unfi, the worst of the worst

I despise these jerks. On one hand, their lumping seems relatively inexpensive -- $40, for example, for a bunch of pallets, but still. This idea of unilaterally "punishing" people who are faced with nearly unbearably extreme conditions and lack of sleep for being "late" OUGHT to be illegal. I've shown up once or twice to their facilities after hustling my *** off and struggling with, say, a reefer repair in the middle of a weekend on a cross-country trip. Get THREE HOURS OF SLEEP and have *ZERO* time to do *ANYTHING* at all except *SLAVISHLY DRIVE* (plus slavishly repair your reefer) for three or four days, and bam.YOU'RE LATE. THAT'LL BE $200.YOU CAN TAKE THAT AND PUT IT SOMEWHERE SO DEEPLY YOU CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE. ....Any time I hear of this outfit being a receiver on a load I'm discussing with anybody, I tell them I don't go there. Done.

 

Kroger in houston was a different story. $85 to pull off 5 pallets and they wouldn't start until they had check in hand.

 

i cant remember if i been to kroger in houston is that the one where its real tight? so tight that you have to drop your trailer. or is there another kroger up around the dallas area besides keller?

 

I didn't have to drop my trailer but it was pretty tight as I recall.

 

UNFI sucks all around, we've been dealing with the one in Denver for 10 yrs. They used to be a decent, but pain in the butt, place to deliver to. Now, they are just out and out aholes.

We deal with lumpers the simple way, we pay them, then charge our customer 2x what the lumper charged us. If they refuse to pay, next load we hold in our yard, at their expense, until th eprior load is covered.

As for UNFI, we used to drop trailers at their locations, done it for many many years, suddenly, earlier this year, they have no clue who we are and won't allow dropped trailers. Funny, they didn't know who I was, yet two weeks earlier we dropped 7 trailers in 4 days at their docks.

 

Gotta admit Unfi is about the worst there is, at the one in socal if you greased the correct palms you could get in and out in 30min, IF you spoke spanish (I don't) and had CASH (Co pays by check) only. I refused to go there for years, then I got a run there recently and it had been so long I forgot the address..... OOPS, five hours later both of the pallets were off. yes it was a 2 pallet load, and they went back and forth fighting the dentetion for three weeks. Did notice that they will not accept cash anymore, guess they caught on to the scam's going on.

 

I've had issues with UNFI, Dayville, CT...they too force you to use a lumper service and take forever to unload 1 or 2 skids, and because I do LTL out of Canada, I have other customers stuff on board, and they won't let me on the dock to 'babysit' my truck...it's a low profile, and they have hit it with a towmotor...even after I warned them it was low...
also they have an area for trucks to stay overnite, but then sometimes they have a guy who knocks on ur door in the middle of the nite and tells you we can't park tyhere and is gonna call the state police...I was fed up by then and dared him to make the call and went back to bed...didn't get much more rest...and no Trooper showed up...just another way to harrass the drivers!

 

Delivered to UNFI in Denver two weeks ago. My sleeper was in the shop so I had to drive a daycab. Arrived @ 3:50 am for a 4 am appt. At 5:25 they finally called with a door. Was in and ready to be unloaded by 5:35. Started unloading, after 45 minutes, they call to tell me it's going to be awhile, as some pallets were tipped and had to be restacked. Ok. After 90 minutes, I'm unloaded. Parked back on the staging line. Finally at 10:20 am, they had all my paperwork done and ready for me to leave. Waiting room, was probably 8 drivers, everyone was knocking the place about how bad it was, the lumpers could do nothing but laugh with us. They have a sign that reads "If you are rude, cursing, swearing, trying to start a fight with lumpers, employees or other drivers, you will banned from the facility. Your company, the broker, shipper and the police will all be notified." Told my boss about it, he suggested I try and see what happens. Tempting, very tempting. SAIA driver had dropped two pallets, left, delivered four more stops then came back and his paperwork still wasn't ready.

Really think the problem is the lumper service. It used to be Universal, but for the last couple of years it's been Roadlink. CH Robinson sent us a questionnaire about the place, as they were having a hard time getting companies to deliver to it. Boss sent them back an email explaining all the BS we've put up with over the years from them. CH pulled 5 loads were had pre-scheduled and gave them to another company. Driver for the other carrier said he spent 9 hrs there on one of them the next day, 20 pallets, with minimal breakdown.

 

Unfi used to be good to deliver at , at least the few I've gone to, until about 4-5 years ago. Didn't have to hire lumpers or any of that crap, even though they had funky appointment times. Then then they brought in road link as contract lumpers, and they are the worst of the worst for a lumper service. It's supposed to be illegal to coerce drivers into hiring lumpers, but since this is a country where any opposition to corporate screwballery is considered "communism", forget about it getting changed any time soon.

 

UNFI is getting worse and worse on the Receiving side of things.. My biggest problem is that the pricing is inconsistent and it seems as if nobody has any idea how to charge.. In Lancaster they claim to be Zero Cash but they might want to ask Roadlink why they accept cash.. Also, how can you charge a late fee when I was in line for 30+ minutes prior to being checked in..

OTRallday!