delivering to Lowe's

Dont run that route but the Lowes in Ohio that I have delievered to has no overnight parking in warehouse area but do ha ve a staging area where you can break . As far as dealing with everything else. People are super nice and nice big lots to back up in.

 

Some stores sec.guards want you to park away from building but when you wake up more trucks have pulled ahead of you in line to unload under shed?

 

delivered to quite a few in the south east. one i took my break in the door the rest out front in the parking lot. never had a problem.

 

get loaded, haul keister to the store, call en-route before they close ask for manager (if the BOL doesnt have the #, use google maps to find it) usually they're tickled pink they'll have their gear there 1st thing in AM, and tell you to just park behind the store (not IN lot) when I ran flatbed deliveries out of their DCs I never had a problem with it, BUT I've seen a few towns that have "no trucks allowed within our clean perfect consumerist paradise" heck theres a TS in michigan on 94 i dropped by to nab coffee, their town literally had instituted a 2 hr limit on trucks within the limits, the TS had a big empty truck lot out back and was having trouble staying open because of the mayor's "initiative"

 

When I drove for McElroy I made a lot of Lowe's deliveries, from Alton, IL down thru the southeast. Most seemed to take delivery at 7A.M., but some would knock on the door anywhwere from 5:30 to 7A.M. Typically, when I'd get there the night before, there'd be some young guys on forklifts moving stuff around. I'd just ask them if they knew whether or not the morning folks would unload at 7 or earlier. Usually parked the truck around back at the opposite end from the yard & garden stuff b/c we didn't deliver that. Oh, and some of them will unload McElroy trucks before others, no matter which truck got there first. I guess that's b/c McElroy is Lowe's biggest carrier.

 

I've done a crap ton of Lowes unfortunately.

In short dcs usually have a Vernon somewhere.

Have tandems slid and stop before the first stop sign then stay there or be prepared to get in the back of line if u pull to the second one.
(The one in tx you'll probably go to a lot)

Stores in Texas have never turned me away if not by the border including Austin where a weed Wacker microwave and other junk fell out the trailer.

They put the heaviest thing on the ### end so tandems will be 15th holeish. Good news is Lowes let's you use their scales. Always packed to the max.

Docks are pud backs in Texas.



So if its not a drop and hook type deal where you pull your own trailer out the same slot your putting it in.....I wouldn't touch it.

They break the seal. The must unload it. Won't touch you ahead of appointment. Ever. (However you may be able to drop early if they have a spotter truck like Monet Missouri for example...but again...even if its drop and hook you are set to that appointment...but it'll be 15 minutes as opposed to 4 hours ya know...)

They do it by hand.
Takes forever.

Looking at 2000 miles a week and being home 18hrs if you want to be conservative estimate.
E logs won't be your friend on backhauls to the dc.

Not my thing. But if your satisfied with that go for it.

 

crap shoop deliveries. 4 hour live unloads. Or drop and hook. Or double drop and hook.

 

I do Lowe's store deliveries, once in a while. Some stores let you break on their lot, some don't. Skall says call them first? Good idea. Same with Walmart, by the way. We d/h at Lowe's. We drop the loaded trailer somewhere close, hook the mt in the door, pull it out and drop that, hook the loaded trailer and drop it in the door, hook back onto the mt and drive away. The Lowe's stores I've done are always ready, takes less than an hour. For me, that's perfectly acceptable. Even good. They like you to show up at the time dispatched, because that's when they schedule labor to have the offload completed. Let me ask: why is Mt. Vernon so truck unfriendly? I've never seen so many "no trucks," "no turnaround," and all that. There's places, but man, Mt. Vernon is not happy with trucks and truckers. Is it the litter? Property damage? Noise? I think that Lowe's DC there at 150 is pretty good to work with, as shippers go.