Delivering to Costco/Warehouse clubs

Costco I assume operates like Sams Club and has distribution/consolidation centers scattered around the country. Carriers haul the product from the manufacturer to the warehouse, but outside carriers are also typically contracted to haul (using Walmart/Costco trailers) from the DC to the stores. Sometimes they live unload, sometimes they drop the loaded and grab and empty then back to the DC or back onto their normal truckload operation with their carrier depending on the setup for that particular store/dc. You're seeing "Costco" trailers but Costco doesn't have any power equipment/drivers that I'm aware of. Other carriers contract their equipment and drivers to haul from DC to store. The drivers you see waiting are either taking their 10 hour mandatory break or are waiting for a dispatch to carry on with whatever else they may haul.

The DC will load either a costco/walmart trailer or an outside carrier's trailer, depending on the contract setup for a given store.

 

most of the manufactured goods are held at satellite warehouses because of the volume of products that are made on a daily basis

the distance from warehouse to costco or sams club varies depending on what the store orders and where the product is made

after delivery some allow you to park on the property and some require you to leave immediately after delivery. If a truck is equipped with a satellite gps system your next load is ready depending on what your eta is set at.

hope this answers your questions

 

Some loads come directly from the Manufacturer to Costco's Stores (Clubs or Warehouses)
I delivered some Diapers to Costco's once had like 4 or 5 stops.

But they also have a lot of Loads they get from DCs.

 

I drove for Gordon for a little over a year, and many of my loads were to and from Costco DCs and warehouses.

One of my common runs was from the Tracy DC to a warehouse somewhere like Redding, Reno or Carson City. These were pre-loaded, usually Costco-leased, spread-axle, rollup-door trailers. They were always fully loaded with a wide variety of products for that one particular warehouse. Gross weights on these runs were usually 79,999 pounds -- I'm exaggerating, but not by much. I had to be extremely careful about fueling when I knew I had a Costco run to make. These runs were always timed to arrive around closing time. The receiving dept. was closed, so I'd back into an empty door with the trailer door down and still sealed. Then, I'd pick up a Costco empty from there. If I had the hours, I'd drop the empty back at Tracy, and park for the night at our Lathrop terminal. If I didn't have the hours, I'd park at that Costco, usually in the back lot somewhere. Then return the empty the next day.

Another type of Costco run was early morning live unloads at various warehouses, usually 5 am to 8 am. The pickup would be at any number of various manufacturers, like GP for example -- Costco sells an unbelievable amount of toilet paper every day. I usually tried to plan these runs so I could arrive at the Costco in the evening, park there, eat my Polish and drink a latte mocha brain freeze, take my 10, then make my delivery in the morning without having to go on the clock until I was ready to leave after the unload.

A final type of Costco run was picking up from just about anywhere and delivering to one of the DCs, quite often the Tracy DC. These loads would deliver there early in the morning, say around 7 am. I'd join seemingly hundreds of other trucks that were scheduled for early delivery there. The Costco DC was extremely efficient at getting us checked in at the scheduled time, and sending us to the staging for our door. As soon as the truck that was already in the door pulled out, we'd back in and were almost always immediately unloaded. They used pagers that buzzed us. Theirs was one of the most efficient operations I experienced in my short time of driving.

To answer the question about parking for the night at Costco: I can remember only a couple of Costco warehouses in the 7 Western that did not allow parking. One notable one was the San Francisco Costco just off the Bay Bridge (IIRC) that was all indoors, including parking. No room to park there for sure.

Hope this helps.

Dave

 

My Costco 'experience' was just like GHDave's, also for Gordon, despite that I drove out of Gordon's Indy terminal. While out West, I picked up a two-drop (2 deliveries) load of GP (Georgia Paciic) toilet paper off the Clackamas yard.

So another driver had picked up the load at GP and likely the delivery window was such that it made sense to have him drop it and either proceed to another pick up or deliver a different load sitting on the Clackamas yard that was 'hotter'. With 2000 trucks to keep moving each day, there is a certain amount of daily 'triage' involved in all that 2000-truck logistics.

Imagine moving 2000 trucks 24/7!!!

I had a truck that was being 'retired' and had developed a serious oil leak, losing about a gallon every 60-80 miles until I had a TA (Travel America) shop slather some PermaTex around the fitting. This was at night; I had a couple hundred miles to go to make my 5 am delivery; the PermaTex did the trick. It slowed the leak down so I could make my delivery on time.

On unloading, we found that one skid had some damage that took place on loading, where a forklift had torn open some wrapping. After taking pictures with my iPad and notifying the appropriate folks in the OSD (Over, Short & Damaged) department, I took the toilet paper with me in the cab. I turned most of it in to the mother ship, Pacific, Gordon's headquarters where there is a small building for Gordon's OSD--but the OSD guy threw a bunch of loose rolls into the dumpster. With Gordon permission, I retrieved those and had all that toilet paper with me--just in case!

It did not, however, make sense to risk pulling a second time-sensitive load while I still had a substantial leak and could be OOS (pulled Out Of Service) if stopped and inspected. So Gordon routed another driver to that Costco. He dropped his MT (empty) trailer; I dropped mine with one remaining Costco delivery on it. We switched. He departed for the remaining delivery and I departed for Gordon's Lathrop terminal.

 

Anybody know the receiving hours??????

 

In Montgomery AL at the actual store receiving is M-F 6a-12p