I get a fair bit of timber delivered here. It is in all honesty a bit of a pain as the timber lorry can't get up the drive.
Instead it has to be carried up the drive we share with our neighbours. I have to run about and check no one is going out just before he comes.
Then I have to hope I get a nice driver, I have two I like that will help me carry the stuff and be really helpful. I always reward them with a few beers or some eggs. Occasionally I get a driver that wants to leave it on the side of the road.
Last time the driver came and was helping me when the girls came back from getting their hair cut. They then went and put on their wellies and helped carry some of the lighter timber up the drive to my workshop. The driver was so impressed with them, I think it really made his day!
In the summer I get a few bigger orders of timber and get them to drive it straight into the field, but if they did that at the moment I think they'd sink!
Anyway, tomorrow I need to order some more and have to hope I get a nice driver when it comes!
Who else has delivery issues with where they live? I'd love to have it so I could unload with a forklift!
Can you not stone up a little bit of the field and make an hard standing area for your timber deliveries?
ReplyDeleteIt's quite a way up the field as the road is at the bottom of the second one. I have thought about it though. One day maybe!
DeleteWhen I had my table saw, jointer and bandsaw delivered, they always came in a truck with a lowering gate so they could easily get it to ground level. The packages were always on a pallet and the semi has a pallet jack so they would at least wheel it up my driveway and set it near the garage. The only exception was my bandsaw as it was on a pallet shared with another and do they weren't willing to leave the pallet behind. That box was dropped at the end of the driveway and so I had to do my unboxing there and make many trips carrying the various pieces. I own a dolly and my driveway is fairly flat so it wasn't a big deal.
ReplyDeleteFor wood, I just go and get it from a sawmill in my minivan so as long as it isn't over ten feet in length, I have no issues getting it home.
I have trailer and used to go myself to pick it up, trouble is in the winter I can't get the trailer from the field (so wet here) and it would end up taking a good half day of time to do it.
DeleteMy dad has the perfect set up for deliveries and I wonder if sometimes it would be worth buying a container load of timber and storing it there, bringing over what I need when I need it.
No delivery issues per se Kev, but I always wonder that drivers can find my parents' house as the main instructions include "when you come to the fork in the road, continue up the dirt road..."
ReplyDeleteI often lok at the addresses for delivery and wonder how they get there, some I can't even start to say and some have so many notes to add on. But I think the delivery drivers must get used to it. We have some good ones here that know where to leave stuff. Andy, my postman, will even throw pebbles at my workshop to get me to sign stuff!
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