Do most of you unload?

I don't unload.
Last time I did, I was on Stop 1/3.
I was early and my appt was screwed up, they told me I would be a work in.
So I grabbed a Pallet Jack and had their product unloaded and restacked before anybody else showed up.
I did it because it was only one product and like 6 pallets. Didn't get paid for it since I wasn't even supposed to be unloading.
I had other places to be.
Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

Back in the day we used to unload at Farmer John. 96 inch wide trailers, so you had ome pallet on the ground and hand stack next to it, alternating for 39 feet, if I remember correctly.

Have a company from the old days that I still have active business license in (mainly for tax , sales tax purposes). So If the lumper fee is good, sometimes pays a couple hundred bucks to unload then I will use it for my reciept to the company, write out a comcheck and were all happy. They (most) will not pay the drivers near what they will pay a company lumper.

 

Lets see, just in company's I have run with in the past 10 years.
Central Refrigerated, never touched anything. But we were required to say that we would if needed.
WH Fitzgerald. Flatbed company hauling mostly steel, some wood and other building supplies. Chain, strap, tarp and supervise load and unload.
Heartland Express. I had to agree to help, but was only required to on staples loads and an occasional ashley load. Was just driver assist. 90+% no touch.
WS Badcock, current company 100% driver unload of furniture and appliances. Paid per cubic feet of load. So about 70-100 per load. At least 1 load a day.

 

our cabbinet freight is to be tailgated by the driver from the back door its their problem, and the customer has a few guys ready to off load so i mostly just make sure what their taking off is for them.

same with our 2 window and door accounts. the one is PVC windows, light can lift with one hand i take it to the back. the other account its wood windows heavy as all hell, the dealers always got a few guys but i dont mind helping out it goes faster and they like to see that i lend them a hand and take part.

any other freight if it means i get out of there ill lend a hand. some times we have to count the freight as it goes in. i like to watch the loading and unloading, mostly because if its going to cali i want it loaded right and often i want to make sure that the freight is put onto the trailer properly and if loading bag large sacks on floor or pallet i often strap across ever 1/3 of the load to keep from shifting.

i hate the warehouses that wont let you in. i get their point of view, a lot of drivers dont just stay put next to their door they often wander around.

 

Pull a tanker (gave up that reefer years ago!) Probably pump off once or twice a month but get pump off pay. Most of the stuff we are not allowed to touch. Even been to some plants where you drop the trailer, a yard dog grabs it and takes it away and brings it back empty an hour later. Hook up and head to a tank wash.

 

On a good day I use to make 2 trips and load then unload about 40,000 pounds of hospital linen. The carts had wheels and weighed an average of 500-800 pounds. It was part of the job. I've never been afraid to work. The last time I broke down , I helped the tow driver,he couldn't believe it, he said drivers just wanted to sit in his truck.

 

Who are you tinkering with Ethos?

Adam

 

Again, depends greatly on the type of job. When I worked for the bread company, most of my deliveries were to storage units, where the smaller bread vans would come the next day to take the bread to the grocery stores. They were on trays stacked 10 or 12 high, on those little carts with the square wheels, and you'd drag them with a hook to the tailgate, 6 or 8 stacks on the tailgate at a time and then drag them into the storage unit. There were no overweight drivers at that job.

 

Trimac.....

 

Monday morning at sun room factory to pick up a load with 5 stops, 4 stops in New England, 1 stop in London, ON, went to shipping office to pick up paperwork, was told load will be ready in a few hours, they where missing 3 pieces, decided to go and check the load, climbed through the load and found it was loaded backwards, so I thought I will have some fun with shipping, walk in with a very serious face, what's wrong? I said: can you find someone to cut the front end off the trailer and exchange it with the back end? then I will deliver the load as is, otherwise I will have to export the New England stops to Canada and the deliver London first, then import the 4 stops to New England to the U.S., I was asked why? I told them the load was loaded back wards, no way, but after a while they found out I was right.
They said the load will be ready by 4:00 pm, talked it over with my office and they found me another load going up to New England finalizing in Vermont, then I could go up to Quebec to get my return load which finalizing 2 miles from the sun room factory, they figured by that time the factory should have my original load ready by Thursday morning.
So I went and delivered the New England load and went to Quebec and got my return load, delivered that, final stop 8:00 am, got to the factory at 9:00 am was told the load should be done by 5:00 pm, at this time they where missing 33 pieces, mind you, on Monday they where missing 3 pieces, I left the factory at 10:00 pm, hurried up to my first stop, then I realized it was Memorial weekend so I didn't get my first stop off before Monday morning, needless to say, I got to London, On on Wednesday morning and they where wondering why I was one week late delivering, when I told them the story they understood it was not my fault.
So it's not only truck drivers that make mistakes !!!