Kasey Butler

Review of Mulino Trading Group

Report of deceptive business practices, re-brokeri...

Report of deceptive business practices, re-brokering of freight and back solicitation:

In November of 2014 AllTran entered into a Broker Carrier Agreement with Mulino Trading Group, DBA MTG. My point of contact was Joe Herrera, who guaranteed me despite having a brokerage also he was only going to be using his own trucks through his Operating Authority. After execution of this agreement we contracted Mulino to haul five loads for our company. On the 5th load I found out from my customer that there was a different name on the side of the truck. Joe advised me that his truck had broken down so he sent a brokered truck instead of telling us there was a problem. This was not acceptable per our contract nor our business practices so we opted to discontinue using their company for lack of trust. At that time, we didn t look any further into the other four loads.

Recently we ve learned that Mulino, who as of this writing is still under contract with AllTran, has back solicited that customer and has been hauling for them for at least six months but possibly longer. Upon learning of this back solicitation, we pulled all the documents we had on file regarding Mulino and the loads they hauled for us to be reviewed. Upon review of all their old POD s we learned that every one of the loads they hauled for us was illegally double brokered. This can be proven by looking at the bottom right of the POD s they provided us, you can see the carriers name noted is not Mulino or MTG on any of the POD s. All carriers used maintain and operate under their own authority, not Mulino s. Our load sheet and their invoice clearly show we hired MTG for these shipments not the carriers shown on the POD s.

During our review process of these documents I was informed by a previous Mulino employee that they didn t actually own any full-size trucks or have any leased to them under Mulino s operating authority. He further explained they only have a smaller hotshot registered for the purpose of maintaining their carrier operating authority. I found it interesting upon reviewing their CSA, in almost 5 years of maintaining operating authority, they have never had an inspection. Combined with the information received from the past employee, our double brokering situation and the fact that they have never had a DOT inspection we feel it s safe to believe they are not using their carrier authority ethically.

This company is in violation of our Broker Carrier Agreement, on multiple levels, and has operated under the deceptive pretense of having their own trucks. We highly caution everyone from doing business with Mulino.