So at John Lewis the other day for a drop and swap.
So is this normal…my loaded trailer was on bay 35…4 bays around it were empty…
So the loaders tell me drop your trailer in the yard, take out trailer from bay 35…drop it in the yard…pick up your empty trailer…drop it on bay 35…pick up your loaded trailer and off you go…
Question…Can I not just leave my empty on bay 36 and pick up mine from 35
Answer…no
Question to 1 of 4 shunters…Can you put the the empty trailer on the the yard onto bay 35
Answer…no do it yourself
Depends on the company but most places won’t employ someone to shift your trailer around for you. At the end of the day it’s not a major time consumer to drop and swap. It is a pain in the @$$ when the weather is against you but it still takes a lot less time than if you were on a curtain sider and having to undo everything to unload.
Lot of the time you’ll find the warehouse staff either pile things up in front of bay doors because either they have no room or the loading ramps are broken. Sometimes you’ll have 8 loading bays but only two in operation.
Radar19:
Lot of the time you’ll find the warehouse staff either pile things up in front of bay doors because either they have no room or the loading ramps are broken. Sometimes you’ll have 8 loading bays but only two in operation.
This ^^^
I had the same last week. The trailer I was collecting was loaded and in a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ ready to hook up, I just had to drop the one Id taken in, even though there were 11 bays free, I had to wait 1.5 hrs for a bay with another truck on it to come free :open_mouth: Turns out all the other "free" bays were either broken, or had things in front of the doors, or couldnt be used for goods in.
Radar19:
Lot of the time you’ll find the warehouse staff either pile things up in front of bay doors because either they have no room or the loading ramps are broken. Sometimes you’ll have 8 loading bays but only two in operation.
This ^^^
I had the same last week. The trailer I was collecting was loaded and in a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ ready to hook up, I just had to drop the one Id taken in, even though there were 11 bays free, I had to wait 1.5 hrs for a bay with another truck on it to come free :open_mouth: Turns out all the other "free" bays were either broken, or had things in front of the doors, or couldnt be used for goods in.
1 1/2 hours at Ridgemont is good going. I spent 8hrs in there once!!!
Radar19:
Lot of the time you’ll find the warehouse staff either pile things up in front of bay doors because either they have no room or the loading ramps are broken. Sometimes you’ll have 8 loading bays but only two in operation.
This ^^^
I had the same last week. The trailer I was collecting was loaded and in a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ ready to hook up, I just had to drop the one Id taken in, even though there were 11 bays free, I had to wait 1.5 hrs for a bay with another truck on it to come free :open_mouth: Turns out all the other "free" bays were either broken, or had things in front of the doors, or couldnt be used for goods in.
1 1/2 hours at Ridgemont is good going. I spent 8hrs in there once!!!
It ended up being longer than that, had a pig of a day (just for a change eh?) … The trailer in the parking space didn`t have a winding handle
The other obvious point which I didn’t pick up for ages is that, when trailer swapping, you only need to connect one air line to get the brakes off the trailer and not every Suzy like what I was doing!
Also, as long as the yard is flat, you also don’t have to wind the trailer legs right up either. I have seen trailers being moved by just lifting the cab suspension but I’m not that brave.
puggy:
The other obvious point which I didn’t pick up for ages is that, when trailer swapping, you only need to connect one air line to get the brakes off the trailer and not every Suzy like what I was doing!
Also, as long as the yard is flat, you also don’t have to wind the trailer legs right up either. I have seen trailers being moved by just lifting the cab suspension but I’m not that brave.
Just a small time saving but it all adds up.
On an empty you’ll get away with red only but on a fully loaded trailer I still do the yellow as well it doesn’t take much tonnage on to start making braking ‘interesting’ on a slippery surface
… hope you had provisions with you