CONSUMER PROTECTION
theadvocate
Ship Happens
By Caroline Ajootian
Finding a transporter online may seem like a great way to save money, but buyers beware
Using an online transport broker to arrange an overland boat move back- fired on a number of consumers including the owner of this catamaran.
PHOTO BY MARSHALL AYKROYD
erious complaints about several
boat-shipping companies that
transport boats overland have
been reported to the BoatU.S.
Consumer Protection Bureau
(see the accompanying sidebar). These
complaints share a common thread:
Each of the consumers used the online
transportation services clearinghouse,
uShip.com, to locate the companies
hired to move their boats. The consumers contacted BoatU.S. last fall, after
reading an article in BoatU.S. Magazine
(September 2009) describing how
uShip.com, which is an auction-style
web site where consumers wishing to
move boats, households goods, cars,
and even pets and livestock get bids
from a broad spectrum of transportation service providers (TSPs). They
wanted to warn their fellow BoatU.S.
S
members that, although uShip.com’s
service is a convenient way to find
transport companies, gaps in the site’s
system leave consumers vulnerable.
For example, the consumers learned
after the fact that it is not uShip’s policy
to verify or validate the claims about
experience, insurance coverage and
licensure made by trucking compan-
nies. uShip does point this out in their
“uShip User Agreement,” but the con-
sumers with whom we spoke felt this
wasn’t emphasized enough. Commercial
carriers must meet state and federal
guidelines for personal, property, and
cargo insurance and apply for operating
authority, the trucking equivalent of a
business license. The consumers com-
plain that uShip did little to assist when
they had problems with the companies
they found through the web site. They
also state that the negative comments
they posted on the site were delet-
ed from the companies’ listing pages,
which uShip personnel deny.
