Does Prime still do floral?

Prime Floral is a division on Prime. The trailers are sort of advertising as floral loads are carried in any trailer that happens to be available.

Prime floral has terminals in Watsonville OR(Portland), Oxnard CA, Miami FL, and Pierson FL.

Not only does the business handle what you typically think a floral load is (flowers) but also garden type with small trees, bushes, potted plants etc and Floral supplies.

Loads are typically team, driver unload, multiple stops. I've only delivered to major chain Dist. Cntrs. But other drivers have done floral shops where delivery is made in the middle of the night and keys are retrieved from lock boxes, with no customer supervision at the location.

The home garden deliveries are rough as they are driver unload to the rear of the trailer. Some of those tree pots can get very heavy, and they stack the trees and bushes wit a forward lean all the way ton the ceiling. I've done one of these from OR with three stops in CT at Home Depot. The customer typically provided pallet onto the tail of the trailer. My trainer and I loaded it, and the fork lift would swap with a new one. Very dirty and sweaty work.

I imagine there are some dedicated routes but nothing I know of specifically. Iv picked up a trailer from a guy near the Canada border in WA... I'm not sure what his deal is, but he has a little office with a cot in a gated industrial area with space for three trailers and his Prime truck. I can't remember exactly but I got the impression he relayed floral loads into and out of Canada. He also ran a side deal doing trailer washouts.

The floral terminals have refridgerated areas and loading docks, and typically do not have any other type of non floral freight at their locations. If you deal with them on a non floral basis, it's usually to either retrieve or swap empty trailers. No repair facilities. Some have showers, but no real driver comforts.

 

On the lease side there is a line item for driver unload pay included with the trip payment.

Never did one on the company side... they give you something extra don't they U2?

 

It sure is... they floor stack the boxes right to the ceiling, so you have to shlep them to the back of the trailer, then stack them on pallets.

Funny... its amazing how heavy those flowers really are!

 

I don't do much floral stuff as a solo driver. But I did a floral run with my trainer back when I was still on his truck. I believe it was a 14 stopper, if I remember correctly. All the locations were small flower shops and we delivered in the middle of the night. Some VERY tight maneuvering required, although I was brand new so everything seemed tight to me at the time!

While I found all the stops and late night / early morning delivery times pretty annoying, I do remember my trainer being extremely happy at how much the load was paying, especially coming out of Florida. And he was lucky enough to have a motivated slave on board to help with the unloading (that's me!). Got a free steak dinner for my troubles.