FedEx Freight

[Vidkid26]

You obviously know NOTHING of freight industry or the Teamsters Union.

[David G. Nagel]

You obviously know NOTHING of what I know. I was not blaming the Teamster Union for the clause in their contracts that limit the manual labor involved in making a delivery. If the employer wants the driver to off load the delivery then the driver will be compensated and insured. As the man said: been there, done that, got the bill for it.

Dave N

[Vidkid26]

From a retired ABF driver

When ABF is required or requested to employ mechanical loading or unloading devices to accomplish pickup or delivery of freight, an additional charge of $4.50 per 100 pounds of actual weight will be assessed, but not less than $121.65 nor more than $257.15 per shipment per trailer. The charges for this service shall be paid by the party for whom the service is performed. On single line shipments, the charges may be guaranteed by the shipper. At locations where ABF does not maintain suitable equipment and elects to outsource lifting or lowering devices to accomplish pickup or delivery, additional equipment charges incurred by ABF will be collected from the party requesting this service. ABF is not obligated to perform this service where suitable equipment or operators are unavailable, nor at locations inaccessible to our vehicles, or where the safety of our vehicles or personnel is jeopardized. I think you would have gotten off easy with a $50 lift charge.

[Vidkid26]

What you don't know , is that there is no clause in the Teamster contract that limit the manual labor involved in making a delivery when it pertains to a residential delivery. Its governed by the taffifs charged by the company. When it requires a lifgate a charge is applied and proper equiptment is supplied, including labor.

[Tom Watson]

As part of my job as a project manager for a millwork company that made store fixtures I negotiated rates with trucking firms for deliveries all over the country.

Although we always tried to use dedicated trailers, there were times when this was not possible, as in shipments to stores that were already open and needed only some replacement pieces.

I was always able to spec LTL shipments with lift gates and driver assistance at rates substantially below the published market rates.

I would suspect that an outfit like Grizzly has agreements with multiple providers about this but the deal has to be made when the truck is ordered, not to be negotiated by the customer once the delivery arrives.

Of course, when there was a problem, a cup of coffee and a dead president went a long way to smooth things over.

Regards, Tom.

Thos. J. Watson - Cabinetmaker

[J. Clarke]

Lawyers have told me that refusing to take a case solely on the basis of lack of merit can get them disbarred. This apparently is an overreaction on the part of the various state goverments to the situation that existed at one time in which a member of a minority could not secure representation no matter what the merits of the case.

[Vidkid26]

I agree. it burns my pies when someone puts the blame on the driver. Most people have no idea the restraints or problems envolved in a typical residential freight delivery. Every delivery is unique. After doing them for more than 25 years, I think I am well qualified. One of the reasons for retirement was that I had had enough of dealing with guys lik the OP

[Vidkid26]

This is taken directly from the rec.anti FAQ

1. WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN THE TRUCKDRIVER REFUSES TO UNLOAD AND SET UP MY NEW 2000LB MAIL ORDER BLURFL? Truck Drivers should be required to break their backs because you ordered from a mail-order company to get a price break and not from your local dealer. To hell with OSHA and all other stupid government regulations. It?s a real ripoff when you pay .00 for shipping 1000 pounds across the continent and then have to pay a whole bunch more to get it unloaded at your house. Lift gates should be compulsory on all semi trailers, to force the freight companies to deal fairly with their hobbyist woodworking customer, who are the largest part of their business. Do they think everybody has a loading dock in their workshop? It?s obviously not the mail order company since they always make sure they get the best, fastest, and most expensive shipping methods and always specify FAS delivery.

Its sad that some people actually believe this :) Vid...

[LRod]

My "bullshit alarm" is going wild.

[Puckdropper]

Vidkid26 wrote in news:2008081016302143658- vidkid@nowherecom:

Just out of curiosity, how difficult would it be to unload say a 700 lb tool (we'll say its packaged in a rectangular carton) from the truck to the bed of a pickup? (A full size pickup, not a refrigerator mover.) I think there's a height difference of about a foot, maybe 16". Would some kind of ramp make it that much easier?

I'm not planing to do this any time soon, just asking because I'm curious.

Puckdropper

[Rick Samuel]

dad retired about 17 years ago.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Risky for both man and machine. I've moved heavy boxes by balancing on the edge of a trunk or tailgate and lowering to the ground, then moving it with a two-wheeler. Half of 700 is 350 an d I'm not going to attempt to balance

350 pounds and don't want to be close if it slips down or flips over. Ramp may help, but it has to be secure, not just a leaning board, especially when the pickup bed drops a couple of inches with the added weight.