Pallets of onions in a container reefer are a pain in the arse. Not only are they heavy and get interlocked with each other, but the floor isnt solid. It has lots of gaps to aid the cooling and the steering wheels of the pump truck can easily get stuck between these gaps.
FarnboroughBoy11:
I thought container drivers just go to sleep when they arrive at their delivery
And I would just be polite about it and ask for help, it’s their goods after all. If they refuse, ask them what they would suggest as you will happy to try anything to get them off the lorry.
i do normally mate 
but we do these odd “assist” jobs, its a decent firm and i don’t mind helping out when i have to, as long as the people at the delivery point are prepared to help 
they stick a bod in the back, i’ll muck in.
they expect me to do it on my own, i’ll politely explain the situation, see what they make of it, and decide from there.
the beauty is my lot have said, if you are not given any help, bring it back
fastlad21:
Pallets of onions in a container reefer are a pain in the arse. Not only are they heavy and get interlocked with each other, but the floor isnt solid. It has lots of gaps to aid the cooling and the steering wheels of the pump truck can easily get stuck between these gaps.
spot on.
Own Account Driver:
switchlogic:
Santa:
As far as I remember veggies, even onions, don’t weigh all that much - I would doubt they will be half a tonne a pallet.Are you kidding? Fruit and veg is some of the heaviest and most difficult stuff you can drag about in a fridge with a pallet truck. Onions are easily a tonne a pallet. As are potatoes, oranges etc
Depends how they’re packed sometimes they’re in crates that are mostly air.
Problem in a fridge is the steering wheels don’t grip on the damp floor so you just twist the handle and push and it still goes straight on.
Yeah but onions potatoes and sometimes oranges are often in big bags stacked really high on a pallet and wedged in.
Thats exactly how the onions were in the containers i unloaded.
switchlogic:
Own Account Driver:
switchlogic:
Santa:
As far as I remember veggies, even onions, don’t weigh all that much - I would doubt they will be half a tonne a pallet.Are you kidding? Fruit and veg is some of the heaviest and most difficult stuff you can drag about in a fridge with a pallet truck. Onions are easily a tonne a pallet. As are potatoes, oranges etc
Depends how they’re packed sometimes they’re in crates that are mostly air.
Problem in a fridge is the steering wheels don’t grip on the damp floor so you just twist the handle and push and it still goes straight on.
Yeah but onions potatoes and sometimes oranges are often in big bags stacked really high on a pallet and wedged in.
Pesonally I don’t have an issue with the pump truck wheels on a wet floor, the tail lift on the other hand…though the best one was on ice on a good slope. Dropped mixed pallet on floor, pallet, truck and me just kept on going, passed the customer to the bottom of the hill. 
A full pallet of onion, even in crates will be a tonne or just under. Same with spuds. Oranges and lemons normally just under but they have more stability issues. Tomatoes are the worst.
chilistrucker:
cheers.
it will be in a container, reefer, onionsand prob about 1100 kilos a pallet.
the job is down as, “driver assist” hmm, we’ll see.
1100kg doesn’t feel like a lot on a pallet especially if you use your head and either drop the rear of the trailer or lift up the front a bit and let gravity give you a helping hand.
1000kgs is quite a similar weight to a ford focus or vauxhall astra. I wouldnt shove one of them about on my own, so what makes moving a pallet of that weight on my own any different?
damoq:
1000kgs is quite a similar weight to a ford focus or vauxhall astra. I wouldnt shove one of them about on my own, so what makes a pallet of that weight on my own any different?
Haha thats funny 
anisboy:
damoq:
1000kgs is quite a similar weight to a ford focus or vauxhall astra. I wouldnt shove one of them about on my own, so what makes a pallet of that weight on my own any different?Haha thats funny
It wasn’t meant to be funny. It was meant to make people realise the weight you are expected to move on your own by comparing it to a car. Thats all.
damoq:
1000kgs is quite a similar weight to a ford focus or vauxhall astra. I wouldnt shove one of them about on my own, so what makes moving a pallet of that weight on my own any different?
Because you have 4 rubber tyres with a bigger contact surface and the weight is more spread out over a bigger volume.
As apposed to a pallet which weighs the same over a smaller area trying to pull it with crapy little metal wheels.
There is no limit other than the two things that actually do the lifting:
The pump truck and the tailift.
Most pump trucks carry 2 - 2.5 tonnes, llok on the plate should tell you, and most tailifts will only take 1500kg, max! that includes operator and pump truck. Get your pump truck weighed, weigh yourself and bang, you have the maximum you can shift. Seeing as the combination of me and pump truck is about 250kg, I am limited to what I can pull on my tailifts to about 1250kg. Never over load a tailift, if it fails and you go down with the ship and get injured, the first thing “they” will do is to weigh everything, including you, what was actually on the thing, if it is over you are to blame!! Remember, play safe children!
switchlogic:
Own Account Driver:
switchlogic:
Santa:
As far as I remember veggies, even onions, don’t weigh all that much - I would doubt they will be half a tonne a pallet.Are you kidding? Fruit and veg is some of the heaviest and most difficult stuff you can drag about in a fridge with a pallet truck. Onions are easily a tonne a pallet. As are potatoes, oranges etc
Depends how they’re packed sometimes they’re in crates that are mostly air.
Problem in a fridge is the steering wheels don’t grip on the damp floor so you just twist the handle and push and it still goes straight on.
Yeah but onions potatoes and sometimes oranges are often in big bags stacked really high on a pallet and wedged in.
When I left school I worked at an catering supplies store. I had the joy of moving pallets of fruit and veg around a warehouse. And yes pots and onions in sacks could be shockingly heavy. Onions in nets tended to stick to the next pallet, as did any bulging pallets that were shrink wrapped.
Tomatoes on on euros were complete hell to move.
Personal worst was lifting a euro pallet of iceberg lettuce of the back of a foreign fridge. It was stacked high, and as I tried to get the pallet over a lip on the back of the trailer, the top layer hit the roof, so I had wiggle the pallet out…but add it cleared the trailer it toppled over the top of the forklift.
No fancy cab, just a metal grill. I ended up looking like a large lump of coleslaw.
well it was a pain in the arse as expected, but it got done.
they did want me to do it on my own, but once the boss came and had a look in the back he said he’d stick someone in with me. the hardest part was trying to get them going, epsecially each 1st pallet of the 2, as the 2 pallets do end up interlocked.
once you got them moving it was ok, just had to be careful as the floor in those reefer boxes does feel slippy, you wouldn’t want to get to much speed up as they are a ■■■■■ to try and stop
would be a doddle with an electric pump up, but they didn’t have 1, so me and my little asian mate sweated our nuts off to get it done.
Alls well that’s end well… And it’s nearly the weekend!!!
FarnboroughBoy11:
Alls well that’s end well… And it’s nearly the weekend!!!
The whole time on this thread, I’ve been thinking it’s spring onions not the big round uns in sacks. 
theonlybigman:
There is no limit other than the two things that actually do the lifting:The pump truck and the tailift.
Most pump trucks carry 2 - 2.5 tonnes, llok on the plate should tell you, and most tailifts will only take 1500kg, max! that includes operator and pump truck. Get your pump truck weighed, weigh yourself and bang, you have the maximum you can shift. Seeing as the combination of me and pump truck is about 250kg, I am limited to what I can pull on my tailifts to about 1250kg. Never over load a tailift, if it fails and you go down with the ship and get injured, the first thing “they” will do is to weigh everything, including you, what was actually on the thing, if it is over you are to blame!! Remember, play safe children!
You’d have to go way, way, way over for a tail-lift to fail catastrophically. Even if the chains snapped on a column lift there’s still a load safety device to stop it falling. They’re loler inspected annually and are checked they don’t lift more than the rated weight and adjusted if they do but they will lift quite a bit more than the rating and they’ll safely tip a lot more all day long.
I’d recommend covering yourself as you say put I wouldn’t get too worried about it there’s plenty of margin of safety.