Home based biz going to commercial space-DO I NEED A DOCK?

In all honesty, you're better off to not waste your money on renting warehouse space of your own and going with a 3PL. They sell space to everyone, so you're getting more space for your money. You can work out of your home and they can handle the pick and pack, sort/segregate, and order fulfillment for you. Have you looked into that in more depth at all? I can't imagine it cost you more than $1,000-1,500 a month to let someone else deal with your headaches that has the docks to do the work and leave you not having to rent forklifts, palletjacks, or pay tailgate fees. Just honest thoughts from someone that does this sorta planning for a living.

 

You could also partner with a carrier that does cross-dock and local delivery out of a nearby terminal. Not quite a full 3PL style solution, but might work ok for the volume you're talking about. My Dad was doing business like that for years with a local Cooper terminal. His factory orders were trucked to that terminal. Then he would go up there with his Kodiak/flatbed combo for short orders he delivers himself, or hire them for truckload or liftgate service. Even the place I rent parking in would probably go for something like that.

 

I just make unloading my order worth while. I have freight, They have freight. Help them, Help Me. Food is a great endorsement.

 

A few companies have lift gate service so they can take it off the truck and it would be your responsibility to get into the building.

As mentioned, a pallet jack may not work well with liquidation pallets and you may end up renting a forklift.

 

Maybe post a picture of the warehouse space you are thinking of using, including the parking lot area and whatever garage doors or access door you will take the pallets into the building through. That may give us a better idea of what you are dealing with.

 

You can get by that way until you grow. I would plan on having a helper to tailgate the pallets to speed things up. Like others said have you a 60' chain or heavy rope with a hook to drag out the busted up pallets you can't get with a pallet jack. Unless you have heavy metal objects your pallets shouldn't weigh over 2500 lbs. Carpet hooks work great if you can get your hands on one. You might check with a carpet store, they might be able to get you one. You can even make one yourself out of rebar. If the pallets are that bad start stocking up on 4' pallets for spares.

 

I've been to a place without a dock. Simple solution. Forklift driver lifted pallet jack into the back of the van, I pulled the freight forward, lift got it out. Course these pallets weighed over a ton each so Mich so that pulling them was exhausting. Empty pallets would be very easy to pay someone to climb in and do this way, or just have trucker do it. If they complain about it being complicated they are just being lazy. The other option is a small portable ramp that can be adjusted for trailer height. Truck backs up to ramp, forklift can drive up the ramp and grab it. That or you can pay for a flatbed delivery. Then you would not need a dock at all. Just an area wide enough for the forklift to get around on each side of the flatbed.

 

Your situation is not all that unusual. From my years in LTL I can tell you that I've unloaded many a trailer with a "pallet puller" and chain attached to a fork lift. It ain't purty, it ain't particularly fun, but it sure is do-able. Pallet pullers and chains are cheap.
Of course it is nice to be able to drive a forklift right into a trailer to unload it. But there are hundreds of thousands of business like your own, that have to "make do."