[AT] Tractor hauling

[Mike Sloane]

I guess my comments were partly just reminiscing and partly to give you 
some ideas on solutions to the problem. And you can solve some of those 
problems by lining up a local wrecker service guy ahead of time to come 
with a rollback truck and winch. The back of truck will be close enough 
to the height of tractor-trailer deck so that the load can be 
pulled/driven back and then eased down to the ground. With a little 
effort on everyone's part, this can be done in a very few minutes and at 
a reasonable cost. For loads that are truly static (or too heavy for the 
average service station rollback), you can call on a truck recovery 
wrecker outfit. (I had to do that once when the load was just too much 
for our equipment - a 20 ton trailer was on top of 4 others, and I 
couldn't reach it.) It will cost a little more (the time I had to call 
on one, the bill came to $300 for half an hours work), but they know 
what they are doing and can have a surprisingly ugly/heavy load off the 
trailer deck safely and sitting where you want it in a very short time. 
  And the rate they charge is likely to be more reasonable if you can 
arrange the operation for a weekday. But, as Cecil mentioned, the key is 
planning - don't wait until the load is in your yard to try to figure 
out how you are going to get it off!

Mike

Cecil Monson wrote:
>> I can well relate to John's comments relative to unloading equipment. 
> 
> 
> We used to receive new tractors, TLBs, skid steer loaders, agricultural
> 
> equipment, and 20 ton trailers at the dealership,
> 
> 
>     I could be wrong but I think what John was referring to was a
> truckers concern about hauling for individuals and a lack of
> coordination in both loading and unloading. Hauling commercial loads
> is a different thing with normal business hours and normal delays
> possible on both ends. It is different if an individual wants a tractor
> or machine hauled some distance and hires a trucker. A lot of the time
> the tractor or machine isn't really running, there is no loading dock
> anywhere, and there is no help to get the thing loaded. The search
> begins when the trucker gets there and they expect him to sit there and
> wait while they find help and a way to get it loaded. Same thing happens
> on the delivery end. They don't expect to pay extra for this but time is
> money and there should be a charge or some other consideration given the
> the trucker. I have hauled things for others a good distance from home
> and can tell you that a person gets leery of this quickly. The phone
> numbers you are given to call are not answered, or they "had to go
> somewhere" and left no word when they would be back. In the case of
> picking up a tractor one time, I was told where to go and given a good
> description of the buildings and yet no one there had any idea who the
> person was I was told to contact. As a customer taking delivery of a
> new trailer that comes stacked on top of other trailers on a flatbed
> truck is one thing. Asking a trucker to stack something to be hauled on
> top of someone else's load is something else. No one is going to do it
> or would have a way to do any stacking. John knows how this goes and
> is giving good advice when he says you have to be ready at both ends.
> Anyone hiring a trucker to haul for him should take John's advice and
> do his best to see that help is there on time and both the loading and
> unloading go smoothly.
> 
> Cecil


-- 
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
mikesloane at verizon.net
Images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought. -Graham Greene,
novelist and journalist (1904-1991)


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