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What to do when your Company is Accused of Theft?

It’s not a matter of “if” but “when” your company will be accused of theft by a shipper.

Sooner or later, at one point, your crew will be accused of stealing from a shipper, and what are you going to do that benefits you, your crews, and ultimately shipper.

These are turbulent waters to try and navigate on a whim. And you shouldn’t not even try if you don’t have a standard operating procedure in place.

Speaking from experience, it’s not going to end well for you or for your moving company…especially the shipper.

If you go half-cocked and start blasting back at the shipper and defending your crew without investigating the matter you’re going to create a backlash that will exist for a long time.

I know that’s the natural reaction. But it’s the wrong reaction.

You’re going to want to refute the accusation. But don’t. Stay level headed and don’t act like the overbearing parent who thinks that their kid does nothing wrong…

Because, believe it or not, some of you guys are going to be thieves. It’s an unfortunate fact of life, sadly.

And sometimes you’re going to be accused of theft when it’s unwarranted.

Again, don’t fly off the handle. Investigate the situation as if you are at fault and then when the accusations are proven false then you can handle the shipper in a polite and positive manner that doesn’t shame the shipper and still benefits you. 

This is going to require that you have maturity and professionalism because these accusations will test you as a business owner. Don’t fall prey to based emotion and human reaction. 

Have a documented Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and a checklist that you can and should send to the shipper.

And then once handled, however it’s handled, you have them sign a non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement. This prevents either of you from bad mouthing each other and/or creating a senseless flame war online over social media which will make you sound and look petty. Trust this: It’s not a war you’ll win, even if you do win.