SuperValu, Denver PA

Since starting OTR last November, this past week I experienced what is by far my worst receiver.

I pulled into the gate exactly on time for a 9am appointment. I've had one or two places before where first you check in at the gate, then you check in again at the warehouse after you have docked. No big deal, it only takes a few minutes. At this location, you go to the gate... oh wait, don't pull up to the gate. You have to park in the designated area before the gate, and walk over 100 yards (depending on how close of a spot you found) to the booth. There you get a gate pass and go back to your truck to wait for a phone call. It took them half an hour to call me. After I got my dock number, I drove around to the back of the warehouse and bumped the dock.

I went inside to check in. The person behind the sliding glass window saw me and motioned me to wait. He was still finishing the paperwork from the previous driver. It took him about 10 minutes between shuffling papers in his hand and typing at his computer to accomplish this. Finally he slides open the window and takes my paperwork. Another 10 minutes of typing at his computer. He asks me if I want to hire a lumper. I told him I could do it myself. "Oh", he says, looking a little surprised. He talks a bit with another person in the office. Finally someone tells me to walk around the corner and look for a hand jack. I do but they are all chained and locked. Finally someone unlocks one and escorts me to my dock. On the way, he says

"You are familiar with the height sheets, right?", showing me the papers in his hand.

"What?"

"The height sheets. They tell you how many rows we want on the pallets".

"You mean I have to restack the pallets?"

"Yes"

Apparently in this place, if the pallets weren't stacked a certain way when they were loaded, you have to transfer some rows between pallets (or possibly restack the whole thing). The sheets tell you how many boxes per row and how many rows on each pallet. Basically, they want to discourage you from doing your own lumping.

At this point, I knew I might have to hire a lumper after all. My dispatcher probably wanted me out of there fast. It would take me an extra hour just looking for the right numbers on the boxes. I had 25 pallets on the truck and I could see I potentially had to go through every box on them. I call my dispatcher and we agree that I would get a quote.

I go back to the office, where one of the windows was the lumper service. As soon as he sees me, without sliding his window open, he points me back to the window where I checked in. They directed me back to the lumper. He slides open his window. I ask him, "How much would it be to unload my truck". He simply says "Do you want it unloaded or not?" "I don't know" I said. To make a long story short, be basically seemed offended that I would dare talk to him without shoving money in his face. He finally looks at my height sheets and tells me that it would be $172 just to drag the pallets out of the truck, and $6 for every pallet that had to be restacked.

After calling my dispatcher again we agree to go ahead with this. Payment would be made by EFS. After almost an hour they had unloaded me and I get a text saying the price would be $218. I go back inside the warehouse. The person in the office takes my EFS and directs me to yet another area of the warehouse where the lumper service has a desk. The lady there gives me the receipt. Does she give me my bills? No. Do I go back to the office for the bills? No.They tell me to go back to my truck, wait for the green light, and then come in for my bills. It took over an hour of me sitting in the front seat of my truck so I could watch the light until it finally turned green. Basically, I was waiting for them to do all the restacking and they already knew how much it was going to be.

I go back inside, and wait another 20 minutes for the person typing at his computer to finally finish up. He would periodically give me a paper I had to sign. After about 5 of these I was done.

When I drove out of the gate, it was 4 hours after I arrived. The check in time they had written on the gate pass was 37 minutes after I arrived, and the check out time was 15 minutes before I left (thanks to the computer guy). Just wanted to mention this in case some people want to accurately track there hours there.

Like I mentioned, I have only been over the road a few months, and this was the only place that really annoyed me in any way. I think if this only happens a few times a year, I can live with it. But I would rather never return to this place.