Quick question about unloading your own truck

I would assume that all companies are different but driving for Fastenal which delivered to their own stores was like this. They have large pallet crates that look like oversized milk crates. The products are packaged and put inside the crates. You have a pallet jack inside your trailer. You pull the crate to the edge of the trailer and then go get a fork truck to unload. This is done at night. You unlock the store with a key that is in one of those key boxes that realtors put on the doors of houses. You turn off the alarm and go from there. They only had one store with a dock so all had to be this way except that one.

Some of the stops had trailers that used lift gates to lower the product to the ground and you would continue on with the pallet jack there.

You have a scanner that you point a shoot at a label on each crate and that keeps track of your inventory. Go from stop to stop until done.

Way to much work for an old man like me. You don't get a body like I have from hard work.

 

I have to unload at grocery stores and mini malls. I use a two wheel cart and a manual pallet jack.

One of the most important thing is to make sure you get all of your bills signed. I often ask the receiver to print and sign their name so there is no question who received it.

All jobs are different. Sometimes unloading your own freight can have its advantages. You get exercise and have some control of how long it takes to get un-loaded.

One disadvantage is that if you handle a lot of freight it can be hard on your body. It can lead to back and knee problems.

Best thing is to have a real understanding of the work load.

 

That's why everyone wants drop & hook, they're too dam fat to do anything else. I see guys get out of breath just getting in & out of the cab!! lol

I load & unload my trailer every week, and yes, it can be a real pain. Then, when I get the customer's check in the mail, all the pain & aggravation that I thought I was going through at the time, is a distant memory.

 

Done it for over 30 years...slinging burgers and fries ,and everything else that went along with that. But the fast food business is an animal all it's own....the folks that love it like I did wouldn't trade it for anything....you've got love to stay with it. We used a conveyer system set up from the trailer to the restaurant , moving the truck each time we changed doors (freezer compartment , cooler compartment and dry compartment). Our stops where loaded on pallets with stickers on each box designating the stop.

 

yeah every company is different and every store is different, if your loads are pallets and you have a pallet jack then its not too bad, I am about to do a rite aid dedicated which works this way. Now if everything is lose and its hand unload....well have fun with that one!

Some of the hardest working drivers I have seen are the ones who deliver food like with Sysco.

 

Cardinal Logistics has a division in Goodlettsville. All loads are palletized and customer unload. Driver only counts the number of pallets that leave the truck. Good money every week.

 

in the south we unload our trucks redneck style that is you open the door drive in reverse real fast slam on the brakes and it all comes out

 

thats how I was taught to shift the freight if the drives were too heavy

 

that would work also