Getting unloaded

[Bibbyman]

We have a number of commercial customers we deliver product to.  Most have equipment and people equal to the task of unloading.   But I shake my head everything we deliver to two customers.

Customer one is a crane company.  From time to time we make material for mats or heavy blocking.  We deliver to their headquarters that's lot is filled with cranes of all sizes. But they don't have a forklift or skidsteer of any kind.  Although they may have a dozen lesser cranes, they always use the largest one on the lot.  It's a monster that I'd say could reach 12 stories high. They always have some struggle firing it up because it hadn't been started in several months and they always put someone on it that has never ran it.  It's always a struggle for them to get the lifting straps under the bundles and they never have any kind of blocking to put it on.

Customer two is a heavy steel fabricator.  They make steel structure parts that are one to a truck and with escort.   I've seen trailers there making delivery of a single chunk of steel because that was a load.  So you know they have to have equipment to lift and handle stuff. And there are heavy loaders setting around.   But when we deliver blocking,  we have to put it in small bundles because here they come with a little anemic forklift that would work fine unloading toilet paper.   The lot is asphalt but if the forklift bumps into a stone, stick or something,  it's stuck.   They too, never have blocking to set stuff on.  So they pull one bundle and steal the blocking between it and the next.

Both of these places take far more time than necessary because of the way they operate.

[sawguy21]

Do they not have a yard foreman with a lick of common sense who can see what is going on?

[goose63]

You have to wonder thy stay in business with that kind of thinking

[Bibbyman]

Do they not have a yard foreman with a lick of common sense who can see what is going on?

In the case of the crane place, it's a family ran business.   I think they use the monster crane to have an opportunity to fire it up and maybe give someone new some experience operating it.  With the size of business they have, a skidloader would be indispensable.   Maybe they have them at the job site.

As for the other place,  I can only guess that the little fork lift is the only machine the flunky is allowed to operate.

We've been doing business with both places for more than 10 years,  probably delivering orders twice a year and it's never changed from what I've described. 

[Dave Shepard]

Does your new truck dump? Problem solved. I hate disorganization when loading or unloading.

[Bibbyman]

Does your new truck dump? Problem solved. I hate disorganization when loading or unloading.

Nope, no dump. Most of what we deliver wouldn't stand being dumped.  And most of our customers wouldn't stand for it either.

Well, the reason this thought came to mind is Mary ran a load of 3x4s to the steel fabrication place.  She just got back and was telling the story.  She gets there and as usual,  here comes the guy on his rattling little forklift.  He gets to the truck and realized there was a big wheel loader setting right there so the idea came to him to use it instead.   He picked up 1,600 bf with one scoop.  Amazing!

[Jim_Wahl]

Maybe you could increase your delivery fee to any place that takes excessive amounts of time to unload.

[redprospector]

Be thankful, I've delivered to places that sent out 2 guys with gloves, and a claw hammer to cut the bands.

[Dave Shepard]

If it's just blocking, and it's banded, it can be dumped off on two cheesy pieces of blocking without harm. Now they can pick it up at their leisure. A moot point without a dump body on your truck, however. 

[Bluejay27]

On one load I delivered with my brother, we had to drive out in a field and unload it by hand. Just about 1500bf of pine, but this was at 9 p.m. Luckily, we could see the wood well enough.

Then last weekend, we weren't dropping lumber off, we were picking logs up. The guy had a nice 8000lb forklift, the only problem is our truck wasn't big enough for all the logs('99 F550 with a 8ftx14ft bed). But we managed to pack it all on and just had to buy a few extra straps at the nearest hardware store. At least it was a leisurely Sunday drive home. And the logs were worth it, at least 1000bf of box elder that my brother found on craigslist, although it didn't come cheap at $1100. On the bright side, the guy also has some 4ft wide ash logs for $250 a thousand. But for that we'd be better off just bringing the mill over, and maybe buying a bigger chainsaw.

Despite rarely delivering to guys with a forklift, I know what you mean about prompt loading and unloading. When people come to pick up slabs or sawdust, I try to have it easy to get at and have the forklift ready to go, meaning putting the boom on if it's being loaded in the back of a truck. As for loading lumber, most people show up with a trailer with fender flares or a pickup truck, or worse yet, a Honda Ridgeline. That guy had to sacrifice his dog's blanket to keep from scratching the roof.

[NWP]

I deliver wood to a place that has a locked enclosure for the firewood. It always seems to be a major undertaking to get someone out to open it for us. One time while I was sitting there for 20-30 minutes waiting, I decided to raise their cord price by $20. So that delay cost them $40 since I deliver 2 cords at a time. It's my time, they can pay for it.

[FarmingSawyer]

I would say the crane co. is using the unloading as a training/ PM exercise for that specific crane.... It gets run, some one gets "hours" on it and it all looks good in the safety books....

I once was hired to pick up a heavy church altar with my pickup. It was built out of salvaged doug. fir warehouse timbers. The wood shop which built it created huge circular stairs and paneled walls--all pre-fab--for the likes of Bill Gates, etc. They have several band mills and all sorts of industrial equipment there.... I showed up just after lunch and they refused to load the altar because I didn't have a flat-bed and they couldn't use their fork-lift. The altar weighed something like 900lbs so there wasn't any practical way men were going to pick it up off the shop floor and load it.

Overhead there was a series of I-beams and many--over 10--chain hoists which could go anywhere above in the warehouse. I pointed to one of them and said, "what about those? What's their weight limit?" 2 Tons........

I couldn't believe I had to explain to 6 men who worked in this space, and I was only there for the 2nd time for a total of 2 hrs worth of exposure,  how to hoist the altar up so I could simply back the pickup under and go.....

[woodmills1]

I lost a good 2x oak customer years ago.  The yard guy said just dump it I will use the fork lift,  my dump had sides so no forklift.  The boss said 3 pieces cracked and they never ordered again.

[woodNthings]

I feel your frustration, but would find some entertainment in it.  ;D
Your time should certainly be compensated, and maybe you can sell them some blocking.  ???
Since I'm small time and mostly just cut customers logs, it seems like I'm always doing favors when it comes to selling lumber.... "you'll need these stickers", "just leave your trailer and I'll have it loaded", "would you rather have these banded", "I can end-coat them too", "yes of course I can bring them sunday evening"
Arriving downtown at 6pm and helping tote about 2000bdft of 8/4 white oak into an elevator for those 3 office punks is not what I had in mind! :D >:( :'(

[Dave Shepard]

You could always buy an old lumberyard truck with a sheetrock crane on it. Unload anywhere you please. Put it on their roof if you want.  :D

[goose63]

I knew a guy was hauling feed grinders he was some where in Kansas with the last one on Friday afternoon thy would not un load him until Monday he lost a chain hanging the grinder from a tree

[beenthere]

 :D :D
That chain was worth it... Woulda liked to seen a pic of that grinder hanging there in a tree.   ;D

[Don_Papenburg]

One of the old truckers I knew hade a load of steel to deliver . He got to the factory and had the load signed in at the gate It just needed to be unloaded and he was good to go. . The shipping crew was a little slow and he had to wait . come time for his offload he was told to come back in the morning because they were done for the day.  He told them it would be unloaded before he left that evening . He chained up to a steel column and put it in granny and drove out from under and went home.