By Mel Hansen, The Eighteen Wheeler Philosopher
I had the "blessing and privilege" the other morning of off loading at the Costco warehouse in Salt Lake City. My appointment was for 06:30. I showed up 45 minutes earlier hoping I could get unloaded, or at least in line, sooner.
When I arrived there, my hopes were immediately shot to hell as I counted no less than 15 trucks in front of me! Thoughts of sitting there all day to get unloaded instantly spiked my blood pressure to the imminent stroke mode (code blue! I have a DO NOT REVIVE card I carry around signed by my wife! She'll kill anyone who revives me!
Too my surprise, and relief, the line I was in kept moving, stopping only for less than a minute, giving the two gentlemen working the guard shack platform just time enough to take the BOL from the driver...stamp it..and then return it, along with a pager device, and away the driver went to his/her assigned door.
The guard checked me in, assigned me to door 269, told me where it was, said they were waiting for me! (Yea!...for 3 or 4 hours to unload me, I thought to myself!)
As soon as I backed up to the door..the light went from green to red..before I could get out of my truck to make sure I was backed up squarely to the door, the ol truck started rocking from the forklift driver starting to unload me! The trucks on each side of me within a few minutes were unloaded, they pulled away from their doors and immediately were replaced by two other trucks!
I finally started to notice that trucks were coming and going like crazy! In less than 10 minutes I was unloaded..dock door light turned from red to green! The pager they gave me started flashing green and buzzing, giving me the go ahead to move from the door and proceed to the guard shack, where a cute little gal took back the pager, and told me to drive safe and have a great day!
From the time I fell in line behind 15+ trucks at the start to the time I handed back the pager at the shack was under 45 minutes! What a way to start a great day!
My employer and myself do not get paid if Long Legs Lenoir's tires are not spinning forward. I can't tell you how many times I've sat for as much as 6 hours to either get unloaded or loaded! And with all the stupid ask regulations that the federal government has imposed upon the trucking industry such as driving restrictions..it makes it difficult to make a decent living at times.
Most times it's not too big of a problem getting unloaded at smaller facilities, but 98% of the time at places like Walmart distribution centers it can take half a day!
The actual unloading of product happens fairly quick...the problem is getting your paperwork back to get out the guard shack!
Most of these places that hold you up for hours to unload ya don't give a rats ass that your boss has a new scheduled pickup time and place for you to be later in the day! Many times a driver will sit and miss out on the load, or be charged a substantial fine for being as much as 5 minutes late...with fines increasing every 15 minutes you are late!
Everybody I know who's unloaded at a Costco center has had nothing but praise for their efficiency at getting you in and out! Of course there are times when ya might have to sit longer, but nothing like Walmart and some Sysco places!
So from now on I will do all I can to encourage everyone to shop at Costco!! They seem to care not only about their customers...but the poor suckers that deliver the products that fill their shelves and depend upon quick unloading times to get on down the road to get the next load to try and make a living!
If the low lives that run our federal government could even be a 10th efficient as the people who get thousands of trucks in and out of Costco warehouses each day...we'd be in great shape!
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