Untarping the night before

I wont untarp the night before but I do get up early and untarp that morning, I try to time it so I am just finishing when they open, and I take pictures before hand in case there is an questions. If its a big dollar load I will wait till I get the OK to pull them off.

 

while I may not always remove my tarp the night before, I do always at least remove my bungees and have the tarp ready to pull off

 

What really gets me.. now I might upset some people saying this.

When I am with my flatbed untarping and so forth, I cannot help but witness identical product (Example Coils...) quietly rusting all over the laydown pad which is a loading and unloading area of a few acres in size.

Does that make sense?

I remember hauling rail axles out of PA near Slope that are beautiful and precision beyond compare when shipped. The customer railroad wants the #### thing at the wheel shop and have it down in the gravel to get to it when they proceed with the wheels and bearings for it.

The very best loading and unloading for example would be inside buildings such as Aluminum in Logan KY to Busch in Williamsburg VA.

 

What are you going to do when the customer arrives in the morning & tells you, “that was supposed to be shipped to our other yard across town”?

 

Depends on the load. Steel that can't get wet stays tarped, morning dew can cause rust just as easily as rain.

Some shippers demand tarps, but consignees don't care and don't want you cluttering up the lot trying to untarp. In general if it's something that will sit outside anyway or won't be damaged by the water, I ask the customer before I get there.

 

What did they say this morning?

 

Do what the customer wants and is paying for. If you know that they are going to be unloading it and storing it outside and the tarps were to just keep road salt off it, then go ahead. But if it's oiled, plastic wrapped and can't get a speck of moisture on it? Leave those tarps on till they tell you to take them off.

You don't want to ruin a $50,000 load of steel just so you could save yourself 30 minutes the next day.

And are you logging on-duty, not driving while you are untarping the night before? Because the law says you should be.