Least favorite places to deliver?

Come to think of it, the warehouse/company I used to run might have qualified as a not so great place to deliver. Down in Ft. Mohave/Bullehead City, AZ, guy that rented me the warehouse space said you could get an 18-wheeler into the space to unload. Had a couple shipments of imported product come in on 40ft containers, hand unload and palletize.... no loading dock, had lumpers palletize unload and palletize on the truck I forklifted the pallet off and put in location. Went fairly quick actual unload time about 2 hours, just enough to not pay detention pay... Supposedly.

CH Robinson, who I was using for a freight forwarder kept sending the drivers to my house, so I'd wake up at 6 am and find the truck parked in front of the house. Ok then. First guy driving an old cabover with a sleeper, follows me to the warehouse, gets backed into the bay fairly quickly, unhooks the container and says "I'm heading to Avi Casino for the breakfast buffet, see you in two hours". He goes fro breakfast and slots, we unload in about 2 hours, he gets back, hooks up and off he goes.

Second, delivery we're waiting, gals shows up, Peterbuilt conventional, takes 45 minutes to get into the unloading bay. One of the lumpers, who drove semi's in the military almost had to do it for her. Finally get her parked, then we unload, slightly longer, 2:15 or so, but since the clock started when she showed up, and she ate 45 minutes of it trying to back into the bay, I get charged an hour's detention. Argued it with Robinson, to no avail.

So, if you're a smart driver, it was a good delivery, moderately tough but still quick dock, drop off, unhook, go eat breakfast, play slots, come back, hook up and off you go.

If you're a not so smart driver, it's a tough dock taking 45 minutes, and you sit in the truck for 2 hours in the Arizona dessert heat doing paperwork.

 

Ditto on the highrises and colleges.

Highrises- the dock *always* has other trucks in there already and there is nowhere to park and wait.

Colleges- They use the main address and the place is twenty acres of buildings, with no good places to turn around. Upside is the scenery. I try to control my pervy stares, but it's hard sometimes.

Gonna have to add big hospitals to the list soley for the fact that the parking lots are always desgned like huge mazes, complete with inadequate signage and those little gates, God help you if you go in the wrong entrance.

The medical center in Houston requires a special skillset of it's own, and NASA never fails to blow.

Back in my delivery days, I always like the residential deliveries because they broke the monotony of the businesses all day, every day.

 

Residential, small businesses, fast, quick and mostly easy. In and out. Those low rise office buildings that don't have elevators can be a pain. Had a publishing company on my route that was on second floor, no elevators, LONG staircase up. Usually ordered about 3-4 cases of copy paper at 52lbs each. on each order. There's no dragging them babies up the steps on a 2 wheeler. Shopping malls are high on my list as time wasters.

Some of the high end residences in the burbs were a hoot. Had one delivery, guy had bought a nice suite of chrome and glass office furniture, Desk, credenza, shelves, chair. Get to his place, he wasn't home but his wife had just got home. She's all ticked because the furniture is there already, he had ordered it the day before and it wasn't supposed to show up for a couple more days. (if all goes to plan, the orders deliver the next day, they build in a couple day cushion just in case) Apparently he hadn't taken the old stuff out of his home office, and the garage was full of junk. She's on the phone giving him holy hell, then tries to give me holy hell for delivering so early. I"m nice, like "ma'am I'm a contractor that just delivers what they give me, it's coming out of the van, where do you want it?" Finally had to clear a spot for her in the garage, move the two ATV,s motorcycle, and motorized scooter. (they had a lot of junk). She's complaining the whole time, and still giving me heck as she's signing the paperwork. My parting shot as I got in the van, said very nicely as though there may be some delivery confusion: "Well, maybe you're husband meant to have it delivered to his other wife's house"

 

ah yes brings back some awful memories of doing P/D in Greenwich last year when I was peddling. If they gave me my tractor then it wasnt too bad, its was bad when they gave you the ghetto straight truck, with a half lift gate that could barely hold 500 pounds... last time I had to do that, They gave me 10 stops, every skid 1000+. Last stop I got injured and was out of work for 5 days... When I went back I was finally back in my truck till I was laid off.

I dont miss it too much, but at times I do. I miss the mon-fri weekends/holidays off. Dont get that on line-haul.

 

Worst place I've ever delivered to so far, or even picked up at.. was Treadway Tire Corporation in Memphis. Tires are literally everywhere, and you really need to be careful when maneuvering your truck through the yard -- especially when going towards the back area to find more parking spots. I swear I hope I never go to this place again, they seem to make it very difficult for you to properly set up to drop the trailer in a space -- without running into some tires. It can be done, but again be very careful. I had to go there after midnight and I don't know, it just left a really bad impression on me. Do these people even realize the size of the vehicle we have to maneuver through their lot?

 

That is what trucking is all about. Do it long enough, and you will get used to it.

 

One of mine is the Outlet Mall. I dont mind the inside deliveries, i get paid for them. The delivery doors are 3" higher than the pavement making it a pain in the butt to push a 2wheel cart inside. The back store rooms are tiny. Today i butted hoods with the Conway driver in my area. Seems like every tuesday we meet here.

 

food warehouses suck. plan on being there for hrs on in. all union places suck balls. ruid arrogant people

 

And I now have to add steel mills to the list. Have a USS mill on my route, plan on spending at least 45 minutes to deliver one package, over an hour if multiple packages and the go to more than one building. And they don't mark the buildings, the "roads" in the plant (and I use the term road loosely) not more than cow paths for heavy machinery. One wrong move and me and the van squashed like bugs, or turned into rail car parts.