how to ship gaylords with no scale or fork lift

this came up in another thread so I thought I would tell you how I do it. I'm sure there are probably better ways out there but .

load a pallet in the truck, lay the gaylord on the pallet. remove every thing else that you wont be hauling to the freight offfice.

go to thew scrap yard or a truck stop with a CAT scale and weigh the truck, they will usely charge about $4 and give you a free-be within 24 hrs.

arrange to ship with a freight co that has access to a fork lift and a ramp so they can access the pallet from ground level.

load the gaylord while it is set up on the pallet in the truck a full size pick -up will haul 2 gaylords.

That will be close within 20 LBS, but remember top off the fuel tank before weighing both times that way you don't change your weight by burning gas getting to and from the cat scale.

Thanks

this is just another idea for loading wont help much with weight. you may talk to a local tow company about loading the gaylord for you. what i plan on doing is putting the pallet on my truck, loading items into it, driving to the tow companies place and using their fork lift to unload it and the frieght company can pick it up there, since there is alot more room there to get a truck around. I dont know what places would charge for this, probably less then a liftgate truck service, i use to work at this paticular place so i can get this done for a 12 pack. Using a tow company was just my solution but you may check with other businness that have fork lifts and or loading docks, if you are in the country you may check with farmers too, many have skidloaders with forks or some other way to handle pallets

if you plan on doing pallet shipments on a regular basis, you could build a dock height platform outside, and load the gaylord the morning of the pickup.

here is our method -

we store everything in 55 gallon drums

we have a digital shipping scale with 250# capacity

weight the pallet and gaylord by balancing on scale with no edges touching the ground

set empty pallet and gaylord on trailer

use dolly to bring drums to scale and weigh drums

deduct tare

continue till done

drop off pallet at local shipper

use pallet jack and wheel right down ramp

shrinkwrap and include any packing slips