you £100,000 if you keep a traailer load of his goods, all he has to do is pay you in full for delivering the load your ‘holding’ and your ‘up the creek without a paddle’!!!

Be very carefull!

Ross.

Thanks Ross. I remember it was a difficult thing to do, and you will never work for them again, in any capacity.

8

it’s in the RHA conditions of carriage.
so you can.
what you carrying? it’s got to be something that will make them panic.

you can’t be arrested for theft unless it’s your intention to permanently deprive. it’s a fine legal line like wheel clampers that tow your car. they are only holding it until you cough up.

9

It is a very sticky area, you can refuse to deliver the goods until you’re paid, no matter who they belong to. The contract that you have with the shipper is for you to move goods from point A to point B for an agreed sum of money, if you’re not being paid then you do not have to move the goods, however with credit terms of up to 90 days, you don’t have a leg to stand on because, unless you’re working C.O.D. the goods you will be holding do not have an overdue invoice outstanding :open_mouth:

If the company that you are moving the goods for is the owner of said goods, then you can hold them, no matter what the credit terms are, they owe you money, you have seized goods from them and will release them on full payment of any overdue invoices. In that case you can hold the goods until all outstanding invoices are paid, but you will still be owed anything that is not due for payment and you cannot force an early payment to settle the account in full, that is classed as extortion and you will be in the ■■■ if you try to do that :unamused:

In the real world however, things are often different, if you hold a lien on a load, chances are you’ll get your money, just so they can get rid of you and move on to the next victim, some they win, some they lose, serial knockers are used to that, the squeaky wheels get greased, the ones that keep quiet do not :open_mouth:

I had a load of grief getting money out of an Austrian firm, the loads were paper out of Belgium, the Austrians didn’t want to ship lorries over here and run back to mainland Europe empty, so they tipped them in Belgium and we loaded them and brought them over, it was pretty good rates and there was enough money in it to send empty trailers out unaccompanied and base a unit in Zeebrugge to shuttle them back and forth, it turned out that the almost too good to be true rates were too good to be true, because no cheques were arriving, after a few phone calls chasing money, they suddenly had no work :unamused:

Then I had an idea, we left it a while, then phoned the company asking if they had any work, they said they did and gave out all the spiel, so I got a couple of TIP rental trailers, put moody trailer numbers on them and shipped them over to Zeebrugge (on their account) they loaded them and shipped them back in, once those trailers were back in the yard, I phoned up the man in Austria and told him who I was and that his trailers were going nowhere until a bank transfer was made for every penny they owed (everything was overdue by now) the expected shouting and hollering down the phone followed and threats were made :unamused:

So I phoned the paper company direct, explained the situation to them, they paid in full, including the storage charges on the seized loads :sunglasses: from then on they shipped as far as Belgium, then contracted us to move the loads from Belgium to delivery in the UK and paid on time, every time :wink:

10

limeyphil:
it’s in the RHA conditions of carriage.
so you can.
what you carrying? it’s got to be something that will make them panic.

you can’t be arrested for theft unless it’s your intention to permanently deprive. it’s a fine legal line like wheel clampers that tow your car. they are only holding it until you cough up.

what dose RHA stand for?

11

Boss & Driver:
what dose RHA stand for?

The RHA stands for SFA mate, always been the same, they just spout a lot of hot air :laughing:

Oh you mean what do the letters R H and A stand for :open_mouth: To answer that, it is the Road Haulage Association, I am very tempted to go off on one about the fact that you are unaware of that, but I won’t, although it ‘dose’ qualify as one of the more stupid questions asked on this forum :wink:

12

Be fair you get some nice stickers to put on your lorry.

13

14

Boss & Driver:

limeyphil:
it’s in the RHA conditions of carriage.
so you can.
what you carrying? it’s got to be something that will make them panic.

you can’t be arrested for theft unless it’s your intention to permanently deprive. it’s a fine legal line like wheel clampers that tow your car. they are only holding it until you cough up.

what dose RHA stand for?

something similar to FTA, Sweet FA, or something like that anyway. :smiley:

15

Road haulage association :sunglasses:8-):(:sunglasses:

16

so where do I sing up :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

17

Boss & Driver:
so where do I sing up :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

PM me and I will give you my address, send a signed blank cheque, I’ll take care of the rest for you :wink:

18

Boss & Driver:
so where do I sing up :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Try the x factor if you want to sing lol