Question About Liftgate Service

Whatever you do, just don't try to move it up the driveway with a hoist lol. You want to keep heavy stuff as low as possible for obvious reasons.
 
Thanks for all of the suggestions.
I'll plan on making a dolly. I live across the street from a garden center and I see they have a couple fork trucks. I'm thinking I could ask them if they could help me for a few minutes if need be.
I'm giving serious consideration to the PM-932M & the PM1236. I had to take a basic machining class at my tech school for my degree and really enjoyed it. That was about four years ago. I'm limited on space as I have one side of a two stall garage.
 
David VanNorman said:
You can also arange to pick up your machine at the freight company's yard with your pickup or trailor. You can then offload it at your convenience.
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Generally. I tried that here, thinking things would go better. Turns out the terminal here in the middle of nowhere, does not have hours. The senior driver, is also the terminal manager. I tried to set up a time to meet him (or anybody), but he was not receptive. Rather then try to set something up, he offered free tailgate service. I gave the driver a 6 pack of ice cold lemonade, and several assorted chocolate bars, in a small Styrofoam cooler.
 
wrmiller said:
Every delivery I have had that required a lift gate ( 5 to date) had a pallet jack on the trailer so the driver could maneuver the load onto the lift gate.
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At a minimum, this is fact. They have to be able to get your pallet from wherever it is on the truck, to the back, onto the liftgate, then off the liftgate once it drops to ground level.

As others have stated, any distance moved beyond "just off the liftgate" is very likely at the discretion of the driver, and possibly how much you can influence that discretion ;) .
 
Last time I had something big coming via truck, I cut a deal with a local rental yard to have them unload it and load it on my trailer. I was willing to pay for an hour's worth of time on a rental forklift, but they simply told me to bring a box of doughnuts for the yard crew. Truck got there about 10 mins before I did and the yard guys had already unloaded it and simply waved me into position to set it on my trailer. Total time in the yard was under 20 mins.
 
After reading the posts, all I can say is I've been very lucky. Only had 2 truck deliveries, both from Enco. 1st one was advertised as free truck delivery and the 2nd was with the 25% off and free delivery offer. I did not pay for lift-gate service. In both cases the trucking company called a few days prior to delivery, I mentioned that I was a residential address. I was told that R&L always sends a lift gate truck to residences. Drivers wheeled the pallet right to the garage (without having to ask). It never occurred to me to tip the driver, I like the cold soft drink idea.
BTW I bought a pallet jack from "Northern Tool", IIRC it was around $200. I use it all the time to move stuff around, including overloading it to move the mill and lathe. A friend worked in maintenance for a Grocery chain, they regularly scraped pallet jacks. He pulled one out of a dumpster, a "O" ring later and it works just fine.

Mike
 
another thing to consider, is most rental houses have pallet jacks available for cheap.
 
A pallet jack rental from my local Home Depot is 23 dollars for 4 hours
 
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