We get some inbound freight from NCH, NKX and NAT that is just all over the place. It's made me more conscientious when I do outbound (I work both shifts to get enough hours, and I'm killing myself at nearly 57 years old, but I'm Irish and never die), but I have noticed that Hillman Group never wraps their freight to Lowe's very well. I had to rebuild and recoup a pallet tonight that collapsed when I was trying to move it out of the way of another piece of freight that needed to be loaded. It's a scrambled mess of aluminum and steel plates, threaded rods, corners, and they never wrap it tightly enough. One of our P&D drivers told me all the Lowe's people in this area hate Hillman. I hate it, because it's at least once a week that I have to recoup their freight, and one day we received three pallets, all over hell. I doubt any of the pallets had the correct freight in the end. Maybe give them a tighter wrap if you have time at FAC, or corporate should tell them to secure their freight properly in heavy boxes like Grede and Waupaca foundries or encase them in wooden crates. It invariably gets bent, and then it looks bad on us. Maybe XPO should tell Hillman no more freight unless they package it more securely. And FAC brothers, do what you can not to upset their delicate apple cart until more is done. We have gotten pallets tied to the wall that have spilled all over the trailer in transit.
XPO | Hillman Group
- Thread starter Godslave
- Start date
So you've handled Hillman too? They put some of their freight in boxes, but not the threaded rods and corners and "decorative plates." When we take better care of their freight than they do, it tells me a lot about the quality of their product. And in the end, it gets lost, placed on a wrong pallet or damaged. Like I said, they need to encase it better. If Grede (with whom I am familiar from working at a Continental brake-caliper plant here) can use heavy cardboard to protect iron castings, why can't Hillman?
No it well .
We hade a guy get Jabbed pretty good from a piece of that thread rod and was taken to the ER.
The biggest problems with Hillman freight, the Retarded DSR'S, Dockworkers who will not use long blades... As with all oversize freight, get the goddam long blades. Its that simple (unless you're a ******) Don't try to put it in the air, don't use regular blades.
A driver could ( should ) refuse the freight if it wouldn't ride to the destination because of poor packaging.
For example , I will try and work with a customer if they seem like they will listen. And as long as the freight isn't a safety hazard. I'll tell them where they may need to do better ( in a professional respectful way ) Better banding. Sturdier pallet. More shrink wrap. You get the idea. I also notify the account executive since this is THEIR job.
What causes good drivers not to say or do anything is when they speak up about a legitimate problem and nothing is done about it. You tend to be hand-off afterwards.
Right on, icuicp! I work on the dock and am not on the road, but when 666 said one of his coworkers jabbed his leg on one of their poorly wrapped thread rods and had to go to ER, I took it back to NAV and told my coworkers. There is no reason we should be having to do their work for them. If they don't want to package their freight properly, take it to the UPS Store. For a fee, they will palletize and wrap that $hit tighter than a German virgin during Oktoberfest.
They don't pay us to recoup their damn freight, and I guess that's why XPO is so cheap in the shipping business. People can take advantage of our customer-first policies and how we accept anything. I had a 6,000-pound Eaton power supply cabinet last week that took me 30 minutes to get off the van, and I couldn't steer it to the outbound pup because it was lifting my rear wheels off the floor. It was half a ton past my forklift's limit, and I was even using the long-blades. I let a coworker try to get it on an outbound trailer, and he took out part of the brick in the door because it was as wide and as tall as the trailer. And it took up half the cube of a 28-foot pup!
I love the 48x40x36, because you can squeeze them into the pups three-high and two-wide, and if the pallets are good four-ways, even add more space on the tail by loading them sideways, which also makes a tighter side-to-side pack. You might only get two high at the tail because of the door track, but you can pack that b!tch high and tight!
highspeeds
ENTERTAINMENT USE ONLY
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There are customers that use us for stuff that is late or already trashed. Essentially using us to not only haul their garbage. But to pay for it as well. Win - win for them.
Fly-by-night
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They are not told they can...Some of these city guy was pickup the shippers trash out of the bathroom.
But we have city drivers who are told they cannot even get near their trailers when they're being loaded, like at Hubbell. Then they pack our trailers with $hit that we have to recoup. I was offered a job at Hubbell at the same time I got the job at XPO and said "no, thanks."
Your sales people are looking at Bill count, and revenue. Any idea how many bills and skids of Hillman they get on a trailer? Yes, their freight is too long for the pallet, gets bent, damages other freight, gets recouped, put up top, spills all over, strapped on edge to the trailer wall , and is an injury waiting to happen. But your complaints to management will fall on deaf ears, because their freight takes up very little space, and is not a high price claim. If you are referring to Hubble Lighting, it’s a little better, but not great, especially the 8’ pallets. Bottom row usually broken from short forks.
Fly-by-night
Only when you care to send the very best
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We went through this with a shipper...We took pics with the pro number and sent them to the sale and the company itself. It was also noted when a claim was filed on that pro...It gave us ground to refuse the claim.