Our production facility and where we will be storing empty can pallets are 5 miles apart. We priced out a custom box trucks to load the 106.5" tall pallets and it was very expensive. Normal box trucks are too short to load the pallets. Does anyone have any suggestions. The only thing I have come up with is to make a custom cabinet so we can hoist the pallet up and lay it down on its side.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Transporting pallets of empty can bodies
Collapse
X
-
We use Crown as a can supplier & they will not shorten the amount of layers... So we have a box truck where we down stack at the warehouse into a pallet of 10 & the other being 11. It's a bit of a pain in the ass, but you get used to it quick. We just made sure that we downstacked everything for the following week ahead of time rather than going out to the warehouse 3+ times a week.
How do we downstack? Lightly wrap the bottom 10 layers of one pallet. Pick up an empty pallet with the forklift, drive it up to the can pallet & even the empty with the 10th layer. Get one person on one side & another on the other side. Gently slide the cans onto the new pallet. Sheet & frame the top of the bottom pallet & band them both & wrap.
I was also thinking about making a contraption to be able to lay down the cans on its side, but I have heard horror stories & I love my job too much to risk losing an entire pallet of empties.
Comment
-
How about a flatbed truck? They had one where I worked my first packaging gig, with removable fence-like sides on the bed, so the forklift operators could easily pick/place pallets in any position, and of course, height wasn't an issue. Now, our warehouse was across the street from the production facility, rather than across town, so, having things out in the elements wasn't an issue, especially in temperate Northern California. But I have to imagine a good, waterproof tarp will run you less than a custom box truck, and the time you'll lose strapping it down on days you'll need it, you can make up at least some of by not having somebody mucking around with a pallet jack getting things to the end of the box truck where the forklift can pick 'em up.
Comment
-
I would look for a cheap used flatbed trailer. Small cheap ones will use usually planks for flooring which is great because it's a) cheap to replace and b) easy to make custom attach points.
I say custom attach points because you can easily slide your pallets in, and just bolt down some plywood/2x4 box snugly around them, which are bolted to the trailer bed (the planks). then you've got a pretty secure way to lug 3-6 pallets around fairly easily without spending a whole lot of cash.
Comment
Comment