ODFL | Electric Pallet Jacks
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1984Sideways
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A google of electric pallet jacks at retail sale ranges from around 1800 dollars to over 12,000. You can have any jack you want. Walkers, riders, lifters, telscoping etc.
20.00 a week? Against 2000 dollars? Thats two years. The jack likely will not last that long and the battery will need replacing at that point probably. Its better just to leave the trouble part of owning them to the company itself. They can write off the whole thing as a driver retention measure.
My experience involving riders in my lifetime tell me that they require huge amounts of power. A time of working on a trailer load to the dock plate over 10 hours or even through the night depending on big wood to small wood etc would require fresh power by next day. I made sure to get out of that kind of trucking when they started specifically banning truckers from using electric anything creating additional labor on the manual ones and slowing the unloading situation overall. that was decades ago.
I also remember the liabilty of pallets. Sometimes badly constructed ones broke when they are raised inside a jack. Whirrr. SNAP! no more pallet. 10.00 please driver. Death by ten dollar bills eating into your meager wages for the whole load situation. Its not worth it.
20.00 a week? Against 2000 dollars? Thats two years. The jack likely will not last that long and the battery will need replacing at that point probably. Its better just to leave the trouble part of owning them to the company itself. They can write off the whole thing as a driver retention measure.
My experience involving riders in my lifetime tell me that they require huge amounts of power. A time of working on a trailer load to the dock plate over 10 hours or even through the night depending on big wood to small wood etc would require fresh power by next day. I made sure to get out of that kind of trucking when they started specifically banning truckers from using electric anything creating additional labor on the manual ones and slowing the unloading situation overall. that was decades ago.
I also remember the liabilty of pallets. Sometimes badly constructed ones broke when they are raised inside a jack. Whirrr. SNAP! no more pallet. 10.00 please driver. Death by ten dollar bills eating into your meager wages for the whole load situation. Its not worth it.
I don't understand why a profitable company like OD or R&L can't just purchase electric jacks especially when they don't pay OT after 40 hours
Been to a few terminals and they all have 1-3 electric jacks to share to drivers that need one for the day driver,,,
1 Lone Ranger
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We have a couple. But some guys use it to deliver heavy freight with a liftgate. Not sure how that works since they must weigh 1000 by themself.
Had a guy deliver 2 pallets of bobcat attachments to a residential. They weren't that heavy but he ended up dropping a pallet and the jack.
Not sure how that worked out but I ended up with the delivery. Unloaded both with a regular jack. And reloaded the damaged one since it was a little bit bent. Which is crazy. But he refused it.
And delivered the replacement a while later also with a regular jack..
Wasn't a real level spot which was part of the problem but you gotta just make a plan.
Had a guy deliver 2 pallets of bobcat attachments to a residential. They weren't that heavy but he ended up dropping a pallet and the jack.
Not sure how that worked out but I ended up with the delivery. Unloaded both with a regular jack. And reloaded the damaged one since it was a little bit bent. Which is crazy. But he refused it.
And delivered the replacement a while later also with a regular jack..
Wasn't a real level spot which was part of the problem but you gotta just make a plan.
1984Sideways
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I was thinking about that today (Yesterday) and it would be really cute for a trucking company or any company to offload a cost of equipment onto chump....er their employees who will gratefully absorb the losses out of their own money.
I once met two brothers in Georgia north of Atlanta. They unloaded my trailer for 60 each. Big fat boxes on the floor. 150 a box in pounds. No pallets. They were throwing them to one another from where the stack was to the other on the dock who would catch and stack. When I moved one of those boxes, people waited on me. It will be a minute.
Really big big fellas. Not much brain. I never forgot them. They made a hell of a good living unloading 5 or more trailers a day there without too much effort. I dont know of any humans in real life bigger than these were. Except in wrestling or whatever sports which is really hard to compare on a TV screen.
I would not be surprised if one of you or more did not believe that Atlanta incident story. However stranger things have happened out there on the road.
I once met two brothers in Georgia north of Atlanta. They unloaded my trailer for 60 each. Big fat boxes on the floor. 150 a box in pounds. No pallets. They were throwing them to one another from where the stack was to the other on the dock who would catch and stack. When I moved one of those boxes, people waited on me. It will be a minute.
Really big big fellas. Not much brain. I never forgot them. They made a hell of a good living unloading 5 or more trailers a day there without too much effort. I dont know of any humans in real life bigger than these were. Except in wrestling or whatever sports which is really hard to compare on a TV screen.
I would not be surprised if one of you or more did not believe that Atlanta incident story. However stranger things have happened out there on the road.
1 Lone Ranger
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The other good reason is actual heavy freight. For example there used to be a grocery warehouse who is now gone. But a union warehouse won't drive in your trailer. Had this account with Mexican food items. Dried chili and oregano and even beans aren't heavy. Enchilada sauce in cans is but usually wasn't much or I would break some of it down on the trailer.
But a full pallet of rice is pretty heavy. And if I could get it onto the dock plate they would pull it off. They just would not drive inside. So there's that.
But a full pallet of rice is pretty heavy. And if I could get it onto the dock plate they would pull it off. They just would not drive inside. So there's that.
I’ve got a 2 customers on my route where I pick up chemicals in tote tanks that are lift gate pickups. Nothing like 16 to 20 totes pallet jacked out of the building and then lift gate into the trailer.
I will not be 50 with a bad back from pushing and pulling a pallet jack.
1984Sideways
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My back quit at about 44. Where I am approaching 60 is a horrorshow back there. Three degenerative conditions in addition to two previously broken discs that nature took care of. (Which was a bit of luck, one was C5 the other was the much more important T10.)
At some point I will cough too hard and SNAP! that would be that for the spine.