Damaged and rejected load, is the driver responsible?

I ran a load of Orchids from South Jersey up to Whole Foods in Chesire once. The Shipper left a four foot void in the nose of the trailer. That’s right, they started the load one pallet position back from the bulkhead in the nose of the trailer.

Needless to say when Whole Foods started unloading they pulled the 1st two skids off & called me inside. They rejected the entire load. I had to take the load back to the shipper to be reworked & re delivered the following night.

It was a total mess, but the shipper owned it & ate all the expenses associated with it. My boss was pissed with me at first thinking i caused the load shift. He had learned the truth of what happened before i made back to the barn.

Now truth be told, there was no way for me to tell when i picked up the trailer. Pallets were over head high & i was loaded to the doors. My b.o.l.’s gave a piece count, not a pallet count. So there was no way to say wait a minute there’s to many pallets on the trailer.

 

What?

 

My company hauled a lot of beer, mostly Budweiser. If you have never hauled beer you have no idea what kind of a MAJOR nightmare it is. They stack those skids high and they are almost top-heavy because of it. Load locks and straps are almost useless. My last beer load was from Cartersville Georgia to Little Rock. I can't think of much that is worse than beer.

 

I guess it's all what you're use too. I haul a LOT of beer and don't have any trouble. Heck I'm hauling a load of Bud kegs tomorrow. The plant here in Fairfield CA loads really well. Heavy yes, but I've never had anything fall over. Those big plastic bulkheads they put on the tail help a lot.

 

Doesn’t any one use shoring bars instead of load locks?

 

Based on the amount of crying it can't be milk, or someone is seriously breaking the idiom rules.

 

he’s likely referring to these new style “composite” wall trailers that only have e-track every 5ft or so. If pallets are against wall and end in between e track channels the straps aren’t gonna do any good either

 

Well actually not true, when ever the pallets change height, low the the next one back is taller, you throw in a load lock to prevent it from shifting forward, if you need the lift operator to pull it back , then you can get in there to secure the load. I have needed to do this more times than I can count, Produce load are known for this.

 

Yes sir. Did it on a 3 stop watermelon load before. Double stacked in the nose, triple stacked in the center and double stacked on the tail. Took 3 load locks. Reminded me of flatbed days when you center loaded the weight lol