I’m the Ops Manager for a new business. We’re receiving canned products into our UK warehouse in a reefer truck from the USA. I’m hoping you folks can give me some hints/tips/best practices in offloading reefers?
We don’t have a loading bay so we’re having to pull the (crappy) US pallets off by way of pulling strops attached to the forks.
We’d be a lot quicker if we could use a pump truck on the bed of the reefer but my gut feel is the irregular floor would make it pretty hard - if not impossible - to use inside the reefer.
Has anyone tried this? And does it work well? Is there any particular makes/brands of pump truck that have much wide wheels that can cope with the floor?
Bottom line is, the first truck took us 3hrs (our allocated time) and the driver was getting twitchy so I’m trying to find ways of offloading the reefer much quicker.
To be clear:
It is a reefer container? With a ribbed type floor?
And the pallets are like these? https://www.agrimark.co.za/product/pallet-export-1200-1000-137-kd-usa-orange-m33
If buying any pallet truck size it against the actual pallets your goods will be on. Check that the entry the forks go into is wide (tall) enough. Some pallets won`t let electric pallet-truck forks in. The forks are too thick.
Check the gaps on the base of the pallets. Some pallet trucks with double wheels are wider than the gap between the cross members on the base of the pallet. It is possible to break those bottom members but it is unnecessary if you get the correct kit.
Single small wheels at the front fit better but twin wheels run better over rough floors…
Try hiring in one or two different ones and see what works best for you?
EDIT, And if it hard turning the pallet inside the box, just drag it straight back a way, then drop it and put the pump truck in again from the other side. You won`t be crossing the ribs then.
Thanks for the quick response! Yes those are the pallets we have and yes its the ribbed-slotted floor. I take your points about trying out different pump trucks. Those USA pallets really are a pain - rubbish quality and tiny notches on the long side. Trying to pull those pallets with a 30ft strop is difficult - you have to be so gentle with them.
Just realised I can upload a pic. So here’s our first shipment being loaded in America.
Franglais has absolutely nailed it. All I can add is that generally a pallet jack will run longitudinally reasonably easily, but depending on the weight of the pallet, turning it around can be difficult. Franglais has offered the soloution to that.
I’ve never seen a pallet jack that could get into the pallet on the left.
Horrible pallets. Where they are “blocked in” to fit correctly you`ll have trouble getting a pump truck under the small slots on the solid sides. Putting the truck in sideways is awkward too as the pallets can not be turned as SDU has said. If you use a strop to twist them away firs, then insert the truck, you might get lucky.
Good luck anyways.
Thanks SDU for your comments - I did wonder wether those niche cut-outs might be too low for pump truck to get in - as the forks go over the wheels. Our counterbalance forks only just made it
Ah, I think I see what you mean. Take out plt on the right. Put plt truck in form rt to left on the side that allows access.
Then although the plt cannot be turned easily because it is jammed against the plt behind it, pulling the plt truck with the strop will unjam it?
Yep, good one.
I have fiddled getting a pump truck under a USA plt on the wrong side before>
Lift the back of the plt truck and wedge the tips of the forks under it> pump a little and then stand on the truck to lever the plt up. Block of wood under then release and go in again. I strongly advise against it though. What we did in our day etc etc
Hmm…that’s not possible for us. It’s our stock purchased in the USA that we’ve shipped over. I’m trying another angle - getting the yanks to use full perimeter 1200 x 1000mm pallets. Much sturdier for pulling off with strops plus we then have chance of getting a pallet forks into them. The secondary problem we have is that we are racking them in our warehouse - c. 900kg per pallet. So because the USA pallets are so bad we’re double stacking on top of a UK pallet, at the moment.
nothing much to add only to say when i did picking and packing work each customer had their own way of what pallet they wanted and how they wanted it stacked woe betide anyone that used the wrong pallet or stacked it wrong. Might be worth a phone call to the supplier
If you are a smaller customer dealing with a larger supplier then you have a limited leverage, but if they do use pallets better suited to you, that is good.
Another way to go, might be a ramp to drive your own forklift into the container. Needs space and a counterbalance FLT not a reach truck.
Quicker, and probably safer and less labour intensive, so could be better in the long term.
Like that. I have no connection with that particular company and do not know if they are great or awful! Similar ramps are in wide use and do work well for lots of companies.
Thanks for that suggestion. I did look into ramps early on. I won’t bore you with all the reasons why, but we are not currently able to use ramps. It would have been a good solution for us, though
So the solution we’ve come up with is to get the reefer cross decked to a curtain-sider at Tilbury. Cost is about £400 but spread over the cost per can (of beer) is minimal. all I have to do now is buy a pair of 1200mm fork extensions for our CB truck as I guess the pallets will be loaded onto the CSider, on their short side.
so I’m trying to find ways of offloading the reefer much quicker.
