What determines who unloads your van? There always seems to be an unspoken understanding. I've seen warehouses where the driver just sits in the cab until its done, and other places where the driver does all the work while the customer stands there with a clipboard. If the customer is doing all of the forklifting, while the driver catches some sleep, how does the driver know the customer is not pulling one pallet too many out of the van? Some discussion about dock protocol and etiquette would be appreciated.
For the most part, 2 things determine whether the driver loads/unloads or if the shipper/receiver does. Those are the company you work for and where you are picking up/delivering. When I drove for Marten they had a strict no-touch freight policy due to drivers getting injured while loading/unloading. I rolled into places that were driver unload only, and never touched a thing in the box because of this policy. Had other times that loads shifted and was told there was no way in hell that they were going to unload me until it was all straightened out. One call to dispatch, wait a bit until someone from Marten gets ahold of someone from the receiver, and I get a knock on the door with the fork lift operator telling me they'll handle it. I came in and watched/helped a bit just to smooth over any ruffled feathers though. Marten also paid for all lumpers and any fees associated with loading/unloading such as restack/palleting fees, etc. I don't mind helping with stuff like pulling the dunnage off the load to get unloaded quicker, or helping move empty pallets so the forklift op can get stuff off the floor quicker (god I hate floor loads...) or even counting pallets or boxes, but I'm not a dock worker. Besides, most companies charge all loading/unloading fees back to the shippers anyway. If they pay you they can't do that, from what I understood. Hell, one time C&S out in Avenel, NJ threw all the dunnage back on my truck. Air bags, cardboard, even 2 broken load locks (keep in mind, the 2 that were on the load were perfectly fine, since I saw them when I opened the doors and they were in place and in good condition.) I told the dock worker they needed to take all that junk off, he said they weren't a garbage company and that I needed to take my trash with me. I explained to him that dunnage was part of the load, he just shrugged and said they never took that stuff off (while I'm looking at plenty of other trailers with nothing on them...) So I talked to the management there, they said the same thing. Called dispatch and she said she'd check on Marten policy on it. Got back to me, and said the trash was theirs. Talked to management again, they said either I get the hell off their property and take my trash with me they'd call the cops. Call back to dispatch, and she says ok, one sec. I get a call back from her saying to take the trailer to get washed out, and that they'd charge the cost back to the shipper and let them deal with it. Because of all the trash that was on, the washout place charged 80 bucks. C&S pulled that stuff twice more with me with the same loads. About a week later I got a call from my dispatch saying someone from the shipper called wanting to know why the hell they were getting charged for $80 washouts on the loads and the claims dept told them what was happening. Guess the shipper called C&S and chewed some butt because I never had so much as a sliver of wood on my trailers after unloading there after that. Anyway, point of all this was that it can vary greatly. Only way to know for sure is to talk to your dispatch and the shipper/receiver on each load. After a bit you'll be able to tell before hand based on where you are picking up and what type of load it is. And, if you can skip loads going to C&S Warehouses, I would strongly recommend it... in the immortal words of Obi-Wan, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy... we must be cautious."
I can tell you this. If you ever loaded/unloaded, and sat in your truck while it was being done, and there was a shortage, and you had to pay, you would learn your lesson pretty good. My point is, driver should count it on and count it off. There are exceptions, driver not allowed on dock (note:shipper load and count on BOL). Or drop and hook with a sealed trailer. I #### well feel a lot better if I know whats in my trailer and how it was loaded. It's part of trucking.
Allow Me is right. Once you leave the warehouse you're responsible for that load. If you're up in the truck sleeping or whatever how are you to know what's going in or off. If you're not allowed on the dock make a note on the paperwork. But it all depends on the warehouse and who is running it. I've unloaded my trailer most of the time and had very few times it was loaded for me. All this is why I love gasoline so much. Nobody to wait on, you load and off load and each time takes about 20min max.
Another thing to remember is that you should really really read the BOL. If the BOL reads that you have X amount of cartons on X amount of skids. You really should be able to count the number of cartons. If they won't let you count anything but the skids then you should sign the BOL like this: "X amount of skids said to contain X amounts of pcs." May save your company a freight claim.
All good advice from everyone and I couldnt have said it better. Where I work it is pretty much a no touch freight job but I will help when I have to just because it makes us look good in the shipper and recievers eyes. And it will vary from place to place. Just remeber to mark on the BOL that it is shipper load and count if you couldnt watch them load. but before you close the doors take a picture if everything looks good and want to cover your ###.
