Make Lift Gate Familiarization Your Priority

LTL companies use them precisely because of the whole dock-bumping thing; it's pretty much a time-saving factor
Also, LTLs don't send out power jacks with their drivers. Most don't even own one. We always used manual jacks.

 

We have some customers that will not load a lift gate if its a rail & not a tuck under.

 

That, too. (It's been too long since I was at an LTL company, I forgot a lot of the reasons...

 

Ha ha...I'm glad I'm not the only one this has happened to.

One solution we used for that was carrying a stack of cut plywood and just layer up on top of each other so it built up like a ramp. It was a cheap solution to get that liftgate from hitting the ground.

 

Rails in my opinion is safer to drive down the road with, because you lock it up with chains to prevent it from dragging back down.

Tuck unders use hook latches to lock the liftgate, and if they get damaged or doesn't work properly (which it always does), it'll cause the liftgate to bounce up and down while driving down the road (seen that WAY too many times as well).

 

One of the funniest deliveries I ever made with a tuck under was when a contractor wanted me to use my liftgate to slide a 4k pound pallet of ceramic tile onto his pickup, and I told him NO WAY will that work. He insisted on me doing it and I told him we would have to break down the pallet and THEN put it on his pickup. But he still insisted on me doing it, so I said ONLY if you give me a waiver, and he mentioned yes. So I backed my liftgate to the back of his pickup and as soon as it slide onto his bed...BOOM, his tires popped. I then slowly pulled away and said HAVE A NICE DAY...(translation I told you so you dumb ###). But what do I know, I'm just a dumb truck driver.

So his haste to get things done quicker wound up being a longer day for him.

 

They also hurt when you lower one your foot.... found out the hard way.