I have decided to write this article to explain what happens while I am sitting at a delivery location.

About half of the places I deliver to manage to unload me in a pretty decent amount of time, usually under the two hour standard.

The best places I have been to are the smaller shippers that ship local products such as a local dairy, local farm, etc. Also included in the most efficient places are the warehouse stores such as Wal-Mart, SAM'S, and Costco. I can count on being checked in, unloaded, and out the gate within two hours.

But I always cringe when I have to deliver to any supermarket or grocery chain warehouse. They do things totally different, and I can expect every step of the process to be long and drawnout.

The way they usually operate is they will have all the INBOUND deliveries show up late at night, all at the exact same time. Then there is a big rush of drivers and trucks all trying to check in, back into docks, and hire lumpers. We are talking 100 or more drivers all at once! Then with everybody in a dock door, there is usually a team of lumpers (paid unloaders) who unload a few trucks at a time, and they use forklifts. After they finally get the product unloaded, they have to breakdown each product (sometimes I may carry 25-50 or more different products) and separate and restack them on different pallets according to however they warehouse the product for shipments back out to their local stores. This can take anywhere from 2-8 hours. I have never been to a grocer that had me out in less than 5 hours. The longest time I ever had to wait to get unloaded? 23 hours! Yes, almost a FULL day/night!

I do get paid for the extra hours, and usually take a nap. But I still wonder why some places can get the job done quickly without much hassle, while others make it the most difficult ordeal one can imagine!

I don't know, just my thoughts here.......but could that be part of the reason for such high food prices in the grocery stores? Lumpers charge anywhere from Free to $355.00 for them to unload the product!

At a delivery, you MUST be on time and checked in. They pretty much all work by appointment only. There is only a slim chance of being accepted early. However, if you are late, there is usually a steep fine to pay, or you may even have your entire load refused.

So I show up on time (usually an hour early). Then it takes several hours to get from gate to dock door then back out the gate.

I hope this helps shed some light on why you see me sitting for hours at the same delivery location!