Very well put, brother. Lot's of us can identify with you statements.

I'm not a radical, but we run these docks......if we loaded the trucks right and they were less likely to have claims and not get load factor, what could RDWY do?? Start giving out load factor warning letters?? LOL Like I stated, claims are going to happen.......hell it's freight and we drive 7,000 lb forklifts. I think it's high time we load them the way we want, for the customer's benefit and the heck with load factor. RDWY created this monster, we shouldn't feed it!! DS.

I wish everyone would take note of your reply DS and act on it..

I wish that every dock employee would be required to ride with a city driver for at least one week. Let him get him butt chewed out when he is trying to deliver freight that appears to be sent through a trash compactor. And watch that customer rant and say things like, I will use such and such from now on. I know first hand that this will make your gut sink when this happens. All the freight belongs to somebody! Refuse to cause willfull damage to the freight and I would bet your job would be ok. Managers don't load it WE do. So the way I see it is that labor is causing all the damages.

We actual did that here and i have a lot respect for the drivers but we always end up back where we started new managers with better ideals and engineers with faster transit times but in the end what good is it without the customer........

DS, you are absolutely right. We are still chasing our tails where load factor is concerned. Our customers just want their freight on time and damage free.
Has anyone else that works on the dock (inbound) ever noticed how different the loads will look from different places? Memphis (431), for example, gets a ton of carton freight (Nike shoes and clothing) and they spread it out in the whole trailer. Now I'm sure that is a management "DIRECTIVE" designed to increase load factor. But what is the actual cost? First, the shipment must be picked up from the shipper. second, it is sorted in Memphis. Third, it is loaded by a stacker in Memphis (I ain't talking bout no bricklaying stacking either) which probably takes awhile since he's up and down off that forklift loading skids and topping them out. Fourth, it travels over the road to where ever you are reading this now. Fifth, you get to be the lucky SOB to strip this load. Problem #1: you can't find an empty cart because the dillwad in management sent all of the empty floats out because they took up too much room on the dock. Problem #2: you can't find an empty pallet because everyone else that is working carton loads needs them to. But eventually, you manage to get all those cartons stacked neatly on a pallet(s) so they can easily be loaded on the stack side. How much money did the company save doing this? Wouldn't it be smarter to just nose these volume shipments of cartons? Eliminate 3 of 5 steps as I described above. Leave the shipment intact from shipper to consignee. Oh wait a minute. That's right. I forgot. That would require someone in management make a decision that made work smarter not harder.

Just take your time and do your job right using deck bars, air bags, and dunnage and there will be very few claims. Also, the extra time it takes to build a trailer properly will get some guys off layoff and make it much easier for your brother to strip at the next terminal. It is also job security because less damages means a happy customer and more freight in the future. Remember, the customer is who we are working for and providing our paychecks.