The day to day ramblings of the LTL business.

Yeah... again, residential deliveries have a ton of asterisks attached to them. You never know what to expect since it is usually a one time deal and the setting is B2C and not B2B. You step foot on their private property and they feel that they can talk to you however they want to and make whatever requests.

Fine line between reasonable accommodation and "this crap could get me canned". My coworker was delivering a refrigerator to some lady a couple years back. She said: "I'm just a little old lady and my sons are out of town, could you please bring it inside and put it in the kitchen?". Not even twenty minutes after my coworker left her residence, he received a call from dispatch.

"Hey Bob, did you seriously take that fridge inside her house? Well she called corporate and filed a complaint that you ruined her carpet." We ended up paying to get her hallway and living room carpet professionally steam cleaned.

@Big Don pointed out how sales people could care less what scenario the driver ends up in. That is an understatement.

 

There are a few businesses that I won't do inside delivery for. They don't have a dock. And then they scream about having to keep the pallet and plastic wrap.
I'm not Allied waste. I'm a third party LTL'r.
I don't take garbage. I deliver it.

 

You guys make me so glad I stayed away from P&D, hahaha.

 

If daytime line haul was an option, there would have been no way in hell I would have swapped to P&D.

 

It's becoming more apparent that I'm not P&D material. I did it for 2 years and hated it then although all my residential deliveries were by deceit on the part of the customer.

We were only supposed to deliver to commercial addresses, but every farmer with a welder in the barn would claim to be a fab shop. One guy wanted me to hand unload 100 sticks of 2" square tube in his driveway. No way, dude. So we compromised. I backed down to the barn and pried it off the side, and he made his sons put it away when they got home from school.

 

Really, it's not all bad. But you know the old saying, "If the troops ain't beeching, they ain't happy!"

Honestly, it can take some getting used to. But don't hang your hat on it, when a company says to the drivers, "we don't do residential," then sends them out on residential. However, per your post, you had a lot of farmers there. Dealing with farms is far better than dealing with residential.

As to your 100 sticks of 2" square tube, back in the dark ages, I used to deliver for Familian Pipe and Supply. Did all kinds of plumbing and HVAC deliveries. What I hated the worst was those 20' sticks of 2" black pipe.
Followed closely by 20' sections of 5' low head pipe. In cold weather they are almost impossible for one guy to get off the truck, without busting the crap out of them.

 

On a somewhat related note, I got subbed out to Waterloo, IA for a while when one of their drivers hurt himself falling off a trailer. Lots of farm deliveries there. In the delivery instructions on one BOL it read: "Don't try to pet the 3 legged dog. He bites."

 

Ummmm.....to each his own......junior guy in barn...senor whiny man.....ya can't get a screw and a 45 into those than mall docks.....hmmm ok I'll go...20+ drops in same mall....move truck 3x....outside temps 95+.....concrete delivery hallways behind stores 65ish.....each stop another hot young salelady....lunch at the food court....hand full of new phone #s.....my idea of a good run.....least it was in 77......lmao