Breaking down a load.

yup--when you check in--they will provide you with a list of items--and the ti/hi they need to be item by item

 

They will give to a "tie and high" sheet.. this if you've never done it will be a bit frustrating and unless you have a good attitude, could be hell on earth. You are doing the warehouse's work. They boast about how great these union outfits are, but most of the real work done is by carriers or lumpers hired by carriers.

You will get in a door, go to a window and receive your tie and high sheet and normally a big stack of stickers with barcodes or something like that. You use the tie and high sheets to determine how to break down the load that is currently on your trailer. The more items, the worse it gets, Candy and babyfood is the worst!! Heavy products are no fun either.

The "Tie" is how many of each product is in one stack or layer.. the "high" is now many stacks or layers you place on the pallet. I am hoping that most of these places have gotten rid of the smaller pallets. sometimes you would have to move an entire pallet of product from large (normal sized) pallets and onto smaller "grocery pallets".

Gotta pay attention and get the right products to the correct tie and high or they will not count in or "check" the load. If its busy or you have a lazy checker (common), you could be there for a long time WAITING on the checker to check and the forklift driver to move pallets out of your "lane". You normally have a couple of lanes to work the freight.

Some places will NOT drive into your trailer with a forklift and you will be required to get the pallets out of your trailer and onto the dock using a hand pallet jack. They used to allow the use of powered / electric pallet jack, but the drivers obviously kept running themselves or other people over with them and a lot of places have gotten rid of those also.

Good luck.. try to have fun with it... its not the end of the world. It was my life for probably the first 5 years I drove a truck.. CDL stood for "combination driver / lumper..

 

Wisdom if I've ever read it! My first load breakdown was also at a Sysco.... OMG. Talk about the deer in the headlights feeling. No explanation of the breakdown process and a pissy attitude from the employees when I asked. Luckily I had an old timer in the next door who helped me out. While I was waiting for the checker I helped him with his load and got him done before my checker arrived.

 

What do you mean? Box by box? Of are they letting you use a pallet jack? What's going on here?

 

Sysco does have a lumper company, but I don't know what they cost. I deliver there for DOT foods and for us that facility is STC. The lumpers unload and count after I leave per agreement between the companies. Most Sysco's only give the driver 2 hours to get the work done, so they hire the lumpers. You can park right in the driveway there if you are looking for a place for your 10. The lumpers will come wake you up and assign you a door.

 

I run local p/d and ive only had to do something similar once, i had to sort and segregate each individual product, basically turned 3 pallets into 8

 

The receiver usually puts the stickers on the pallets as he counts them. You just bring the stickers to the door with you along with the breakdown sheet. Just ask one of the other drivers there if you have a question.