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My last delivery (2 weeks ago) was Yellow Freight. When they called they specified "they will not back down my driveway" so I had to meet them on the highway with my tractor to unload it. I asked the driver when he arrived and he said no, they no longer can back into driveways. So not sure if they all will go this route but my last experience was just that.Originally Posted by Josko Catipovic
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.
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Recieved a Oneway lathe after Christmas. Shipped from factory by UPS freight. Paid extra for lift gate service. Was told by Ups, when they called to set up delivery time, that they are only required to drop at the end of driveway in the road. I made a couple plans to deal with this as I live on a gravel road with a gravel driveway.
However , I got a really awesome driver, and I helped him pull it into my shop. I think it depends on the driver, and if you're willing to help.
That being said, if my neighbor had a hilo I would definitely ask him if he could help out. Doughnuts or a gift card to his favorite restaurant would be great.
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This is why I end up picking up heavy deliveries somewhere other than my house. Usually the freight company calls before they send the truck out, 'cause they know a rural address around here can mean almost anything. I arrange to meet them in a big public lot if they have a lift and can get the load down to pickup or trailer level. Sometimes the dispatch-driver combo doesn't do their homework and I end up with a semi in my drive or at the driveway entrance, and a driver hoping like hell I can unload them straight off the truck (I can, if the pallet is under 3000 lbs), and asking how in the hell they are going to get out. "Same way you came in Joe, except arse first." You cannot turn around anything longer than a 24ft straight deck in less time than it takes to back out, once you start down my road, unless you've got a field capable rig (farmers turn around their big stuff all the time, in the fields, but not in the road).
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It sounds to me like asking the neighbor would be a good plan, maybe. The biggest thing we've had delivered was a new wood boiler in 2012, it was brought in on a lift gate and the driver backed up to the woodshed which has a concrete floor, and moved the boiler off the liftgate onto the slab with his pallet jack. I can't remember if I helped push it off the liftgate, but probably. From there it was just a matter of jacking the boiler up and putting it on pipes to roll it into the boiler room. It weighed about a ton so it was too heavy for our little 1950s loader to lift. At the other extreme, last year I had 10 bags of foam peanuts delivered by truck, each bag was 30 cubic feet but only weighed a couple of pounds or so. The driver dropped them off in the driveway and I carried them from there, luckily it was a nice day and not windy.
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I have loading docks, but ship all the time to people needing liftgate service, never got a complaint.
Contributor
Delivery trucks can damage a driveway.
Contributor
I've just accepted that it's easier (and usually cheaper) to pick it up at the terminal. Several of them are close to me. Once on my trailer or in the back of my truck I can deal with it my way on my time. When I've had a delivery at my shop/ home I'll use my tractor but always feel pressure to get the driver on his way. When I was younger I delivered glass and some shops were very good while other shops were very unorganized. At least two seamed like they had no clue I was coming. They're your customers so you want to be nice but you also know the route you're taking and when/ where there will be traffic. All of this is in your mind. If a driver has an easy schedule or not much of a load they are going to be more willing to help you.
Member
I have a steep gravel driveway up to my new shop and it is a remote location. Most freight companies do not want to come to the address. For heavy equipment, I usually meet the semi at the Lowe's or Walmart parking lot in town and transfer into my 4wd pickup. Usually my tailgate is a few inches below the trailer door. Things in the 300-500 lb range can be wrangled. Getting from pickup into shop is the next challenge. Most of the time I just get enough guys to help unload. If it is equipment that is not fully assembled, I just unpack and move piece by piece. The moving process depends on the weight of the heaviest piece and typically it takes 1-3 guys helping. I recently added a temporary loading dock at the front of the shop to assist in offloading my pickup. A pallet jack would probably be a big help.
I have also hired College Hunks Moving Junk for moving a lot of tools, like when my entire shop went into storage. I am going to get CHMJ to move all the tools from storage to shop in the next week or two. The estimate is $150/hr for a 26 ft truck and 3 guys with a two hour minimum. It only makes sense if you have a lot to move.
There are also services like TaskRabbit to match up jobs and people. I have used them in Atlanta for moving furniture not heavy equipment. With TaskRabbit, you describe your job and people bid on it. You pick the people who offer to do the service for you. TaskRabbit is not available everywhere.
Contributor
Gadzukes man.. I hope your never one of my customers. Yeesh. Liftgate curbside is the standard of the industry. The driver helps you get it in your building and trips, slips, twists his ankle, whatever, inside your home/property/facility, the companies comp is probably going to say "sorry for your luck your not covered". Do drivers still do it? Of course. The tractor and trailer deliveries I get the drivers bend over backwards to be helpful but I never have expected a single one to help me move a piece of equipment. The lip of the lift gate (rarely have lift gate) or the a$$ end of the truck is where I want their responsibility to end.. for their sake. Thats their job. They are not riggers, movers, machinery movers.
Look at Amazon for "professional setup" of a coffee maker, its like 150 bucks often times. Time, liability, and so on.
Deal with your purchase and dont expect the $50 lift gate fee to involve moving your load. The lift gate fee is there because its slower and the trucking company knows they are probably dealing with a poorly equipped delivery.
Your best advice is to call the shipper and have them hold it at the dock and go get it on a low trailer or some way you can deal with it at your leisure.
I could walk a 60 gallon compressor 20' rocking it from corner to corner across the street if I had to and Im 53. Heck I moved a quincy QT75MAX alone off a trailer.
Suck it up skippy.
Contributor
Well said Mark.
Contributor
I haven't use it yet but I bought a 2 ton engine lift from harbor freight. With it I can easily roll it under my trailer to lift up a piece of equipment. It's the folding style but I'm thinking of making it so I can raise and lower the tower part of it so I can lift stuff out of the bed of a pick up. With the arm fully extended it'll still lift 1000lbs so it should work for all but really large pieces of equipment. I got it for a great price because (like everything from HF) the box was beat up badly so they removed it and put it together to make sure nothing was missing. It was sold as something that was returned since they already had one assembled and on the floor for display.
Contributor
So I'm curious about what the industry expectation is for what you should get for a $400 "inside delivery" upcharge? (This is on top of the $150 lift gate fee.) (Who gets charged only $50 for a lift gate? Every time I've had it done it was either $100 or $150.)
The only really bad experience I've had with a delivery was the one where I paid for inside delivery-- my machine ended up out in the rain storm.
The freight industry seems like another one ripe for an Uber or Amazon style intruder to upend things and provide much better service and steal market share from the established players. I'd use truck freight much more often if it weren't such a hassle with both pricing and service options either unavailable or shrouded in mystery. I suspect I'm not alone.
Contributor
No idea what the 400 would include. That would be a conversation to have with the person cashing your $400 check.
There is no need for an Uber takeover I guess other than a low budget option. It already exists. Its called a rigging company. Would be spendy to pay a rigging company to come all the way to your shop to move in a thousand pound piece of equipment but I guess the point is still the same. If your $400 from your vendor says they will land the crated machine inside your space (without question) its on them. They have no idea if your driveway is mud, stone, concrete, asphalt, wafer thin, 8" thick to withstand a crane, I guess its on them.
The point is to be realistic. Lift gate delivery, and you have a 150' gravel driveway, is pretty unrealistic. Liftgate and your expecting the driver to help you get your machine as close to its final resting place is pretty unrealistic. Lift gate is lift gate.
Your "inside delivery" is a conversation and contract that you have with that specific individual and I would more than likely assume "they" have some sort of verbiage with regards to what a reasonable "inside delivery" is. But Im sure some dip-wad in downtown manhattan has hoo-doo'd them on the notion that "inside delivery" should mean 13th floor up a freight elevator, down 3 miles of corridor, and into some loft workshop space.....
The bottom line is its all about being reasonable.
P.S., MAJOR Bloom County fan here... ;-)
Last edited by Mark Bolton; 02-24-2020 at 2:45 PM.
Moderator
"Inside Delivery/White Glove Delivery/Etc" are services beyond lift-gate for sure. I would think that they would sometimes entail different personnel from "regular truck drivers" in many cases and yea, the cost structure is going to be different. Regardless, it's a best practice to directly ask the carrier who has the delivery what the service includes and their expectations of the individual or business receiving the delivery. Asking the question insures there are no surprises.
BTW, for folks hiring a roll-back like I did for my CNC machine, be sure to understand that not all towing companies will do this kind of work because it requires special insurance beyond what they typically need for their vehicle hauling work. Some will do it and some will not for that reason. I had to call around until I eventually found a resource who, as it turns out, was one of the few in the area who regularly takes non-vehicle work. He loves that because he's making good change and enjoys it, too.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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I pay about 50 bucks for a liftgate and residential address.
I have people ship stuff to me and then come pick it up, I charge 75 bucks for that.
I agree, it should be up to the reciever to make the arrangements to get it from the curb to wherever.
Also, I have yet to meet an LTL driver that wasn't a great guy and more than willing to help out, although with loading docks and forklifts they usually just like to shoot the breeze.
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