Breaking down a load.

Oddest one for me so far was a TX school district that refused to set foot on outside contractor equipment. Just their policy. The odd part was they offered the use of their electric pallet jack for me to pull the load off (rare at any place, usually you get the broken down, leaky hand jack), and all I had to do was set the pallets on the dock.

I'm guessing once upon a time someone pulled off the dock with a man/lift still in there working. Or maybe someone slipped on the icy floor and got a boo-boo. So in the school spirit of zero tolerance everything, they just made a rule to prevent that ever happening again.

I mentioned I could get them a certificate on my $1M GL policy and they declined, citing the rule. NO sweat. Took less time to get in there and get-r-done than to worry over it further. The dock hands were cool and checked in the load immediately, so no complaints and they're still high on my list of places I will gladly go. I just know to put the steel toes on and bring my gloves after I bump the dock.

I'll add that I'm normally hiring lumpers and choose to spend dock time catching up on business or resting. On the other hand, if I hit a commercial food dock with a short load, I'm not going to sit there for hours waiting for them to pull off and sort a few skids. Especially if I have more stops to make and need that time somewhere else.

After writing the rest, another funny one that comes to mind is a really small bakery, just one dock down a narrow alley surrounded by parked cars. Same lady every time running the forklift to pull the load off. The first time there I waited a while after feeling the lift roll into the truck the first time. Then nothing. After about 10 mins I walked back in there and she's sitting up near the load (maybe 6 skids). I asked if everything was ok, thinking the lift died or something. Turns out she was waiting for me to remove the load locks.

Things that make you go hmmmm. Maybe she got beaned on the head when a load shifted once upon a time? Oh well. I was in a good mood, last stop on a two day hustle, so I just said ok went in there and removed the load locks. Then hung around watching the unload, occasionally opening or closing the freezer door or pulling the plastic curtains aside, while the product came off the truck. Mean time, her boss came out to give a little direction. Chatted them both up and got some good local restaurant recommendations, as my wife was also traveling on business that week to a town 30 min away and was meeting me for dinner.

Cool people I never would have gotten to know had I been a Richard and just set up in the bunk or gotten attitude about their strange request. It's now my favorite place to deliver to even though it's in a crappy reload market. I also found out later from the broker that they have called twice to say good things about me and requested I get their loads whenever possible. Made my day.

 

Guess you should have had a trainer with more than six months experience. I knew what it meant when my 8 weeks with a trainer were completed.

 

I did my fare share of unloading for peanuts when I was young and dumb. When companies are willing to pay me what they are willing to pay a lumper then we can talk. Till then I'll be in my truck.

All this talk about good for you, good exercise, etc, is silly. I don't know how many drivers I've met through the years that are living with some injury that happened to them when they were young and lumping their loads. I've been driving now for 38 years. Everything ( knees, back, shoulders) works just like they did when I started. I personally plan on keeping it that way. Yes there are times still when I have to assist. Assist is far from doing someone elses job.

 

Be careful or you will be labeled as "everything wrong with trucking and the reason we don't get paid for everything we do".

 

Still butthurt over comments that you didn't care about I see....

 

Not really, Just surprised how quick you jumped right in. As far as cutting my own throat not unloading at grocery warehouses, well there are many other choices as far as freight, I don't have to haul that particular commodity. You are more than welcome to have my share of that wonderful end of trucking. By the way, the only gloves I own are for fueling. I was just wondering, do you have some of those fingerless driving gloves, rest your left foot on the dash and burn your fog lights 24/7? Just curious.

 

Fog lights never bothered me until I started driving a truck. They used to be dull but now it seems like a lot of them are bright enough to be high beams.

 

That would be fine by me, I've been to places telling me that I need to unload, And had them say "I'm calling your company and you will unload this truck" and all I could say is, "Good Luck, let me know what they say", and low and behold? whats this, they are unloading the trailer? Thought they said I was going to have to do that, If they what to refuse? fine by me, I get paid to deliver, Not load/unload, so youngster, you want to do the loading and unloading, Go right on and do it, I'll be in the berth, in your 3 years of driving, guess you haven't learned, Shippers/Receivers don't call all the shots, You want to bow down to them, that's your weakness, not mine, Been told this more than once, and they have always taken the load, They may try and threaten a refusal, but when push comes to shove, They will unload it

 

What company pays anything for drivers to unload? in the past 25 years I've been driving, they pay #### to the drives for this service, witch is the biggest reason I wont do it, dragging off with a hand pallet jack, then breaking down the produce for $60? not happening my friend, So please include some companies that pay a descent rate to the the drivers, and maybe I'll change my mind on the hole unloading thing, Now when I was a O/O, I have discussed unloading, and who would be responsible for that, and if they send I would be, then I worked out the pay for that, And the company I'm now with does not want us touching the freight, Witch is fine by me

 

Well Crazy, I guess the first thing I should address is that in your 20+ years you have never run across a company that pays decently to unload and breakdown freight. I work for DOT foods. I knew when I applied and accepted the job that breaking down was part of the job for that company. We use electric jacks provided by our company or the receiver. At times the receiver will roll off our freight. I don't work for a third party where I was told it was '98% no touch' (oh, wait, there is still 2% that you may have to touch..imagine that). I also knew that I would be home weekly or more and that I would be compensated fairly for my work. Now, since you have been around so long your idea of fair compensation and mine are probably very different things.
And, even, sometimes our deliveries are Subject to Count, or the customer likes to count on pallet, or we only have to separate so the product is visible, not by Tie/High....or sometimes they even just count the number of cases overall. Those are easy deliveries that still pay me the same rate.
DOT has negotiated freight prices with their customers that I would have to assume include a break on price for driver breakdown. Bear in mind DOT is not a truck company. We haul our own freight. They are a food service company that delivers to Docks only, no ramp or restaurant work.
Also, since you know nothing about me, I am assuming that your reference to 'youngster' would mean my time in the industry, not my life experience. I bow to your superior skills and judgment in the freight you choose to handle and your customer service skills at receivers. I doubt at this point in time even if I was to list 20 or more companies (which I cannot) that paid what you considered fair compensation for breakdown that you would change your mind.
Keep in mind that my experience is based on my job at one company. Not several companies that I have hopped through over time.





which. witch=nasty spell casting lady on a broom. decent. descent=decrease in elevation.