Why does unloading with reefers take so long?

I love your shut off the free A/C in summer months tactic.
Such a great motivator. Thumbs up.

 

I read an article the other day about a startup logistics company getting funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. The CEO stated that there was no such thing as a driver or truck shortage, rather it was a case of the available trucks and drivers being detained at shippers and receivers for hours on end. lol

 

One Ammonia alarm leak hazmat response will wreck that savings in a hour. HA.

I don't believe for a minute 50 reefers can hold a cold storage for very long. Although I do understand where you are going. Who knows.

I was thinking earlier today with all that fancy wireless crap you could encode a box of... this a box of that and something else etc for the whole load. Aim a reader at it

"BIPT!" and the entire inventory of that trailer responds to you in a instant. Counted. Done. Whistle up the forklift man right quick. 10 minutes empty gone signed, poof. Next truck. 6 per hour 24/7 per dock. Waiting would be the thing of the past. Lumpers would be obsolete.

I wonder what a vice president would do if he tried to Bipt a warehouse?

 

They already have that. Drop and hook deliveries.

 

That's good. Touch'e I think is the correct work. I kind of walked straight into that one didnt I ha... have a good night.

 

Mostly because the limpets are dumb #####. I’ve found out the hard way that if a lumper or grocery warehouse is at fault for a self-determined bad load, they will make an excuse to blame the driver. Sometimes that takes time. Sobeys and Loblaws are the produce Nazis of Canada. My company is currently fighting a rejected partial load by Sobeys: they took half the load of like produce. Totally bizarre! They would be getting away with it totally if I had not documented that I sat at their dock, with my doors open (Their protocol) and theirs closed for three hours before they started unload. My refer was just pumping its heart out. I’ve also heard stories of Sobeys and Loblaws monetarily fining drivers for late unload appointments when their own store was at fault for not having employees present at the stores for the unload appointment. You really have to watch these criminals.

 

I havent had a bad experience at Americold yet. Ive been lucky. Longest wait about 4 hours or so. I usually go to the ones in Indiana and take their stuff to Chicago before getting routed home.

Another driver on my fleet is banned from going there. Lol I dont know why but I can tell you that kid is... Colorful.

 

Grocery warehouses don't want to deal with damages or overages themselves, it's a cost they cut so their company executives can get bigger bonuses and higher salaries. (Don't buy into "We pass the savings onto the consumer!" crap. They don't, unless they're a "cost plus" outfit, but those outfits clearly say such in their name.)

So, they break down and count everything before they release you, a process that can take hours, depending on how the product was shipped versus how the grocery warehouse wants it to be broken down and organized. This way they can leave you to deal with the over/damaged freight.

Almost every other customer on the planet will pull the product off your trailer, sign "SUBJECT TO COUNT AND INSPECTION" and cut you loose.

It isn't going to change until EVERY carrier charges a large premium for detention, and double the normal rates for returning over/damaged freight, and refuses to back down.

You'll see one of two things: either the grocers will clean up their act, or they'll amass huge private fleets and no longer deal with us common carriers. The latter is less likely as pay and benefits will have to be huge for a lot of the BS those drivers will have to put up with, not to mention having to buy much bigger properties to house the additional equipment, etc.

 

Once had delivery to food donation center in MO. Load of potato in cardboard boxes on pallets. Only one row on BOL Potato .... 820 boxes. I expected like 3 hours to unload and booked my next load as usually small warehouses much better in unloading then big DC. It was my huge mistake.
Firstly they sated I have to wait for Food or Agriculture inspector. He shows up 2 hours later then suppose to.
Then he start taking one box from every layer on the pallet to open and slice one potato with his fancy pocket knife. We had eyes rolled up with fork lift operator.
Total unloading was more then 12 hours.

 

Simply put.......lumpers lol