It's like that in local shipping, too. Customers need shit shipped, and they need it NOW, and big rainmaker accounts will absolutely get the red carpet treatmen

It's like that in local shipping, too. Customers need shit shipped, and they need it NOW, and big rainmaker accounts will absolutely get the red carpet treatment. Shipping firm account reps are middlemen in this arrangement, and work on commission, so are strongly incentivized to do whatever it takes to make their big customers happy. If your customer who is responsible for $200,000/year of your take-home commission is screaming at you, and you could get them what they want with a bribe to the trucking company's rep, you have a pretty strong incentive to pay it. Which is why prosecuting people for corruption is important. Everyone would be doing it, otherwise.