It's a Team's Life

Keeping our cool

Load started out as an easy one 9600 pounds, 8 skids, use our lift gate, good pay, great scenery, 1850 miles loaded, straight through delivery.

When we received the call from the agent about this load in Montana he told us we were 572 miles from the pickup and would not load till two days later. We thought about it and decided we could make it work as we had some chores to get done and we could get a 34-hour restart.

We headed up to Great Falls, Montana and the scenery was fantastic all of the way as the roads were clear and the weather was perfect. Once we reached Grand Rapids we decided to do a drive by of the customer and see what we were getting into and that is when we went "Oh No" this is not going to be fun. The business was located in an older part of downtown with a lot of stores, very little parking, and tight alleys. There was no doubt in our mind if they wanted to load us in the alley it was going to be a tight fit and once we were in there the alley would become impassable.

This business was shutting their doors and all of their records were being shipped to their new location in Nashville, TN. The freight was sensitive as there were a lot of personal records and why they requested an exclusive use truck with a team. We appeared bright and early in the morning so we could get into a parking spot and find out where they wanted us to load.

The shipper did want us in the alley and we were going to have our work cut out for us not only to get into the alley but also to use the lift gate. The alley was old and did not have a smooth surface so the lift gate would not fit flat onto the roadway. We knew we could get around this problem with a little help from the ground crew. The documents were located in the basement and two guys with a pallet jack were downstairs bringing up one pallet at a time using the elevator. Then our pallet jack would be put to work and the pallet with help would be pushed onto the lift gate, raised up to the level of the freight box, and then placed into position for the trip to Nashville.

All of these guys were fun to work with and they all had the attitude of can do. Each one of them asked a lot of questions about the Cascadia and also the lift gate. Our Pallfinger Lift Gate is top of the line and you can see more pictures of it here: https://www.teamrunsmart.com/the-pros/linda.caffee/1101/truck All of them shared horror stories of lift gates they had seen in the past and then how much they appreciated our set up. The aerodynamics of the truck and the skirts also fascinated them and they had a lot of really good questions. We left this shipper with handshakes, warm smiles, and have a great day.

Once we had the freight loaded, paperwork signed, we were off for Nashville with a lot of back roads to run in Montana. Luckily it was my turn to drive and it was beautiful scenery with little traffic. This was one of those drives where the radio was turned off and I was not listening to a book so I could take in all of the scenery as I was driving by.

Once we reached our destination we knew we had another problem as the customer only wanted two of the pallets. The other pallets were to go in storage at a Iron Mountain facility. Frustrating started building as we had two more loads booked and we needed to get unloaded and make that next pickup. A call was placed to the booking agent to see where the other six pallets needed to go. This poor guy had been through the ringer after he had booked us this load and then a tractor-trailer load going out of the same place the next day. The agent could not find a tractor-trailer with a lift gate so he had to rent a forklift for that load. He called back with a new address for delivery and asked me to keep track of the mileage and how long it took to get unloaded to see if he could get us more money.

When I plugged in the new address it was ten miles away and we made it there in no time and they quickly got us offloaded and we were on to our next load. The agent was called and told the mileage and how long it took to offload. The next words he heard was you know it was not that big a deal to get this load unloaded don't worry about it and have a great day!

This load had a lot of stresses from getting into that alley and getting the pallets loaded to getting all of this freight off and we could have acted much differently than we did. Through all of this we stayed calm got the job done, kept the customer as well as the agent happy, we made money, and saw a lot of great scenery. Doesn't get much better than that.

Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
[email protected]

Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;
Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;
Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;
Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.