Question about Hansen & Adkins

I was wondering how it works when y'all arrive at a car plant or railhead.Do you have to have an appointment to get to your cars.Does your stay their depend on how fast you can load or do the plants hold y'all up.When y'all arrive at the dealership are they happy to see you for the most part or do they hold you up and waste your time.If the dealer says its going to be two hours before he can inspect your load do you get wait time or is that not a problem

 

One reason a lot of us choose to haul cars is the lack of a set schedule. Most plants, railheads, loading yards and even the dealerships are 24/7. Some dealers are not night deliverable, but most are in my experience. Most dealers are easy to deal with and in the rare occasion they can't check them in in a reasonable amount of time, I will just night drop them. This means I leave the car and someone checks them later. This is a standard practice in this business. There are a small number of dealers, very small number, that your company will not allow you to night drop to for one reason or another and your manifest will tell you this. Very seldom do you ever wait to get a spot to load, but it can happen when there are more trucks than there is loading spots for those trucks. The routes you take are up to you, your atlas and your truck specific gps. Known trouble spots, i.e. tree limbs, low bridges etc will sometimes be on your manifest. Sometimes when delivering small town America there is no other option than taking the skinny road, that may be the only way in and out. Hotels are not as big a deal now with technology at your disposal. The CLC app, i.e. hotel credit card, make finding them easier. I then google earth view the parking situation. Then I call several hours before I run out of hours to reserve a room. I always, and I mean always ask if they ever have loaded car carriers stay at their hotel, because there are hotels on the app that you can not get a loaded car carrier in. Also if I haven't been there before and I am not sure, I park on the street, shoulder etc and walk in first. This can save you a lot of headaches. Your best source for finding hotels is ask other carhaulers, as we all have our favorites and know where to stay and where not to stay.

 

Usually when you arrive on a dealers property, the check in person will seek you out before you have the first unit off. If not, I would pull the first one and drive over to service or the prep area. The better you get along with the dealer people the faster you get out of there...with clean BOL's hopefully.

 

You reminded me of loading out of the old GM Linden, NJ plant. They had an 8 story warehouse and stored the vehicles on special pallets. The UAW nob would punch in your VIN's and you waited for your units one by one...

 

Wondering if USAL or Hansen&Adkins or others allow night drops at some dealers.My concern is that the next day the dealers would start finding mysterious damage that was not there when you dropped the car.Is that a problem.Hard to dispute once you've left

 

So are the people that check your cars usually located at the shop area.Sales people won't check you in will they

 

Every dealer varies. One will have a check in person, the next you go to service, the next will be the salespeople and then one will be only the sales manager or owner. But you should always call and ask if you use a certain entrance and where to park to unload, ask where the units go while you are on the phone. Most have a check in person and as Slant6 said, they will be at your rig waiting. In my experiences most people at the dealerships are good hard working people. Every now and then you will encounter someone mad at the world and you are who they will be venting on. I had one guy mad that I was delivering in the rain but after I explained to him politely that I had very little control over Mother Nature, he said I guess you are right and checked the cars in. When I left he and I were on very good terms and it is always my goal for the check in person to remember me as a polite professional who they want to come back. Because this will make your future deliveries much speedier. Even on your very worst day in carhauling you probably won't wait on anyone 10-15 minutes. You have to look at the big picture and on those days you wait a few minutes, take a deep breath and realize you still have a very good job!

 

I agree with all of the above. Yes we STI at USAL but as someone stated above, our company don't allow us to STI at some dealers. This is normally because they have had problems in the past with that dealer finding (or coming up with) a lot of damages. For the most part though, the company and the dealers have good relationships, as well as the drivers and dealers. Most of my dealers know me and half of them don't even check my cars anymore, they just sign my bills. This comes with time and building a relationship and trust

 

Some years ago, Ford went on a kick and wanted their vehicles delivered 24/7. However this was the logistics branch of Ford. They didn't bother to get the sales end of things on board. It was up to the carrier to get their dealers to accept after hours delivery. Most dealers were straight up. Some saw it as a body shop cash cow and became high exception writers. There was a Ford person that took early retirement and started a consulting company going to dealers and teaching them how to milk the transport claims system.

However, as Driver, all you have to worry about is the units on your truck.

 

It depends on the dealer. Sales people checking units in can be a double edge sword. Some don't want to be bothered and just sign off. Others don't know what they are doing and try to write all kinds of idiotic exceptions.