Who still does this? I ask because we have to, but palletway-type companies we use wont, thus they will only do tail lift and fork lift deliveries. Me, I have to carry upstairs downstairs and anywhere Mr Bunn the baker wants it. Great way to keep fit.
until you trip!! I used to do this on drinks delivery then after an incident found out we dont if we consider it unsafe to do so, prob is it took so much hassle to refuse that you ended up doing it anyway…
The clue is in the name… ‘Palletways’ - ie Pallets.
Parcel companies that deal with parcels obviously do handball
Food deliveries are almost always handball.
Any load done by Schenker will end up being handball, even though it was ‘loaded’ as a pallet 
I handball my paperwork all the way to the the ‘Forkie’ 
Seriously we do get the odd load or pallet that needs a bit of Manual Attention.
Worst ‘Bastad’ Load I ever handballed was 10 ton of 50kg bags of sand, collected from Arnolds in Heath n’ Reach nr Leighton Buzzard lugged it to London where it was for sand blasting a building. Poxy contractors said they wanted it ‘Over There’ about 50 yards across a pavement into a compound. I was a bit Naive, so proceeded to unload on my own, they eventually got some one to help after about of hour sweating my nuts off, took about 4 hours altogether. Nearly killed me.
I would’nt even open my sheets if that happened to me now, Forklift or you supply the labour, I’m too unfit to play that game now ! 
I don’t mind if it’s quicker to get the job done rather than sending it back and/or screwing up a reload, I’ll always ring up and confirm that it’s okay to do so (might be chargeable), I never ever handball into a shop/premises, I stand on the bed and pass down, I almost always give the pallets & wrap to the customer too, explaining I need a clean trailer for my reload.
I have to, I deliver chocolate to shops and that has to go upstairs/downstairs were ever they want it and the access is not the best at most of them.
When I was on the agency, I drove for Fresh Direct on nights and was told I was “too helpful” for an agency driver. Apparently they should at most, operate the taillift and then doss about so’s to hang the job out.
I remember as an o/d in the 80s having to load handball 20ton of tatties on a flat, but to make it worse I was handballing them off pallets from a forklift, I even offered to buy the pallets thinking I could either sell or return them but the [zb] s wouldn,t play.
Very rarely, usually when a pallet has broken or pack of bricks/blocks have split and i need to get them off the motor.
Once handballed off three packs of concrete blocks (216 total) with help from a site labourer after the hiab packed up, it was either wait hours for someone to come out and fix or half hour of handball, get back to the yard and let them fix it while i went home.
I spent 2 years on pet shop deliveries all around Scotland all handball on and off in a 18ton box wagon upstairs or down in cellars alot of that was in 25-30kgs hessain sacks
Then i moved back to Bicester and worked out of Bakels all bakery work on a 26tonner although it had a tail lift still had to go upstairs or in cellars all 25kg bags all on my own no 2nd man.
martinviking:
I handball my paperwork all the way to the the ‘Forkie’
+1
Although the “forkie” usually comes to me. Worst case scenario; I have to walk 50 yards to the office. If that’s the case, then I’ll book an extra two hours duty to compensate. 
I once hand balled 26pallets wasn’t till i left the depot i released every drop was a handball Don’t feel to sorry for me it was all light but still a few thousand boxes
i used to load fyffes bananas out of portsmouth, 960 boxes of bananas was 20 tonnes in a fridge , handballed on, upto fyffes blaby , handball off ,happy days and not a high viz in sight
23 tonnes / aprox 500 rolls of underlay somehow I find it hard to get up on a Monday morning , duno why :-@
Job adverts often say things like
Some handball, competetive pay
But never…
Totally handball, crap pay
even when we all know that’s exactly what’s meant! 
Overstacked pallets and/or incorrect rear trailer suspension can lead to a pallet load becoming handball as well of course.
I spent 3 years delivering bagged animal feed and bagged fertiliser to farms. It was amazing how many farmers had to just nip out.
Getting soft in my old age,that’s why I can say this is the easiest job I’ve ever done,it’s a paying hobby.
45 years ago,driving to Aberdeen,(Long before the M74 was built)then handballing 20 tons of bagged salt off on my own then driving back to Glasgow to reload the next day,was all in a days work.
In the days of 32 ton being the max gross,20 tons was a normal full load,although it could be squeezed up to 22.
Sand faced bricks to make your fingers bleed,boxes of oranges,loose cow hides,kerbstones and flagstones from Hulland Ward.
Roping and sheeting in the freezing rail or snow.
Mind you,I was as fit as a butchers dog back then.
The knees give me a little trouble these days,but apart from that at almost 70,still passing the medical and this job is no problem!
I know some guys 20 years younger than myself who will have difficulty passing their next 5 yearly medical.
dowahdiddyman:
I spent 3 years delivering bagged animal feed and bagged fertiliser to farms. It was amazing how many farmers had tojust nip out.
…just make sure he’s “just nipping out to the cashpoint” because you’ve made them aware the contract has client-payable overtime on it, if the drop trakes more than 40 minutes.
“Ooer. There she’ll bee… I’ll geef you a hund matey.”
Muckaway:
Me, I have to carry upstairs downstairs and anywhere Mr Bunn the baker wants it. Great way to keep fit.
One of the regular job I do is for hovis on the bagged flour side, usually 16kg or 25kg bags.
Like you so many of the drops are to Mr bunn the Baker, or to small village stores where the only access to the “store” cupboard under the stairs is via the shop front. Parking on the street blocking the road, squeezing down side streets with a 6 wheel CF DAF & wriggling past customers and counters is the norm. Not to mention carrying bags up 2/4 flights of stairs to what was the front bedroom of a 2 up 2 down terraced shop in darwin, or the pie shop in Dewsbury. BUT this delivery service is what the customer pays for, so off we go gritting our teeth and get it done.
Some deliveries are simple, some are to larger factories so theres a forklift, others can be as simple as 5-30 bags on a high st, these have to be handballed indoors, we generally work alone on these jobs, & only get a drivers mate to assist if theres over 3 tonne at a drop (1 tonne is usually 65 x 16kg bags or 40 x 25kg bags), getting the truck as close as possible to the drop is ideal to make life easier, but not always possible. So walking 100+ yrds with 1-2 bags on your shoulder at a time is sometimes nessesary, but not enjoyable. Which is why theres only a limited number of agy drivers willing to do this, & the majority of 8+ 3Tonne drops are done by the saleried staff drivers
Handball to me was 20 tonne of fertiliser or 3 packs of timber without a fork truck.
The fertiliser was brought into our depot on galvanised pallets, the bags had to be washed and then sent out on the trailer bed, lovely job for about £2.80 a day