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ABF | Arcbest Refrigerated Transportation Options

Guy up at the far end of town works for/is leased to Panther. Parks a 53' refrigerated van in a muddy field north of town. It sits there for days on end.........

Far as I'm concerned, if they're going after the produce field to unload,.....and be jerked around,.........at food warehouses,....I can't think of a better company to give that type of work to.

Man,...am I glad I retired........Food warehouses...........If you really want to see how the Third World operates, and be treated like a Third-Class citizen in the process,.....take a load of freight/food into a food warehouse......

There is only one true subhuman species on this planet,.....and that is employees of "lumper" services. For a criminally endemic class of humans who exist only to cheat other human beings........leeches on two legs.......they have to be "supported" by an equally complicit and criminal corporate structure.......Lumpers,......Who ever heard of paying people to unload their freight?........The only reason they exist is because it's illegal for the corporate entity to directly extort money from the driver,.....got to do it through the quasi-legal lumper ..."service".......

ArcBest,....in it's ignorance,......wants that type of freight? Go for it,.....give it to Panther,........watch that driver turnover rate go to 99%......
 
canaryinthemine said:
Guy up at the far end of town works for/is leased to Panther. Parks a 53' refrigerated van in a muddy field north of town. It sits there for days on end.........

Far as I'm concerned, if they're going after the produce field to unload,.....and be jerked around,.........at food warehouses,....I can't think of a better company to give that type of work to.

Man,...am I glad I retired........Food warehouses...........If you really want to see how the Third World operates, and be treated like a Third-Class citizen in the process,.....take a load of freight/food into a food warehouse......

There is only one true subhuman species on this planet,.....and that is employees of "lumper" services. For a criminally endemic class of humans who exist only to cheat other human beings........leeches on two legs.......they have to be "supported" by an equally complicit and criminal corporate structure.......Lumpers,......Who ever heard of paying people to unload their freight?........The only reason they exist is because it's illegal for the corporate entity to directly extort money from the driver,.....got to do it through the quasi-legal lumper ..."service".......

ArcBest,....in it's ignorance,......wants that type of freight? Go for it,.....give it to Panther,........watch that driver turnover rate go to 99%......
Click to expand...

Do you think the trailers are equipped with seats, to make border crossings more comfortable?
 
canaryinthemine said:
Guy up at the far end of town works for/is leased to Panther. Parks a 53' refrigerated van in a muddy field north of town. It sits there for days on end.........

Far as I'm concerned, if they're going after the produce field to unload,.....and be jerked around,.........at food warehouses,....I can't think of a better company to give that type of work to.

Man,...am I glad I retired........Food warehouses...........If you really want to see how the Third World operates, and be treated like a Third-Class citizen in the process,.....take a load of freight/food into a food warehouse......

There is only one true subhuman species on this planet,.....and that is employees of "lumper" services. For a criminally endemic class of humans who exist only to cheat other human beings........leeches on two legs.......they have to be "supported" by an equally complicit and criminal corporate structure.......Lumpers,......Who ever heard of paying people to unload their freight?........The only reason they exist is because it's illegal for the corporate entity to directly extort money from the driver,.....got to do it through the quasi-legal lumper ..."service".......

ArcBest,....in it's ignorance,......wants that type of freight? Go for it,.....give it to Panther,........watch that driver turnover rate go to 99%......
Click to expand...
I pulled for Procter & Gamble at my training wheel company, and I dealt with lumpers often enough that if I ever see one, I'm breaking a beer bottle over their head. Lol
 
Any of us who delivered those places have some 'fond' memories of the experience(s). I used to deliver one on a regular basis, close to a pup of pallets. The 'receiver' would sit on a pallet of merchandise reading a newspaper and point to where I was to put the freight. I was allowed to use their pallet jacks but not their forklifts. So...we started loading the pallets sideways even though we didn't need to the room, that way I could sit on the pallet of merchandise and tell him where to put the freight. :hilarious:
 
ABFer said:
Any of us who delivered those places have some 'fond' memories of the experience(s). I used to deliver one on a regular basis, close to a pup of pallets. The 'receiver' would sit on a pallet of merchandise reading a newspaper and point to where I was to put the freight. I was allowed to use their pallet jacks but not their forklifts. So...we started loading the pallets sideways even though we didn't need to the room, that way I could sit on the pallet of merchandise and tell him where to put the freight. :hilarious:
Click to expand...
Thanks, ABFer! I needed that one today! It's now 5pm where I'm at and I just punched into my lunch. One of those days. Weeks...months...years...you get the picture.
 
A food warehouse near me enacted the policy based on the OSHA recommendations that you have to be trained on the piece of equipment (i.e. forklift, electric pallet jack, etc....) that you are using,.....so all outside "vendors".....truck drivers in plain english......have to either provide their own equipment or use the lumper service to unload their freight.

What is generally not known is that the Warehouse Grocer's Association heavily lobbied for the OSHA law change back in 1993(?)......knowing that most, if not all ,truckers would have to resort to the legalized extortion that is the lumper service. This is their response to the Federal Anti-Lumping statute enacted in 1988 to curtail kickbacks and outright extortion with cash payments prior to the legislation being enacted.

And,.....NO,.....the Federal government wasn't looking out for the financial well-being of truck drivers. ..........They were looking at loss of tax dollars due to lumping being a primarily cash business......

A codicil to the OSHA ruling required receiving food warehouses make manual pallet jacks ..."available".....to unloading truck drivers,.....thereby preserving the fantasy that there is no monetary extortion . One broken-wheeled POS pallet jack for fifteen dock doors satisfies the requirement....

After arguing for a few days with the receivers of the food warehouse,...........whose Modus Operandi was exactly what ABFer described above.........they sit and read the newspaper until you've done all the work,....blown your back out trying to drag a 2000 lb skid of sugar off with a wobbly-wheeled pallet jack,......sorted and segregated to their satisfaction,........and in compliance to THEIR break and lunch times,........I asked the receiving supervisor if it mattered to him what kind of power equipment I could bring from ABF's dock to unload my truck...........HE,....being completely sick of my complaining,....said: "I don't care what you bring..."

TM said: "As long as you secure it safely in the trailer....."

So,........I backed out one of ABF's propane towmoters onto their dock and proceeded to unload my 10 skids of canned goods. The dock crew went ballistic..........and I almost had a fistfight on with several of the newspaper-reading "workers".........They spent the next half-hour trying to block my door with stacks of pallets,.....but since I had my own towmotor, I easily moved them out of the way........The OverNite driver next to me practically wet his pants laughing so hard,........Pandemonium reigned......but I was in and out in about 45 minutes,......as opposed to the 4 or 5 hours previously.....

The thing was,.....I was trying to make a point with those guys on the dock........ They were members of the Teamsters,....in fact, the same Local I was in,...........and their treatment of their so-called "Teamster Brothers",........and all other truckdrivers delivering there, transcended just mere "following company policy" and bordered on actual disdain of anyone "stupid" enough to drive a truck for a living............They actually enjoyed forcing guys to use lumpers,....and laughed at you for using the POS pallet jack.,.........in spite of the fact that they knew their company was "charging" the lumper service for "use" of the powered equipment on the dock...(Kickback?)..........

Obviously,....the food warehouse management called ABF and tried to get me barred as an "unruly and disruptive" person,..........which sparked a very heated conversation with my boss about excessive detention time and why they couldn't unload our trucks as fast as I could with the ABF towmotor........

My Teamster "Brothers" on that dock snubbed me for years,.......not listening to me telling them that letting a non-Union outside contractor ....Lumpers.....on their dock and doing their work,....was a very dangerous thing.........

Prior to me retiring,........that food warehouse now has one "newspaper-reader" for 30 dock doors,....He don't get a chance to read much now, as he has to do the check-in for all thirty doors,......and ALL the unloading and receiving is done by the non-Union lumper crew......Laid off about 100 Union members........

Is there a Moral to this story?
 
I have some tractors leased on at Panther and we just started to see these 53' ArcBest Reefers. We mostly pull Panther branded trailers moving pharmaceuticals, however, these have started to show up lately. Right now, they are just being used for two dedicated accounts that Panther has: Nestle and PetSmart. But who knows, I have heard rumors that the Panther brand/logo is easily identified as high value freight so they might want to make the special trailers kind of "bland" to help reduce targeted cargo theft.


v5JTNEk.jpg
 
canaryinthemine said:
A food warehouse near me enacted the policy based on the OSHA recommendations that you have to be trained on the piece of equipment (i.e. forklift, electric pallet jack, etc....) that you are using,.....so all outside "vendors".....truck drivers in plain english......have to either provide their own equipment or use the lumper service to unload their freight.

What is generally not known is that the Warehouse Grocer's Association heavily lobbied for the OSHA law change back in 1993(?)......knowing that most, if not all ,truckers would have to resort to the legalized extortion that is the lumper service. This is their response to the Federal Anti-Lumping statute enacted in 1988 to curtail kickbacks and outright extortion with cash payments prior to the legislation being enacted.

And,.....NO,.....the Federal government wasn't looking out for the financial well-being of truck drivers. ..........They were looking at loss of tax dollars due to lumping being a primarily cash business......

A codicil to the OSHA ruling required receiving food warehouses make manual pallet jacks ..."available".....to unloading truck drivers,.....thereby preserving the fantasy that there is no monetary extortion . One broken-wheeled POS pallet jack for fifteen dock doors satisfies the requirement....

After arguing for a few days with the receivers of the food warehouse,...........whose Modus Operandi was exactly what ABFer described above.........they sit and read the newspaper until you've done all the work,....blown your back out trying to drag a 2000 lb skid of sugar off with a wobbly-wheeled pallet jack,......sorted and segregated to their satisfaction,........and in compliance to THEIR break and lunch times,........I asked the receiving supervisor if it mattered to him what kind of power equipment I could bring from ABF's dock to unload my truck...........HE,....being completely sick of my complaining,....said: "I don't care what you bring..."

TM said: "As long as you secure it safely in the trailer....."

So,........I backed out one of ABF's propane towmoters onto their dock and proceeded to unload my 10 skids of canned goods. The dock crew went ballistic..........and I almost had a fistfight on with several of the newspaper-reading "workers".........They spent the next half-hour trying to block my door with stacks of pallets,.....but since I had my own towmotor, I easily moved them out of the way........The OverNite driver next to me practically wet his pants laughing so hard,........Pandemonium reigned......but I was in and out in about 45 minutes,......as opposed to the 4 or 5 hours previously.....

The thing was,.....I was trying to make a point with those guys on the dock........ They were members of the Teamsters,....in fact, the same Local I was in,...........and their treatment of their so-called "Teamster Brothers",........and all other truckdrivers delivering there, transcended just mere "following company policy" and bordered on actual disdain of anyone "stupid" enough to drive a truck for a living............They actually enjoyed forcing guys to use lumpers,....and laughed at you for using the POS pallet jack.,.........in spite of the fact that they knew their company was "charging" the lumper service for "use" of the powered equipment on the dock...(Kickback?)..........

Obviously,....the food warehouse management called ABF and tried to get me barred as an "unruly and disruptive" person,..........which sparked a very heated conversation with my boss about excessive detention time and why they couldn't unload our trucks as fast as I could with the ABF towmotor........

My Teamster "Brothers" on that dock snubbed me for years,.......not listening to me telling them that letting a non-Union outside contractor ....Lumpers.....on their dock and doing their work,....was a very dangerous thing.........

Prior to me retiring,........that food warehouse now has one "newspaper-reader" for 30 dock doors,....He don't get a chance to read much now, as he has to do the check-in for all thirty doors,......and ALL the unloading and receiving is done by the non-Union lumper crew......Laid off about 100 Union members........

Is there a Moral to this story?
Click to expand...
I know what you are saying here, Canary. But all of this could be avoided too, if the trucking companies instead of bending over for the shippers of this type freight just to fill trailers, would put it in their pricing to charge rates, with no discounts to help with time spent, and driver delays at grocery docks, or just bring the freight at the appointed time, and again, put it right in the pricing that the consigned has to unload, and sort the product, and that detention starts 1 hour from driver arrival. Of course getting the majority of the LTL carriers to go along with this would be called collusion, illegal pricing, or a burden to the consignee. But if the majority stuck together on this, I think it would halt much of the extortion that now exists with this freight.
 
I don't know if they still do but ABF used to charge a sort/seg fee on total cartons shipped. So if a pallet held 100 cartons and we had to handle 50 someone paid the fee on 100 ctns. They never advertised this tidbit to the lowly working peons but I found out about it. Eventually the payment of that fee gets everyone's attention and the receivers try telling me that I can't write it on the freight bills. :hilarious: I didn't collect the money so it didn't make a big difference to me but I always write it down and when they tell me that they don't pay it I politely tell them that that part of it is above my pay grade. Oh, and thanks for shipping ABF, have a great day.
 
One time I had a receiver who was as ignorant as he could be...he told me how to put the freight on the pallets and told me that I was wrong when I told him that there were two different items on the shipment. It was a full pup. He pointed to the 8' tall pile of pallets over there that I could use and sat on his forklift while I strained to get them down. I did just as he requested but I turned all of the labels inward on the stuff as I palletized it and he put it up in the racks as he pulled it away. When I got to the last pallet I turned the labels outwards so he could see them. See, all through that trailer they had those little drums intermingled and every pallet that he put in the racks had two drums of each product on them.
 
Hah! Oh yeah..........There are ways to get revenge.........The two "broken" bottles of pancake syrup in the middle of the third tier of a four tier skid,.....so you can't tell they are broken, and it doesn't become evident until a week later when the entire skid from the third tier down is sticky with syrup.........
 
ABFer said:
One time I had a receiver who was as ignorant as he could be...he told me how to put the freight on the pallets and told me that I was wrong when I told him that there were two different items on the shipment. It was a full pup. He pointed to the 8' tall pile of pallets over there that I could use and sat on his forklift while I strained to get them down. I did just as he requested but I turned all of the labels inward on the stuff as I palletized it and he put it up in the racks as he pulled it away. When I got to the last pallet I turned the labels outwards so he could see them. See, all through that trailer they had those little drums intermingled and every pallet that he put in the racks had two drums of each product on them.
Click to expand...

O what a wicked web we weave!!
 
MSRTransport said:
I have some tractors leased on at Panther and we just started to see these 53' ArcBest Reefers. We mostly pull Panther branded trailers moving pharmaceuticals, however, these have started to show up lately. Right now, they are just being used for two dedicated accounts that Panther has: Nestle and PetSmart. But who knows, I have heard rumors that the Panther brand/logo is easily identified as high value freight so they might want to make the special trailers kind of "bland" to help reduce targeted cargo theft.


v5JTNEk.jpg
Click to expand...
Good point, Brother. By the way, the ABF contract has paragraphs in them that requires any contractor working for ABF and affiliates to be paid contractually equivalent pay. These paragraphs keep labor rates roughly the same, so there is no incentive to shift the freight to the cheaper labor rate. There are also several articles dealing with Owner Operators in which they pay both a truck check and a labor check. It may behoove you to acquire a copy of the ABFNMFA. You can download it at the Teamsters.org site and going to the Freight division page.

Another ulterior motive ArcBest may have for "generically branded" trucks is that in the event of a strike, it becomes easier to disguise how they are moving the freight through picket lines.

I know as an O/O, you are barred from joining a Union. Your own employees are not however. You know ABF is going into a contract year. I hope you are making contingent plans. One thing I found out during my 9 years as an O/O is that you do NOT have to cross picket lines......that is a First Amendment free speech issue. You don't have to side with the corporate billionaires in a collective bargaining dispute.

Also,.....and this is a dirty little secret even your insurance man won't tell you,.....if you knowingly and deliberately cross a legal and active picket line, you have no insurance..........Same as sky diving,.....your choice, no insurance. If your insurance man pooh-poohs that and says it isn't true,....tell him to put it in writing that he will insure your equipment and life if you cross a picket line.........Mine refused to do that......

Be safe Brother....
 
canaryinthemine said:
A food warehouse near me enacted the policy based on the OSHA recommendations that you have to be trained on the piece of equipment (i.e. forklift, electric pallet jack, etc....) that you are using,.....so all outside "vendors".....truck drivers in plain english......have to either provide their own equipment or use the lumper service to unload their freight.

What is generally not known is that the Warehouse Grocer's Association heavily lobbied for the OSHA law change back in 1993(?)......knowing that most, if not all ,truckers would have to resort to the legalized extortion that is the lumper service. This is their response to the Federal Anti-Lumping statute enacted in 1988 to curtail kickbacks and outright extortion with cash payments prior to the legislation being enacted.

And,.....NO,.....the Federal government wasn't looking out for the financial well-being of truck drivers. ..........They were looking at loss of tax dollars due to lumping being a primarily cash business......

A codicil to the OSHA ruling required receiving food warehouses make manual pallet jacks ..."available".....to unloading truck drivers,.....thereby preserving the fantasy that there is no monetary extortion . One broken-wheeled POS pallet jack for fifteen dock doors satisfies the requirement....

After arguing for a few days with the receivers of the food warehouse,...........whose Modus Operandi was exactly what ABFer described above.........they sit and read the newspaper until you've done all the work,....blown your back out trying to drag a 2000 lb skid of sugar off with a wobbly-wheeled pallet jack,......sorted and segregated to their satisfaction,........and in compliance to THEIR break and lunch times,........I asked the receiving supervisor if it mattered to him what kind of power equipment I could bring from ABF's dock to unload my truck...........HE,....being completely sick of my complaining,....said: "I don't care what you bring..."

TM said: "As long as you secure it safely in the trailer....."

So,........I backed out one of ABF's propane towmoters onto their dock and proceeded to unload my 10 skids of canned goods. The dock crew went ballistic..........and I almost had a fistfight on with several of the newspaper-reading "workers".........They spent the next half-hour trying to block my door with stacks of pallets,.....but since I had my own towmotor, I easily moved them out of the way........The OverNite driver next to me practically wet his pants laughing so hard,........Pandemonium reigned......but I was in and out in about 45 minutes,......as opposed to the 4 or 5 hours previously.....

The thing was,.....I was trying to make a point with those guys on the dock........ They were members of the Teamsters,....in fact, the same Local I was in,...........and their treatment of their so-called "Teamster Brothers",........and all other truckdrivers delivering there, transcended just mere "following company policy" and bordered on actual disdain of anyone "stupid" enough to drive a truck for a living............They actually enjoyed forcing guys to use lumpers,....and laughed at you for using the POS pallet jack.,.........in spite of the fact that they knew their company was "charging" the lumper service for "use" of the powered equipment on the dock...(Kickback?)..........

Obviously,....the food warehouse management called ABF and tried to get me barred as an "unruly and disruptive" person,..........which sparked a very heated conversation with my boss about excessive detention time and why they couldn't unload our trucks as fast as I could with the ABF towmotor........

My Teamster "Brothers" on that dock snubbed me for years,.......not listening to me telling them that letting a non-Union outside contractor ....Lumpers.....on their dock and doing their work,....was a very dangerous thing.........

Prior to me retiring,........that food warehouse now has one "newspaper-reader" for 30 dock doors,....He don't get a chance to read much now, as he has to do the check-in for all thirty doors,......and ALL the unloading and receiving is done by the non-Union lumper crew......Laid off about 100 Union members........

Is there a Moral to this story?
Click to expand...
You raise some good points here, canary! I have yet to deliver to a food warehouse where at least one of the 'unloaders' weren't on a power trip. I would've loved to have seen those idiots' faces when you wheeled that power jack from your trailer! Most of those goofballs don't realize how tough this job is. And that 'dumb truck driver' image they try to slap on us just doesn't fit anymore. There's a lot of training involved. A lot of responsibility and discipline! We do more PR work out on these routes on a summer day than most of those goons do on their docks in a year! PM me sometime, canary. I'd love to chat with you.
 
Trucker 206 said:
And that 'dumb truck driver' image they try to slap on us just doesn't fit anymore. There's a lot of training involved. A lot of responsibility and discipline!
Click to expand...
There is much more to that than people realize. How many times have you had a delivery when the receiving party asks, "How am I going to get that out of there?", when you already have it figured out in your head? How many times have you given them good advice on how to get it out of there and they look at you like you're out of your mind and clueless? They have no idea that we've already loaded and unloaded that shipment by ourselves and, BTW, we're also pretty competent on a forklift.
 
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