Quick question on LTL Freight unloading

I know you guys are gonna hate me but, my company gives us electric pallet jacks lol. We still have to unload cylinders, some drums and tons by hand, though.

 

First time actually reading the entire thread. +1 to Big Don.
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Have a hate/love relationship with P&D. Love the mental challenge, Hate some of the people that expect you, you do their work. I don't care if she is super hot, I'm not your husband/ boyfriend. do your job lady

 

Dude... not even kidding you. That door swings both ways. We had this one driver that we finally ####-canned last year. He was grossly obese, huffed and puffed just getting in and out of the truck. I was like: "How the hell is he doing P&D?!?!"

Turns out most of the customers hated him. He used to deliver at a hospital in one of the bigger cities. THE HOSPITAL PAID FOR AN INSIDE DELIVERY!!! But him and his fat arse could not get the freight off of the liftgate!! His solution: Pull the NURSES and CNAs away from THEIR job to do his!!!

I am not making this up! Complete BS!!!

Before we finally fired him, he gave me crap about using a cab-over to P&D with. "That is just stupid to use that for P&D".

...Err, not really. It is the middle of winter, she has a twin screw, brand new tyres, and I am fit enough to not need a forklift assist to get me into the cab!

 

I had a love-hate relationship with P/D as well. Loved the hours, the tips, and the challenges of backing a 40 footer in most docks guys wouldn't do with a straight truck. Used to get a lot of co-workers annoyed as I was the newest and least experienced but I could do it and they couldn't. Just had to remember your paid hourly and take your time and GOAL as often as needed when backing.

hated the few snotty I'm better than you customers who think they orders a 5 star delivery service. Like big-don said if they threatened to call my boss I would give them the number. Now if a someone asked hey please give me a hand into the front door then no prob. Actually I would rather do p/d in the working class areas than dealing with the super nice rich snob areas any day.

 

Our P&D gets paid hourly as well. But they are required to do 2 bills per hour, or something like that to stay out of trouble. You guys have quote like that too when you ran P&D?

 

No I did as many as I wanted per hour lol. There was no requirement at YRC at least that I believed. Some stops were far from each other though.

 

I'm new to this type of trucking but I tailgate everything. Multiple stops that REALLY challenge maneuvering skills. Mine's hardware. Mostly retail hometown hardware stores. Me and a plate jack getting to know each other real well. All I have to do is get the stuff to the tailgate but often that is also handing it down for hand carry off to someone on the ground and one store is a really nice older gentleman and I do carry it into his store for him if it's heavy stuff. It's not that I'm a nice guy (I'm not). It's a time thing. I have a schedule to keep. But for Customer Service and politeness sake I do it with a smile and a "just being helpful" attitude. In reality he just takes too long and wants to shelve it before coming back.

I feel you on the heavy palates. I asked about a suggestion Big Don made on another post about a palate puller. Nope. Not allowed. Safety issue. Huh? Me torqueing a back with trying to push a 3K palate of sacks of cement with my 160# arse isn't? Oh well. I am getting stronger, though and it's getting eiaseER. Not easy, just ER. LOL. but I dig the gig for most all the reasons mentioned.

Special thanks to Big don. He's been super helpful with my shallow learning curve in getting the hang of this. Though just when I think I got it down; a situation arises and I make the wrong call on it. Like a customer wanting me to unload the next AM as the first of the day because he didn't want to wait. I thought: "Customer is customer. We do it their way. Fine by me. It didn't throw me into an HOS problem so I'm cool. Sur. Tomorrow. I'll be there when you get to the store." Fine and good but I was thinking HOS problem (being newly off from OTR) not SCHEDULE problem. It made me late to all my other stores that day. Another lesson learned. LOL.

 

1.4 stops isn't uncommon. This location was between 1.1 and 2.3. Depending on the desk jockey or the new hire of the week to brown nose. In reality banged out 3-4 each hour then moving out of the industrial/ commercial complex last few hours it turned out to be about 1 per hour. Who ever sold those companies contracts outside of that area would definitely shove a pallet up their arse.

 

It's a mental challenge, Co worker is about 5'2 130 pounds, Angry Irish fella. This is his words not mine.

HAHAHAHAHA. This dude doesn't care about heavy pallets. tough guy with a little frame.