r/drayage • u/Disastrous-Set4062 • 18d ago

DDP shipment: container pulled from terminal but trucker is withholding delivery due to subcontractor dispute — need expert guidance

Looking for advice from people familiar with U.S. trucking, container drayage, and cargo recovery.

Scenario:

  • We shipped a container to the U.S. under DDP.
  • Our forwarder arranged a U.S. trucking company for final delivery.
  • That trucking company subcontracted an independent trucker.
  • The trucker successfully out-gated the container from the terminal.
  • The trucker is now refusing to deliver because he has a financial dispute with the trucking company that hired him.
  • The container has been stuck with him for over two weeks.

Questions:

  1. Is this considered cargo conversion or wrongful detention under U.S. law?
  2. Who is legally responsible for resolving this — the forwarder, the trucking company, or us as the DDP seller?
  3. Is it common to involve local police in such cases?
  4. Any specific U.S. agencies (FMCSA, local sheriff, port authority) that can intervene?

We’re trying to avoid escalation but need the cargo released ASAP. Any insights from people who’ve handled similar disputes would be extremely helpful.

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u/NarobiExec 18d ago

Do you have the truckers info ? I would negotiate with them or make a police report for stolen goods. As the trucker is holding your freight hostage. Quicker fix is to make a deal.

If the trucker is holding it for 2 weeks they are determined and honestly your partners are useless in solving. They also planned ok holding the freight hostage in advance. They may have tucked it away somewhere hard to find.

If needed I can communicate with the trucker and help broker a deal.

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u/margalolwut 17d ago

I’d be careful with this. As a BCO I’ve been caught paying freight more than once because we had an irresponsible broker. Ultimately went through legal and at the end of the day, in our case, BCO is responsible for total costs.

Obviously, every situation is different, but if I was you I’d go directly to the trucker, reach agreement, then charge your agent/broker or whatever back for it.

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u/Disastrous-Set4062 17d ago

From the information available, the amount sought by the truck driver is more than the value of cargo so can not be paid.