As the title suggests, just having a moan coz of the weight of some of these pallets that your expected to deliver safely, went to a small Nisa shop today, had 3 pallets for them all different sizes and weights. Now I must admit that there was a very small incline which I thought was ok, and I’m in a 7.5t so the ■■■■■■ tail lift is tiny compared to an 18t lorry, I’m sure your all aware. It’s like half a foot smaller than 18t tail lifts! The pallet just about sits on it evenly, let alone with near a ton on it as well, makes it so hard lining it up level with the edge ffs
Got the first two off and thought it was all going well, then started lifting 3rd one and pump truck starts creaking so you know it’s a heavy ■■■■■■■ , managed to turn it around and started shuffling it towards the back end. Got it half on but where the tail lift is so flimsy/■■■■ it bows under the weight so that drags the pallet back even more, and I’m not exactly skinny but even I couldn’t hold it on. So the lip of the pallet beaches itself over the edge of the lift, and that’s it then, you can’t rescue it from there (don’t try to be a hero)! So pulled the pump truck out and over the thing went, now we’re talking bags of sugar, cartons of juice, glass jars of marmalade all gone down the swanny! Being the gent I helped clear up and got a coffee out of them for it hehe .
So that’s it, I’m sure we’ve all been there with a ■■■■■■ pallet etc, but people do take the right royal ■■■■ with what they will try and stack on a pallet, and don’t give a toss how much it weighs coz they aren’t taking it to its destination - WE ARE ,
And 7.5t tail lifts are not long enough/adequate to support these monstrosities which doesn’t help the situation either.
Feel for you mate and totally agree. Those pallets take the ■■■■, regularly get pallets over 6 foot high weighing a bloody ton,and when they go there’s no stopping em. God forbid a member of the public is ever behind a wagon when a big one goes. These firms are ■■■■ hot when it comes to h&S, but think nothing of overloading a pallet just to avoid sending out an extra run
Don’t shift then then. All good hitching about it, but either put your money where your mouth is, and refuse to shift too heavy pallets on too small tail lifts, or put up and shut up. For duck sake, if the tail lift sags when you move the pallet on…
Dan Bear 87:
then started lifting 3rd one and pump truck starts creaking so you know it’s a heavy [zb] , managed to turn it around and started shuffling it towards the back end. .
You should of realised about then that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to roll it onto the tail lift. Then broke down the pallet onto another pallet and take the two off easily and safely.
Dan Bear 87:
then started lifting 3rd one and pump truck starts creaking so you know it’s a heavy [zb] , managed to turn it around and started shuffling it towards the back end. .
You should of realised about then that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to roll it onto the tail lift. Then broke down the pallet onto another pallet and take the two off easily and safely.
Well being in the moment and all that, you don’t think it through because you got one eye on your next delivery. We’re not supposed to strip the pallets down anyway, that’s down to the customer. This is the only one I’ve lost btw, but I will assess it better next time!
So before anyone else starts crying what’s the safe working load of the taillift? And if it ain’t your job to break down the pallet why even try taking it off
It’s all very well saying he should have broken the pallet down etc, but doing multidrop in a 7.5 I’m sure we’ve all been there; not so much timed deliveries as the sheer number of deliveries and if it’s a 50/50 chance on the pallet, usual protocol is to give it a go, albeit very gingerly.
Worst one I had was a pallet of firewood for some residential address. It was a newbuild area but on a bit of a hill. This thing was nearly as high as the superstructure at the back of the truck and weighed nearly 900 kg if I remember correctly. The guy I was delivering to warned me that the last bloke who delivered to him had the pallet go over and damage his neighbour’s car, at which point I considered saying eff it and telling my company it was a two man job. There was no way I was gonna push it uphill, so only choice was to act as the brake and let it roll down towards the taillift. Ended up being pretty uneventful actually, but always keep it pumped LOW and have your hand ready on the handle to drop it if it starts to get away from you; if it’s low and you drop it, 99% of the time it’ll just come to a sudden stop without toppling over.
Nowadays I’d reject a location like that, but if it was on the level I’d give it a go for sure.
Feel for you mate been there delivering to a pallet to motor world nice level carpark head high pallet wrapped in black wrap . Got it turned around taking it sloy onto the tail lift just easing the pallet down and it starts to bend close to the bottomed and that was it off it goes . Turns out some idiot had stacked five layers of heavy car battery’s on top of a layer of small screen wash bottles in cardboard boxes and the battery’s had just squashed them and over it went .
Bad day at office. Just remember next time you have doubts strip it down to save the grief.
I used to collect eggs from farms with just pallet truck and they stacked them too high. It was hard to pull them on and damaging some. I’m 6. 3 and 19 stone and struggled in then end I refused unless the reduced a layer. They agreed in the end
Dan Bear 87:
U never had a bad day then pal, what’s your problem? Can’t I let it out in a positive way on here and get some feedback however unhelpful it may be.
And thanks to rat67’, he’s clearly been there and done it so respect to you.
Sorry to hear about your day, luckily unhelpful feedback is my speciality.
Now playing devils advocate with a pinch of light trollin I wonder if you are very new to the job, perhaps you have not been trained in weights and physics or perhaps your just daft.
As mentioned when one is greated with a large pallet on a very small vehicle its worthwhile considering how events might unfold, this can be practised by balancing a heavy object on ones todger and watching the effects, similar to a tail lift it will droop due to a mixture of gravity and being stressed beyond its comfortable working limits.
The best course of action is to break the pallet down, even just taking a 1/3rd off will reduce the risk dramatically.
I can understand you maybe wanting to crack on to your next job but this mindset is one of the main reasons for a majority of unsafe events / incidents / accidents / ■■■■ ups.
Hurry up and take your time with a smidgen of do it once do it right will see you progress through the ranks to one day drive a proper truck.
I also feel what has taken place is a reportable dangerous occurence, can you confirm what actions where taken to report this event so your company may adopt better procedures in pallet safe loading.
If your agency as well this would be hilarious…
Seriously though sometimes poop happens and fair dos for helping em clear your mess up.
I agree with Mike C, break it down… but it should never be that heavy in the first place…
or plan B, keep losing them over the edge,
they will either get the message and make the pallets lighter or get someone else to do the job… either way its win win for you…
, managed to turn it around and started shuffling it towards the back end. Got it half on but where the tail lift is so flimsy/■■■■ it bows under the weight so that drags the pallet back even more, and I’m not exactly skinny but even I couldn’t hold it on. So the lip of the pallet beaches itself over the edge of the lift, and that’s it then, you can’t rescue it from there (don’t try to be a hero)! So pulled the pump truck out and over the thing went, now we’re talking bags of sugar, cartons of juice, glass jars of marmalade all gone down the swanny! Being the gent I helped clear up and got a coffee out of them for it hehe 
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