The three questions that prevent a reconsignment

I book every load that leaves this yard. In four years we have had eleven reconsignments and I can tell you the cause of all eleven, because it is the same short list every time.

What a reconsignment actually costs

Worth putting a number on before the list, because people assume it is a rescheduling inconvenience.

On a ten-unit order that is roughly a 25% increase in landed cost, which is more than the entire gap between rinsed and reconditioned grade. It is the most expensive avoidable event in this business.

Question one: is there a dock, and what height?

A standard dry van floor sits at 48 to 52 inches. If your receiving point is at ground level and the truck is a dock-height van, there is no way to get a 132 lb tote down four feet safely, and the driver will not improvise one.

The fix is a lift-gate, which has to be booked. Lift-gate trucks are a subset of the fleet, they cost more, and they are not available on short notice in every lane. Discovering the need on delivery day means the load goes back to a terminal.

Dock height also matters in the other direction. A dock built for 52-inch trailers meeting a 48-inch flatbed needs a leveller with enough travel, and some do not have it.

Question two: is there a forklift, and is it available that day?

These are different questions and the gap between them has caused three of our eleven.

"We have a forklift" is almost always true. "The forklift is on site, fuelled, and someone certified to operate it is working on Thursday morning" is a different claim. On small sites the forklift operator is frequently also the person who does three other jobs, and delivery windows are not always within their shift.

Related: capacity. A 2,500 lb warehouse truck cannot lift a filled 275 at any load centre. If you are receiving filled units, the forklift question includes a number.

The most expensive mistake in this trade is not choosing the wrong grade. It is a truck that arrives and cannot unload.

Question three: can a 53-foot trailer turn in?

This is the one people are most confident about and most often wrong about, because the delivery address and the driver's experience of the delivery address are different things.

• Gate width. A 53-foot trailer needs roughly 12 feet of clear width and a lot more swing room than the gate itself.
• Turning radius. The approach matters more than the entrance. A tight residential street or a sharp internal corner stops a tractor-trailer that would fit through the gate.
• Overhead. Tree limbs, power drops, a low canopy over the dock. Trailers are 13 feet 6 inches.
• Reversing distance. If the driver has to back 200 feet along a fence line with parked cars, factor that in or expect a delay.

If you are unsure, the useful answer is "I do not know, what do you need?" rather than "yes". We will send a smaller truck, which costs a little more per unit and costs far less than a failed delivery.

The fourth question: what is the surface?

This produces near-misses rather than reconsignments, which is why it is not in the headline, but it causes most of our damage claims.

A lift-gate lowers a pallet onto whatever is underneath. On gravel the gate feet sink unevenly, the platform tilts, and a 132 lb tote on a pallet starts to move. We have had two units damaged exactly this way and both were avoidable with one sentence in the order.

What to send us

Four sentences in the message field of any quote request:

1. Dock or no dock, and the height if you know it.
2. Forklift yes or no, its capacity, and whether an operator is there on delivery days.
3. Whether a 53-foot trailer can get in and turn, or the largest vehicle that can.
4. What the surface is where the truck will stop.

That is the cheapest four sentences you will write all week. Equipment options and loading maths are on our freight page and in the palletizing guide.