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[TripleDigitRide]

. Edited May 17, 2014 by TripleDigitRide

[TripleDigitRide]

Have you tried TCW? Last I knew, they were located near Lebanon Road / Hermitage Avenue. http://www.tcwonline.com Edited May 17, 2014 by TripleDigitRide

[wileecoyote]

Have you tried TCW? Last I knew, they were located near Lebanon Road / Hermitage Avenue. http://www.tcwonline.com

Good lead, thanks! I will contact them on Monday morning to see. I did speak with ABF which is a similar business right near TCW on Visco Dr, and they were able to receive and store the pallets for us, but they didn't want to be bothered for such a small shipment. They offered to do it for us if we let them truck the freight from Maine, which we agreed to do, but then their price quote came back $500 more than our current freight quote from Estes, so once again we would have had to spend $500 more just for short-term storage of a few pallets.

What really kills me is that there are a TON of warehouses in the Lebanon area, many of which are not high volume and probably have a lot of extra space just sitting idle. I just know they could do it easily for us, but you can't get those places to give you the time of day unless you know someone that owns or manages the place. That's why I was hoping to find a lead from this forum, to get a small warehouse that would help us out with minimal effort and pocket $200 for doing so.

[Dane]

[quote name="wileecoyote" post="1149741" timestamp="1400353468"] What really kills me is that there are a TON of warehouses in the Lebanon area, many of which are not high volume and probably have a lot of extra space just sitting idle. I just know they could do it easily for us, but you can't get those places to give you the time of day unless you know someone that owns or manages the place. That's why I was hoping to find a lead from this forum, to get a small warehouse that would help us out with minimal effort and pocket $200 for doing so.[/quote] That's exactly why you are having such a problem. It really isn't worth the time or liability (mainly the liability) for these warehouses to take on this shipment. $200 to a facility that moves millions a year - hardly worth considering. If you follow one of the links I posted earlier you can rent a pallet jack for $25. This might help if you can find a place you can offload. If you encounter a problem like you said with the lip on the unit pm me and I will tell you how to get over it very easily. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[wileecoyote]

[quote name="Dane" post="1149802" timestamp="1400374678"]That's exactly why you are having such a problem. It really isn't worth the time or liability (mainly the liability) for these warehouses to take on this shipment. $200 to a facility that moves millions a year - hardly worth considering. If you follow one of the links I posted earlier you can rent a pallet jack for $25. This might help if you can find a place you can offload. If you encounter a problem like you said with the lip on the unit pm me and I will tell you how to get over it very easily.[/quote] Yeah, I didn't expect to find a major warehouse or high volume terminal that wants to deal with such a small short term storage job. I have been trying to find a residential storage unit that can allow drops from a tractor trailer, or a small warehouse where the owner has idle space and could use a few hundred dollars for such a simple favor. I only started checking with larger freight companies and warehouses when the other options didn't work out. I did check that link you sent and it looked like pallet jack rentals were $100. I can buy a used one for not much more, and I really doubt the pallet jack would work with most of these storage facilities, but at this point the jack is the least of my worries as I can't find a storage place that has room for 7 pallets and can take a drop from a tractor trailer. If I don't find something else by Monday I think I will pursue one of two backup plans. We are running out of time and need to get this stuff shipped. Thanks for the tips.

[Dane]

The $100 was for a week. Shouldn't take that long to unload a truck. It's $25 for a day. But as you said got to have a place to unload first. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[wileecoyote]

We finally found a solution. Spoke with a very nice lady who owned a small storage facility in Lebanon. Their parking lot was big enough with two entrances such that a tractor trailer could pull through in either direction. The owner said if they deliver while she is on site, she would open the main gate and lock it open plenty wide for the tractor trailer to back straight in. She has done this before with success. So our plan is to have the pallets dropped close to the storage unit via the tractor trailer lift gate, then I will have to rent or borrow a pallet jack to move them the rest of the way into the storage unit. Backup plan is to let the tractor trailer drop them in the main parking lot, and we could use the pallet jack to move them all the way back. If the pallet jack won't go inside the unit we can maybe use a thin board for a ramp or just unload the pallets into the unit manually. So all bases are covered, no extra freight charges, and the cost of the storage unit plus pallet jack rental should still be under our $200 budget. Might even have enough leftover to eat a good meal when it's all done. :-) Thanks for the help and ideas gang.

[vontar]

So, when do we find out what is in the pallets or do we have to wait until Christmas?

[wileecoyote]

[quote name="vontar" post="1150766" timestamp="1400668070"]So, when do we find out what is in the pallets or do we have to wait until Christmas?[/quote] 7 pallets, 1400 lbs. each, about 78 inches tall X 48 inches X 40 inches. Order is being shared by about 30 people. We do this only once every 2-3 years, primarily to get the best stuff in the world at a steep wholesale discount which is about 50% of retail after freight charges. People come in from TN, KY, and AL for this. All but 1 are guys. That's all the hints you get, and if anyone guesses the product I'll give them a unit for free as a prize. :p

[vontar]

Mosin Nagants.

 

however I feel the weight is off, they might have original scopes.

Probably spam cans of the ammo.

Edited May 21, 2014 by vontar

[nightrunner]

Some fine alcohol of some sort is my guess.

Whatever it is is consumable. My guess is liquor, cigars, or ammo. In that order.

[wileecoyote]

Nope.

[Sonny]

next time contact me i work for a trucking co. save the cost of shipping.

[wileecoyote]

next time contact me i work for a trucking co. save the cost of shipping.

Thanks, this is the kind of lead I was hoping to find earlier. Too bad we couldn't connect this time, maybe next.

[TrickyNicky]

Gun safes?

[vontar]

next time contact me i work for a trucking co. save the cost of shipping.

 

Heck, depending on what it is, contact us, we might want in on the deal.  By the time it is said and done, might need 7 trucks to hall 49 pallets.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le2bPRGvKXE

[RED333]

Mil Sup brass

[TripleDigitRide]

All those people couldn't or wouldn't throw in an extra $10-$20 for an easier and more convenient delivery destination?

[vontar]

All those people couldn't or wouldn't throw in an extra $10-$20 for an easier and more convenient delivery destination?

He needs better friends.  :D

[wileecoyote]

More good guesses, all wrong. :p In all prior years this was fairly simple, we always had at least one guy in the group that had a small business or warehouse with a dock, and they let us deliver there and hold the pallets for a few days until everyone picked up. So we only had to pay the LTL freight charge and pitch in a few extra bucks to tip the warehouse guys. But our group has grown over the years from 1 to 7 pallets, and by simple bad luck nobody involved this year was able to provide a business or warehouse location to store 7 pallets for 2-3 weeks. The manufacturer which imports this stuff for us is able to get very low LTL freight quotes because of their volume, and because we are becoming a bigger account, so we had to use their lowest bidder for the trucking portion, but that freight company didn't offer storage to meet our needs and they were going to charge a small fortune in extra fees if we had to deliver to a non-commercial location or somewhere without a loading dock. We did look at other freight quotes, moving companies, large warehouses, etc. but they all would have cost at least $500 more and they still weren't setup to allow ad-hoc pickup by 30 guys at different times over 3 weeks. Charging more was not practical because we had already collected the funds based on the original plan, and some folks may have wanted to reduce their orders if the cost went up, and I just knew there had to be a solution out there within our original budget. Just took a lot of calls and research to find it. So we ended up getting 7 tall pallets (9800 lbs) trucked from Maine to Lebanon, TN and stored for up to a month in self service storage for a little less than $1000 total. That's pretty hard to beat, but we will always look for ways to save the group money. I'll let people keep guessing until the truck arrives, then I'll post a photo of the load as it comes off the truck, at which time the guessing game endeth. :rolleyes:

[nightrunner]

Ok now we know its imported, best in the world and relatively heavy. Also unless you are reselling the stuff, its consumable.

Imported means likely not a restricted product. And its not booze, tobacco, or ammo.

Im gonna go with seafood of some sort now.

[Sonny]

its not seafood if it takes them couple weeks to pickup the stuff and its not sitting in a cold storage then its definitely not food.

 

unless its some sort of MRE's 

[TrickyNicky]

Is it a mineral?

[wileecoyote]

Lol, I already gave a lot of hints, and the import thing was a slip, so not playing 20 questions... :p

[Guest HillyKarma]

I'm gonna throw my lawncare/landscaping experience in on this and guess sod?

Sod weighs about 1300-1400lbs a pallet