Moving heavy freight with pallet truck

The first thing I can think of is get a good pallet jack. Where I work it's a chore since other earlier starting drivers weed through them to get the good ones. Another thing you can do is when you finish at a stop, see if they would be able to move the heavy skid or two to the back, if your next stop doesn't have a dock. It doesn't help when there are more than two, but that might be two less that you don't have to move.

 

Try go use a tow motor when you can. I know sometimes you can't always get them into the box trucks.
Another way to do it is get a strap and attach it to the town motor and the skid and pull the skid to
The edge of the back of the truck and then you can get at it with the tow motor.
Don't know if this helps your situation, sometimes those skids are just too heavy for the pallet jacks.

 

Hi kilroy, boy, I hear ya, I used to have to unload pallets of cheese and butter, and some of those were over a ton too. (and people wonder why I have a bad back now at 60). Like carl sez, I've had previous stops bring heavy pallets to the back, and put a load bar behind them, another thing, is make sure the rollers and wheels of your pallet jack are greased and move freely, no strings or pieces of shrink wrapped wound around them. I tried for electric pallet jacks too, but that brings up repair issues and batteries that companies don't want to deal with. Like you say, penny wise and dollar foolish. BTW, I don't know how old you are, but make no mistake, those injuries and pulling heavy pallets comes back to haunt you!!!

 

Two come to mind&I do both...and u probably won't like the first.
Break down pallet&use a handtruck to get it to tail.
I carry a 50' 10k rated strap&couple meat hooks&chain....hook to forklift pullback to tail...
or get REAL CREATIVE hook to pallet...tie off on cement base of light pole etc......pull forward till pallet at tail....helps to have a spotter
Course won't be thev1st time tell the kid unloadin at stop to get his fat lazy ### up here&help me push.....i can get away w/that at my age....lol

 

You do not have to do anything that is dangerous to you or somene else. F I would not unload something I consider dangerous.

 

How did you end up tearing your ligaments? Were you at an angle where you were parked and trying to pull it uphill? I did local delivery for two years in a straight truck. One of our customers, a hospital, had a dock that when you backed up to it, you had to pull the pallets out uphill. It was a pain! Usually one of the guys in receiving had to help me. I would pull the pallet and he would be on the other side pushing. Once it was on level ground it was a piece of cake. It was just a matter of getting it out of the truck. We also would deliver those pallets of water softeners (salt pellets) and I would regularly have pallets with four 55 gallon drums on them. I never had problems with the pallet jacks UNLESS I was having to pull one uphill. Then it was a PITA!

 

One other thing that wasn't mentioned; find a down-grade and move the pallets to the back, secure it, carry on.
Full skids of coconut water used to infuriate me. Always an uphill battle, no pun intended.

 

Hi Tracy, an uphill dock? I can say in all my years, I don't remember too many uphill ones. Those steep downhill ones can be pretty tense. Many times, the pallet started to gain speed, and I had to drop the pallet. Man, I don't miss that crap at all.