Why does unloading with reefers take so long?

Many years or a wicked long time ago when I worked at K Mart our store merchandise was floor loaded. All size boxes, different weights etc all on the floor. We had to pick up each box and read carton # off it then stack them on a pallet for removal. We did by ourselves a whole 45' trailer 2500 boxes in like 5 hours max.
I still can't believe the trucking industry hasn't changed this BS of HOURS waiting or even HOURS to unload. If you were to charge them waiting for either load or unload things would change real quick.

 

That is one of the reasons I got into medicine with reefer. You are unloaded and reloaded within the hour. (Meds out, cardboard in)

The last food loads Ive handled went into safeway Atlanta and those were the apple loads. Generally once checked in they get it with the forklift. One of the better situations to be in, but still a couple of hours.

Americold and other places are nightmares and best forgotten. It was my lot to do alot of sysco as well and those get lumpers. Except the one in Pokomoke City Maryland on the coastal tidewater. That one provide their own lumpers and they are fast. And a bullpen in the wood on property to get to the previous night of your appt. That particular one was the best. I remember a awful lot of food went there. If they had to hold everything up like others did it would have been impossible.

Some of the worst incidents for unloading a trailer led to 24 to 30 hour days in there. It's something not acceptable to me now. (I aint been back, there are ways in those days to ensure you are not back)

 

Yeah if its cool goods they sometimes have to restack the produce that's why it'll take forever, however if all they have to do is simply pull off the pallets and check its the right product and right quantity that won't take long at all.

 

And that is the problem. I'm a driver, not a claims adjuster. There is nothing I can do about it except inform my company. You know, they have my company's phone number too....

Unless they plan on rejecting the whole truckload then they can inspect, plataize and do whatever on their own time. Of course a drivers time means nothing, as they don't have to pay for it.
If companies would start charging a reasonable detention time ($75-$100 / hr, min) then the warehouses would finally start releasing the driver while they do their thing inside.

 

You know the #1 reason why they do this?
Because people let them, simple as that.

 

During the Christmas rush this year I was detained at FedEx for 16 hours. One I finally got my “preloaded” trailer the girl at line haul asked me if I could deliver on time. I had 8 hours to get the trailer 1150 miles. I told her not a chance. She gets this snotty look on her face...and I say I’d have to average 144mph to get it there. She looks at it again. Apologizes and gives me more than enough time. That night there must have been 50-60 drivers sitting bobtail waiting.

 

They are using you as a rolling warehouse. Extra capacity in their supply chain. It's cheaper for them to let you sit all day rather than add on to the warehouse.

 

. In the old days when I had dark hair (early 80s) I used to go to Loblaws in Mississauga they weren’t that bad.

 

The only thing I can tell you is go down to a facility that ships medicine with big trucks. Find the DOT MC numbers off the doors. Google the batch on your ledger pad for the best ones, call them direct and say hey you need a driver? Or whatever it is you do as a O/O to lease on.

Medicine is something that will be around as long there are humans are in need of it.

Im sorry I cannot say go to such a such a carrier at this address in say Little Rock, not when he has potentially millions in west coast loads sitting on it. Im pretty sure it is understood that I don't give out sensitive information online. It's just too much of a potential problem and would like to do what I can to protect them.