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Unhappy with ABF Freight (Old Thread)

Ken Martin

Well Known Member
So my RV-7 fuselage kit was shipped out last week from Vans on its way to the north side of Charlotte via ABF Freight. Considering the distance to be covered and the crazy winter we've been having, I monitored the shipment progress via their website and called the customer care once when the kit was shipped and once yesterday. Through the past 8 days progress has been steady and without delay--much to my surprise.

So the kit arrives into Atlanta last night and as of late this afternoon the delivery date was scheduled for tomorrow. Before leaving work I coordinated to be available tomorrow so I could meet the delivery driver and pushed out a business trip for Monday. When I get home I re-check the website just for good measure. I'm glad I did! My kit sat in Atlanta for over 24hrs without moving!

I called customer care to see what happened and all they could tell me was, "Sorry about the inconvenience but we don't guarantee delivery times." Yah, nice tag line. Try using that in your marketing and see how much business goes to your competitors. That frustrated me a bit but what really set me off is they said they could guarantee getting the shipment to me on the original delivery date of tomorrow, "IF" I would be willing to pay a 30% premium!!?? Are you serious??!! If you had uncontrollable logistical delays that caused my shipment to be delayed, how does a 30% premium fix that? (Rhetorical of course)

So next Monday I'll be away on business but the positive to all this is that they won't charge me storage fees for holding on to my kit until I get back. I thought that was awfully BIG of them. NEVER again will my stuff be shipped by ABF. I plan to call Vans Monday and let them know all future kits shipped to me must go through a different carrier.

Ok, I'm done venting. :rolleyes:
 
Not a frequent poster but thought I had something valuable to contribute. My fuse delivery, by this carrier, had two fork holes penetrated through the end of the large fuse crate. Had to disassemble the crate before I could accept.
 
All of my kits were delivered by FedEx Freight here on the west coast, so no ABF experience. The guys from FedEx were great and they always showed up on time and with a lift gate and pallet jack to help move it into the garage.
 
I am probably in the minority. Had excellent experience with above mentioned company. They even loaded lighter truck to clear the wires and make tight turns on narrow streets in my area. Didn't have a ramp but driver was a tremendous help unloading heavy crates. Just a one man good experience. Did I mention tips? :)
 
shipping

My wing and fuse crates were not shipped ABF but I insisted on customer pickup to reduce the possibility of damage and coordination on the last mile. It was worth the Uhaul for the peace of mind.
 
Finish kit

I had my fuse kit shipped ABF,took forever cost over $700 and I had to go pick it up. Five years later my Finish kit(much larger box) got air freight for 1/2 the cost,Shipped from Vans on Wednesday,delivered to my driveway on a Monday night,Driver told me it was in the warehouse on Thursday,just took that long to get it out.Some outfit I never heard of,Barbra at vans found them,called me up and said give me your card right now,I've got you a great price. My 12 kit will come either air or Partain. never say never but I'd rather not use ABF.
RHill
 
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Not a frequent poster but thought I had something valuable to contribute. My fuse delivery, by this carrier, had two fork holes penetrated through the end of the large fuse crate. Had to disassemble the crate before I could accept.

+1 sort of - my fuselage crate had a couple of cave-ins about where you'd use your knee to get it moving. By luck of the draw, they did it to the end least vulnerable - but there's no option but to make the driver wait while you open things up to check. All the other shipments were fine with ABF.

Dan
 
Luck of the draw...

I've always been very happy with the efficient and helpful delivery of kits and machinery by ABF.
On the other hand, BAX/Global/DBSchenker put forkholes through the box with my canopy.:eek: Just missed destroying it.
BAX also charged me the $85 home delivery fee even though I picked up the box at their warehouse!
 
Not a frequent poster but thought I had something valuable to contribute. My fuse delivery, by this carrier, had two fork holes penetrated through the end of the large fuse crate. Had to disassemble the crate before I could accept.

We must have had the same off-loading Bozo - but he was still in training when he off loaded mine - I only got one fork lift hole through it.

Tony Partain is the only shipper I used who delivered on-time, for the agreed upon price, and without damage.
 
PARTAIN!!!!!

Partain has trucks and drivers who will deliver kits and quick builds door to door from Van's to your house. They might not be a quick as the major carriers but they know how to take care of your goods. No punched, tumbled or twisted boxes. I am a very satisfied customer.

The driver will call you a day ahead and give you a two hour window of delivery or you and he can make other arrangements for notification. The delivery time and date will be as promised. You will have the cell phone number of the driver from the time that he leaves Van's and you can call him at any time.

Given the number of 'punched boxes' that are reported on the VAF, I am pretty sure that the major shipping don't fire employees who damage the goods with fork lifts, etc. Aren't fork lift operators a dime a dozen??? And it seems that the majors don't really care if your goods are delivered on time.

I notified Van's that I wanted Partain to ship my orders when I placed them - then called Partain in order to make them aware of my shipment (details, etc.) and followed up with a call to Van's before they sent off my shipments. I have no interest in Partain - only a very satisfied customer.
 
ABF woes

ABF delivered my-12 wing kit about a month ago. Crates looked OK with no obvious damage so nothing was noted on the bill of lading. When I unpacked I found a 2" long gash in the right spar assembly with a 1" square chunk removed. A fork penetrated the crate and caused the damage. The hole was next to a banding strap and had closed back up. ABF is unwilling to pay my claim because it was not noted at delivery. ALWAYS carefully inspect your crates!!!!!!!! I will never accept a shipment without some kind of damage again.
 
Wrap your mind around this;
Ordered my fuse kit to be delivered to my industrial zone based business. Vans rep gave me 3 carrier quotes of between $600 -$690 (about). Suggested I pay freight COD so Vans didn't need to mark it up, I suppose. The kit was at the terminal on a Friday. Wasn't due to be at my location until following Tuesday. I decided to make the 45 minute drive and pick it up at the terminal. Vans called the carrier and advised them the customer was to pick up. ABF terminal called to verify and reminded me it was COD. NO problem, until they told me it was $4,000. Thats not a misprint, FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! I'm in Northern Califonia! 400 miles from Vans!
A tense conversation with the terminal clerk basicly said "Too bad, thats the freight charge"
Needless to say I called Vans for help. Barbara worked it out for the original quote. ABF released the kit and all is well.

Moral of the story? Not sure except get everything in writing. If it wasn't for Barbara I would have sent the kit back and probably just bought and old Cessna or something.

Footnote; The ABF dock guys were great. Worked the crate onto my trailer just perfect. Very professional.
 
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ABF

Surprised to hear the negative comments about ABF because in west Texas they have a pretty decent record with RVers. They have a pretty good tracking system as well.

It seems each region of the country has its bad offenders. I have taken delivery of large freight items from quite a few vendors over the years and most are pretty good. Here FedEX and ABF are better. Try shipping with some of the other vendors (Roadway, etc) and see how much you get gouged. For smaller items, nobody beats FedEx. Its why companies use them the most for critical stuff.

The worst here by far is UPS. They have beaten the crapola out of so many expensive packages shipped to me, I refuse to use them. The last big item I got through them was a prop and the cardboard package was simply a decoration by the time the prop got here and it was in a factory Sensenich box. It had obviously been seriously thrown around.

Suggestions based on my experience. Have it shipped COD. Pick up the item at the dock. Its sometimes a lot cheaper and usually you get help. Biggest plus is that you can inspect the crate at the dock and not take delivery if it is damaged. There is no question as to where it got damaged. Once its delivered you have no leverage (pun intended).

Also the last hundred miles in a cross country ship is the most difficult to predict time wise, so establish some communication with the dock facility to ensure its there before you go.

My order of preference heavy freight items or crates, Partain, Fed EX, ABF.
Dave A
 
Partain

I used Partain for my wing kit and plan to use Partain for my fuselage and finishing kits.
 
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Conway

Very hard to beat the Partain experience, but an option Barbara offered me for the fuse kit was Conway Freight. In my case, very competitive pricing, excellent tracking, accommodating support staff, and a very careful delivery driver. Like Partain, the drop off was coordinated, on time, and damage free. I would do it again for my finish kit when the time comes.
 
ABF stinks. I will never use them for anything again.

My story is in the archives somewhere.

Used Partain for my finish kit and was happy as a clam.
 
I have shipped lots of stuff over the Atlantic, including 2 complete kits. My experience is that freight companies are like insurance companies or banks - there is very little correlation between the service you actually get and the service they advertise. Thus the cheapest available is often the best, both in terms of certainty of the delivery and the speed of delivery, simply because the cheaper ones compete harder than the big and top heavy ones (no general rule of course).

Another thing is packaging. ACS packs OK, but sloppy which may cause damage from time to time. Aircraft Tool Supply is top of the line, they understand everything about international shipping, and their packing is always impeccable (compact yet indestructible). The same goes for Vans and Sonex. The packaging from Sonex is a work of art which pays in terms of no damaged parts. Vans is put as much as possible in a box with some news paper.

For big parts, the cheapest available or DB-Schenker. DB-Schenker simply because they know how to deliver locally around here. For smaller deliveries I now use ordinary postal services. FedEx, UPS etc is only a waste of time and money.
 
Some outfit I never heard of,Barbra at vans found them,called me up and said give me your card right now,I've got you a great price. My 12 kit will come either air or Partain. never say never but I'd rather not use ABF.
RHill

Barbara and Ann are great to work with. I highly recommend giving one of them a call when you order a kit. They know the various quirks with the freight companies in the different regions and the variations in cost.

My last couple kits came from a company that I never heard of before and have promptly forgotten their name. But they delivered as promised at a cost less than ABF or Fedex. (Update: after reading the entire thread, it was DB-Schenker that Barbara recommended and I used for the last two kits I received.)

I also used Partain once. In my opinion, the hassle of dealing with Tony isn't worth it unless you are shipping a quick built. The driver did a great job. I won't elaborate in a public forum other than to say, I took my business elsewhare.
 
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ABF Los Angles to Pittsburgh

I used ABF U-Pack to move everything I own from Southern California to Southwestern Pennsylvania. (Except for car, truck, and airplane.) A little over 25% of the shipment was airplane "stuff."

Had an EXCELLENT experience and would highly recommend them.
 
ABF Rocks

All my kits -- wing, fuse, finish -- came via ABF. I had no complaints and would use them again. I thought the freight charges were very reasonable. I am reminded of the pleasant memories of the exciting moments receiving my big plywood Vans kit boxes every time I see an ABF truck on the road.
 
ABF worked well for me.

Shipped fuse and finish kit with them and both times driver helped to carefully unload and move crates into my garage. Would use them again.
 
My wing kit was delivered to Burlington, NC by Conway. I was very pleased. The driver was on time and helped me unload the crates, get them onto moving dollies and push them into the hanger. When I offered him a "tip" once finished he refused and thanked me for the business.

Doesn't get much better than that!!
 
For me the physical delivery itself was fine, the problem was the price. I called the ABF office to find how much the COD was, and left a check at the University plant services loading dock where I teach. It was delivered, and a few days later I got a bill for another $160 saying the price I was quoted did not include the university delivery surcharge, I protested, but when they threatened legal action I paid as it was not worth the fight.
 
My wife does all the shipping for the company business. We do full trucks not just piece and containers worldwide. the truth is all the big name trucking companies are all the same. They all damage shipments, change quoted prices, screw up deliveries, and generally do a poor job. You cant win. Now we do not use partain, as they are a more specialized carrier, but I have heard nothing but good things about their service.

bob burns
N82RB RV-4
 
ODFL

Old Dominion Freight Lines has been great and Van's seems to be using them more and more due to fewer damage claims. They also have lift-gates on their smaller trucks used for home deliveries. Big advantage with OD is they have GUARANTEED delivery days/times. They are likely not the least expensive, but as many mentioned here, you get what you pay for.
 
No Problems with ABF, Watertown, NY

Sorry to hear about your problems with ABF freight. I received my RV-9A wing kit and fuselage from ABF in Watertown, New York. The shipment was reasonably priced, on time and no damage. The ABF people in Watertown were very helpful and were amused that so many Canadians were picking up RV kits from them. Watertown is only 40 miles from the Canadian border.

When it came time to order the finish kit, I asked Ann at Van's to send it via ABF. She said she could save me $400 if I would drive 1 hour further south and pick it up from DB Schenker in Syracuse. No problems with DB Schenker either.

Like others have said, let Ann or Barbara at Van's give you your best options. They really know the shipping business.
 
Ok, in all fairness to ABF I need to follow up on my comments now that I have received my fuselage kit.

First off, the driver was super nice and helpful. Couldn't have asked for anything more. The crate was in perfect shape and NO damage. That's the positive of the experience and what ultimately counts. :)

I did get a delivery window of 10am-2pm and the driver didn't arrive until 2:45pm. I didn't say anything to him as I know he was super busy and doing the best he could with traffic and everything. I'm thankful the crate finally arrived and in perfect shape but I do wish ABF would change their policy with scheduling and not make customers feel like they should be happy they are doing us this favor. That's just not good business.
 
No prob...

I went down to Tonawanda, New York last Friday and went to the ABF terminal to pick up my finish kit for the -8.

The gent there was super accommodating, grabbed the forklift, picked up my kit and brought it to my vehicle.

The crate would have fit into my van without a problem, but, I thought it would be easier to just unload the goods and leave the crate behind. ABF was more than happy to take my crate, gave me some tools and away I went.

Twenty minutes later I was northbound back across the border where the very nasty mid-life crisis CBSA agent was waiting to give me the gears...she was a piece of work! It pays to cross the border when it's busy and not when you're the only vehicle crossing!

I was quite happy with ABF, and this was the second time they have been used to ship my stuff.

For what it's worth!

Cheers,


Don
 
Phoenix to Houston

Sorry to hear of your trouble. But I just shipped an engine a week ago with ABF and I give them an A+. Very friendly on the phone coordinating, good price (IMO), very flexible (on the receiving end when I changed pickup options), and very friendly staff at the Houston terminal.
 
Worked well for me too

Just received my RV-14A kit via ABF and it arrived in perfect shape. Driver was extremely friendly and helpful. Wing spar crate separated a bit at one of the ends but that didn't appear to be from abuse. I opened it up and all was well.
 
Conway forked a hole in my finish kit box, and broke the tube with the longeron angles. They only wanted to reemburse me by the pound! are you kidding me, expensive alluminum airplane parts? in the end Barbra helped me recover funds for the damage.
 
Just received my RV-14A kit via ABF and it arrived in perfect shape. Driver was extremely friendly and helpful. Wing spar crate separated a bit at one of the ends but that didn't appear to be from abuse. I opened it up and all was well.

I'm also quite happy with their services. Timely and safe freight transportation.
________________________________
Alexandra from Cargolution
 
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I think ABF freight contacts out to other smaller contractors, not unlike Fedex. The condition of your freight is determined by the random contractors that were hired to deliver your particular crate. My wing crate was punched by the fork truck by someone working for the ABF freight. The ABF contractor driver was thinking he could drop the wing crate from the 4 ft truck bed because he was running behind schedule. Luckily nothing else was damaged

The other crates for the fuselage, finishing kit were delivered by different freight company contractors. Their delivery guys were more careful even though there were a few warehouse rashes.
 
you guys realize this thread is 8 years old?

I suppose it was worth refreshing as Van still uses them today.

It is probably more interesting now than ever, given our post-PLANdemic situation!

Van just sent me a crate full of stuff through ABF and I am planning on updating this thread when it arrives.

:) John
 
fair enough, but I really think it's just luck of the draw.

Old Dominion gets a bad rap on here quite a bit, but they delivered my fuselage kit no problem. On the other hand, Fed Ex delivered my finish kit and that crate looked like it had been pushed off a cliff.
 
We do ship with ABF as well as a couple other carriers. Our overall experience with ABF has been quite good as far as customer service goes, and importantly if there is an issue they are quick and responsive on claims and communications with us.

There is no perfect trucking company, but overall ABF is on our top list of companies to get crates there, deliver undamaged, and deal with any damage situations when they do arise. Using cut-rate shipping companies might be cheaper up front, but the overall costs of the much-more-significant damage claims, the difficulty getting those claims addressed, shipping replacement parts (which are in short supply these days and just costs more money) etc. makes using the "cheapo" shipping companies more expensive, in the end.

Abd yes, this is an old thread. :) Performance of all of the shipping companies back in 2014 is not too relevant today. So please check the dates on the posts for context.
 
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Got my -8 finishing kit last week, shipped via ABF. Crate arrived in perfect shape, along with no damage to the parts inside.

I ship a lot of crates, and have become used to seeing corners broken off, scars, fork punctures, etc. So, it was surprising to see a crate shipped as far as it was with no damage.
 
Here is the update to my previous reply...

No news is good news. Utterly boring, really.

The shipment was perfect in every way from crate manufacturing through inventory and transportation.

No squawks and no troubles.

Van and ABF provided a flawless product, I am happy to report!

:) John
 
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