Delivering furniture

They end up with a bad back.

 

I got a good chuckle out of that, thank you.

They deliver out of both. I bought some furniture and they had XPO deliver it in a tractor trailer with a lift gate and recently we bought some more and the company delivered it themselves in a straight truck. I can honestly say that looks like too much work and I throw cases of soda all day so it's not like I just sit and stare at a windshield. The heavy part isn't even what makes it look like too much work, it's the awkward shapes and small doorways, crappy stairs etc. I guess if it paid really well it would be worth it.

 

Heft Piano to fourth floor without elevator.

Your spine will burn through very fast to your life long regret.

The secret joy in trucking is holding steering wheel for a thousand plus not hefting pianos.

He he...

 

Depends on whether it's White Glove (in home) delivery, like Final Mile...
Or, delivering to furniture stores, dealers, and distributon centers.

The White Glove is a two man team operation where you'll be loaded with fully assembled and prepped furniture that goes directly to the home owner.
You'll carry it in, up stairs, around corners, move furniture, wear foot booties, and pray you don't scuff Mildred's walls.. because the devil will arise from the depths of Hell in a microsecond.

The 2nd probability delivers new furniture still encased in factory wrap packaging to a middle man in a brick and mortar setting.
You'll likely fingerprint each piece, because we are generally responsible for getting it at least to the tailgate.
It can be a good workout.
You may have between 1 and 15 stops on a trailer.

Yes.. it can be done.
I put off 21 stops in Chicago in one day before.
If they're stretched out, you may get 6-8 off.
Depends.

Who is it with?
I've been in the furniture game 30+ years... it's what I do.

 

The devil in Mildreds walls.

OMFG thats grreat. xactly what we have here in the south.

I don't mind going to battle on the old Emigrant Gap pass but I will shore pay mind to keep offen old mildred's place.

 

Worked for Ashley Distribution and yeah the pay was great but waking up Saturday feeling like you played football all week got old, delivering to all the crappy Rent A Centers was no fun either sometimes this was done with a 53’ trailer

 

Having done that with office furniture, myself. You may do it with a T\T. But we did it with Straight trucks, and cube vans.

Usually to docks, but occasionally to the resident with new paint on the walls, and MILDRED watching you the WHOLE time.

I really like the work, ok it was mostly the people I worked with. But. It was a decent workout too. Especially when you had to get from one end of the building to the other with a Desk on a dolly and pushing it on carpet.

 

How about delivering a big couch to a 3 story apartment with no elavator.

Thats sounds like a blast , but anyways Art Van furniture in Michigan has a fleet of big rigs that do drop and hooks at there store chain.

 

I started out my CDL driving career doing exactly this. I can only speak for myself and how my experience was.

I pulled 28ft "Pup" trailers for an independent carrier delivering furniture. We (this was always a 2 man crew, driver and helper) typically arrived at the yard at 6:30 AM. I would pick up my manifest and route, my tractor, locate and hook up to my assigned trailer. Out on the road by 7:00AM en route to the 1st customer. We would always call ahead to make sure the customer (or somebody that could sign off on the goods) was home before arriving. Sometimes the customer was not home which meant we had to skip them and return back later on, which made our day longer. The worst was when they would say "Hey, I'm only 5 min away". But in reality, were more like 20-30min away. The rule was, if the customer didn't arrive within 20 min, we were to continue on our route and the customer would have to reschedule. But I quickly found out if the customer cried loud enough, dispatch would force us to go back. This was another thing that made our day a lot longer than it had to be. Once there, we would take a walk inside the home to see where the customer wanted everything. Many times they wouldn't prepare their home for the new furniture and so we had to move things around just to make a place for the new stuff. If we delivered a mattress, we had to pick up their old one and load it onto our truck first. I'm telling you, mattresses have got to be some of the most disgusting things in a person's home. Some people live like animals. Odors and stains of all shapes sizes and colors. However, if it was too horrific like if it had bed bugs, we took pics and notified our boss and refused it.(had to do that a few times) After that it was time to locate the pieces of furniture and slide them to the tail (No liftgate, no ramp, no hand trucks provided. just a flimsy dolly with 4 wheels) and slowly tip the furniture over and catch it on the way down. Now you and the helper had to figure out how to safely carry and maneuver it into the home, or 2nd story or 3rd story apartment without damaging the furniture or the person's home in any way. If it was just a nightstand and a lamp no big deal, but a complete king-size bed set plus mattress or a 13ft sofa,
that was work. 1st, you had to see if the piece(s) even made through the front door. Lots of times, people will simply measure out their bedroom or living room and say "ok, it fits in here", but forget about how the heck this monstrosity will even fit in the elevator or staircase (apartment deliveries) or through their front door. For these types of difficult deliveries, the customer had to sign a liability release before we could attempt to bring the things in. Just to protect ourselves if any damaged occurred to their home during the delivery. If we damaged anything without a signed liability release form it came out of our paycheck. There were times where the piece just wouldn't fit no matter how we tilted or angled it. In those cases, the furniture went back on the truck and the customer had to reselect something smaller.
Once everything was inside, we had to unpackage it all. Plastic wrap, styrofoam, cardboard boxes. (All of this we had to clean up and neatly throw back on the trailer btw). Next was the assembly. I had to buy my own tools just to get this job. I used an impact drill, several different bits, few wrenches, and a box cutter every day since 95% of everything came in pieces. The first weeks were tough b/c I had to refer to the instructions booklet to put it all together. Some of the furniture had over 50 different parts, and if you missed just 1 piece in the sequence you were screwed and had to start over. After a while, you got to know the furniture and assembly became less time-consuming. We would be at a home anywhere between 10min to 3hrs+ depending on the size and difficulty of the delivery. I remember once we delivered and assembled 16 bed sets ( 1 bed set is : 1 headboard, 2 rails, 1 footboard, 4 legs, slats, 1 mattress, 1 nightstand with 2 draws, 2 handles, 1 lamp and a bunch of screws, nuts, and bolts) one by one to a rehab center, took us close to 4 hrs. We also had pickups. This is where we had to pick up and load an old couch or reclining chair or whatever back onto our truck and then deliver their new one. This was tough b/c this meant less space and more crap to work around in the trailer. We did about 10-15 stops a day, 5-6 days a weeks. Drivers received a daily rate of $160/day and the helper around $100/day depending on their experience. We got tips almost everyday, anywhere from $20-$60/day. A typical workday would last around 10-12hrs, but only 2-3 hours were driving. The rest was straight manual labor. We were also responsible for fueling our tractors as needed. We delivered to residences (homes and apartments) 98% of the time, sometimes to businesses. Many neighborhoods did not keep up on trimming tree branches so damaging the trailer was a constant worry (oh, any trailer damage came out of your check as well). We were sent to places were tractor-trailers weren't even allowed, so trailer damage was inevitable.

Drivers were in and out of this place, high turnover. They hired a guy right after me but he walked off the job after only 2 weeks. I decided that I had enough after 6 months. I gave them a 2-week notice, and they let me go that same day and kept my last paycheck. They eventually got audited by the department of labor, and I got my check a few months later.

This had to be one of the most physically demanding jobs ive ever worked.