What happens after you file

Claims are slow, and the waiting is the part nobody warns you about. Here is the whole path, so you know which stage you are in and who the claim is actually waiting on.

The stages a claim moves through

1. Submitted

   The claim exists and we are reviewing it. We check that everything the carrier will ask for is present before it goes anywhere, because an incomplete submission gets bounced and costs weeks.

2. Waiting on you

   Something is missing. Usually the commercial invoice, or a statement about whether the goods can be repaired. The claim does not move at all during this stage, so this is the one place where your speed directly changes the outcome date.

3. Waiting on the carrier

   The claim is filed and under review. This is the longest stage by far, and the one we spend the most effort on. We follow up on a schedule rather than waiting to be contacted.

4. Waiting on the insurer

   If the shipment was insured, a parallel claim is with the insurer, who has their own reviewers, their own document requirements, and their own timeline. A claim can be waiting on the carrier and the insurer at the same time.

5. Accepted, payment pending

   The claim has been agreed. What remains is the money reaching you, which needs your payment details. See Getting paid.

6. Paid

   The settlement has been sent to you and the claim closes.

Two other outcomes exist. A claim can be denied by the carrier, covered below. And a claim can be cancelled, which happens when the freight turns up after a loss claim, or when you decide not to pursue it.

How long it takes

Weeks to acknowledge, and often months to resolve. Plenty of claims settle a good deal faster, and during the wait the carrier may come back asking for more information, which is normal rather than a bad sign.

For freight moving between US states there are deadlines set in federal regulation. The carrier has 30 days from receiving your claim to acknowledge it, and 120 days to pay, decline, or make a settlement offer. If it is still open at 120 days, the carrier has to tell you the status of the claim and why it is still open, and keep doing that every 60 days until it closes.

Those deadlines do not cover freight moving entirely within Canada, which follows the carrier's own tariff instead. Ask us and we will tell you what the carrier on your shipment commits to. Either way, the deadlines are outer bounds rather than the expected duration.

What we do in the meantime is keep the claim moving: regular follow-ups with the carrier, and passing their questions to you quickly so a request for one document does not sit for a week. You do not need to chase the carrier yourself, and you should not need to chase us either. If a claim has gone quiet on you, ask.

If the claim is denied

A denial is not automatically the end. When a carrier denies a claim we look at the reason, and there are two roads from there.

• The denial is contestable. If the reason does not hold up, or new information answers it, we resubmit the claim with that information and the carrier reviews it again. A clear photograph, a repair statement, or a POD notation the carrier overlooked have all turned denials around.
• The denial holds. Sometimes the carrier is right, and the most useful thing we can do is explain exactly why rather than keep you waiting on a claim that will not settle. The most common reason is packaging that was not adequate for normal LTL handling, which is worth reading about in Packaging before the next shipment.

If you disagree with a decision, tell us. You are not arguing with us when you do that, and a challenge from you with something concrete behind it is exactly what we need to go back to the carrier.

While you wait

• Keep the freight and the packaging. Both the carrier and the insurer can ask to inspect, right up until the claim closes.
• Do not repair anything yet unless we have told you it is fine to go ahead.
• Keep your invoices for the shipment separate from the claim. An open claim does not pause what you owe on the shipment itself. If that is a problem for you, talk to us rather than letting an invoice go unpaid.