Is that it for reefer?

Ah yes, pallets. Sometimes you had to buy pallets for dry loads, too, but I never ran across that where I had both reefer and van. That company wanted to use Chep (the blue) pallets, but some clients made us use regular pallets and then wanted them returned. I think there is a Canadian version that is painted dull orange.

I'm working for one of those clients now, and they are trying to get most pallets returned, they threaten to charge us 5 bucks per pallet for any not returned without an explanation or permission.They don't have to be in great shape, just in the box.

The drops to susidiaries, we often leave if getting a heavy backhaul so we can scale the load, those don't count against us. other places stiff us or make us wait to get them back.

Most warehouses won't return Chep pallets back to you, the smaller operations that don't deal directly with Chep wil give you Chep pallets back, sometimes because they have some sitting.

As far as lumpers, that is a function of where you are delivering to, and the load that to this day ticks me off the most was a lightweight load of metal wool delivered to another DCand it was on a van. It had to be knocked down, basically to fit on their racks simple take off 3 of 6 layers and put it on other pallets, 100 bucks for the load, would have taken me 90 minutes and the heaviest lifting would have been the pallets from the stacks. I made 57 dollars for picking that up in downtown Chicago and delivering it, on a schedule I couldn't possibly meet and then sitting for an extra day with no detention pay because appointments could only be scheduled by E-mail, and at the customer's convenience. I was told by dispatch they needed me on another load, so I should just hire the lumper.

Lumpers are responsible for counting, varifying quality or lack of damage, sorting product to separate pallets for verifying what was delivered.

Pull offs and pinwheeling are easily accomplished with Chep pallets and almost any mover, they are 4 way for about anything by the way they put together. Pull offs were expected at some DCs and we got paid for them. I have done breakdowns(sorting by product on pallets) and have gotten paid for it where I am now.

Drop and hook reefer. we don't do that anymore, we had a client where we did, but many of those loads turned into live loads. Not enough trailers in the fleet anymore, so it's all live now.

Drop and hook with the other company, the reefer we took in had to be almost full of fuel, the trailer we would pick up loaded would be out of fuel(how did that happen?) and then we had to fuel it again before dropping it at the other end. The last few times there, I live unloaded just to keep my trailer and not have to show another fuel stop on my log book. That was also partially due to those people loading a load on a trailer with a tire missing a sidewall and waiting for someone to fix it before I could leave. Lights not working, bad tires, air leaks; isn't drop and hook wonderful? Vans have all of those things, too. Reefer not running is not a problem with a van, though.


Not all reefer loads use pallets, ever have one on hooks? Those are special trailers called raillers. We don't use them right now, but those loads felt like pulling a tanker that was partly full. I haven't pulled a floor load because the opportunity with our freight lanes just isn't there.