Hey Olivercookieman,
No, hot air is outside the parameter of what I would call acceptable freight. I was trying to make a point that sometimes human beings do have poor judgement, and most of the time when we do, there is some sort of price to pay. I refuse to attack Ollie, I will take on his issues, either for or against, but he is a friend of mine, has been for many years, so I refuse to make it a personal thing. I have talked about this subject with our President, and it remains a mystery as to how all this all came about. I feel there was some sort of influence outside of the association which came into play, just my opinion. But, somehow things got out of hand. Now, I have looked at these figures, and taking all things into consideration, what my analysis is, and you must understand hindsight is 20/20. First mistake was to not give a quote to the association for the haul bill, that way they could accept or reject it prior to the haul being made. Second, is trailer damage, it was preventable, driver error, mat or some other protective material should had been utilized. Third, driver pay, this is not a customary expense that is deferred to the shipper, the motor carrier pays this. I don&#039;t know for certain how grain haulers bill their customers, perhaps they do bill in this manner, it would not be the way machinery haulers bill, I know because I hauled machinery in the late 1980&#039;s, hauled heavy, over dimension stuff, and stretch loads, a real pain to say the least. 
But it is done, it is all over with, the bills have been paid. Let&#039;s see if this debacle can be prevented in the future. I will stick to my opinion that a motor carrier who specialized in this type of haul would be more cost effective. But really HPOCA didn&#039;t have any input, just pay the bills, and I am not comfortable with that.
You can make personal attacks on me if you wish, at least you are leaving someone else alone! I have big shoulders, I can take it. As for me, I will try to stick to the issues.