you guys are tough

OMG yes! I weekly had to unload 150-350 tires (worked at a tire shop). We were always the last stop and poor driver would look like he was ready to die in the summer time. I would always let him rest in the sleeper and I would handle the unloading but I feel ya, can't imagine doing that all day.

 

Back in the day when I ran OTR we delivered to the Giant warehouse outside DC. As an O/O I had to eat the cost of the lumpers. $400 to unload the trailer. Most times I did it myself. Pull the freight out with a manual pallet jack then break the pallet down and restack on 4 or more pallets. Rinse and repeat 23 times. Glad those days are over. Hand unloads stink. When I first started OTR work I hauled Dollar General freight, floor loads, had to handle every piece and put it on rollers. Glad I was a young buck back then, I don't know if my body could handle one of those loads now...

 

I hear alot about unloading tires,They are ROUND ! Trust me they Roll fine!

 

Yes, they do. Especially the little 14 inch donuts. But when you have to unload 150+ commercial or off road tires its no fun, especially when they are at the nose of the trailer. It can always be worst though

 

How about rolling 400 lb.+ drums, chlorine cylinders or Chlorine tons. Most water treatment plants aren't very well equipped so you always seem to be rolling crap up hills, through grass etc. I dread water treatment plants more than any other place.

 

Not nearly as bad as some mentioned already. However I delivered to rite-aid stores and always seemed to get the loads that were all hand unload. 24 pallets and every piece had to be touched. The main issue I had with that wasnt touching every piece but it was the constant bending over to hand the store employees the product. I already had lower back issues and after a week I was in pain everyday. Only could handle about a month there. If every store was a lift gate and pallet jack delivery I would of stuck with it tho.

 

I always wonder how the guys I see hauling local do it. I haul local, but it's a flatbed. Everything is too heavy to lift, so I load/unload myself in our yard and let somebody else do it elsewhere. Since it's all local tarping takes too much time, so I don't have to do that either. Pretty much as easy as it gets.

I see guys in vans hauling skid after skid of steel parts to the back of the trailer so a forklift can reach them and wonder why they don't just use flatbeds.

Of course the other day I did have to strap florescent light bulbs (the 8 foot ones) on top of a load of tractor draw bars, and we get skids of boxes and plastic parts that really aren't wrapped properly for a flatbed, but that kind of thinking work doesn't make my back hurt.

 

That's why you do city work and make sure it's no touch freight.