Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Go ye and do likewise.

 

I ran to Texas every week as a bid, but never saw a big truck do a u turn on the Interstate in Texas.

 

So far, the only semi I’ve seen flip a ##### on the interstate was an Amazon driver.

 

I love my country bumpkin route. And we have favoritism/ lazy drivers too and it only adds 1 or 2 pickups on me but I like to keep moving anyway so it's whatever.

 

So I believe I'm an expert on delivering car lifts now lol. This last one I just delivered was the heaviest one yet. On the bill it said NO LIFTGATE but they're long and skinny- you would have to have a forklift capable (rated for the weight) to lift it off. About 90% of the time it's a "country bumkin" with a tractor and when you try to lift the full weight the rear tractor wheels lift off the ground (and this was a good sized tractor). So we slide it to the rear, I pull out the lift gate, slide it some more onto the lift gate then lower it down. The only reason I'm ok with it is bc the tractor has 1/2 the weight and the lift gate the other. Gotta love the ltl life!

 

So

Sounds exactly like how they delivered my car lift. With my motorcycle lift, I got it delivered to our shop and brought my pickup and trailer to work that day.

 

Today I would like to share an occurrence that went down today at a customer.

I had a delivery to a food warehouse to which I havent deliver before. As I backed up the trailer from a distance I saw the customer who I approached and this is how the conversation went.

Customer: what you got?

Driver: two skids.

Customer: you may unload the skids as we are busy right now.

Driver: I can see you have a forklift and I can place the skids close to the edge of the trailer.

Customer: if you want us to utilize our forklift there's a fee that you must pay to get unloaded that's why I'm suggesting you use your liftgate.

Driver: well if you want me to use the lift gate a charge will apply therefore is best to get your freight with your forklift.

Customer: no you must call your company or broker as I will not instruct my forklift driver to unload anything without paying first.

At that point since we weren't getting anywhere I politely told her to either unload the freight or refuse it. She then proceeds to ask for me to open the door and once she saw the merchandise her whole attitude changed and asked me to put them close to the edge for the forklift to get them.

I'm a bit confused as to why she wanted to charge money since she never said anything about lumpers.

Has this ever happened to anyone.

 

At first I was like WTF, but then you said “she” and I was like ohhh.

 

So the last couple of weeks, we've switched routes around due to various guys taking time off. "Doug," who's a stand-up guy but a smartarse, has been giving me a hard time about having to do my route and he always gets the hard stuff and it's always easier when I do it. (We both know he's just talking smack.)

Last week, before I got my route back, he delivered a 350# blower unit to a car wash of a certain brand that's growing all over AZ like a weed. I got a pickup there today and figured it was a return unit.

Nope.

A 1600# turbine. With nothing but a manual jack and liftgate. Wasn't the most fun I've ever had, but I got it done and now I get to give him a hard time on Tuesday.