When you hire a haulage company to make a delivery for you, it is more like a partnership. It is not just a case of hiring them and then leaving them to it. They have expectations of you as well.
If they turn up to pick up your shipment and it is not ready, then this will affect the delivery time and might mean that you have to contact your client to let them know that there is a delay.
That wouldn’t be the haulage company’s fault though because you haven’t done what was required of you to have the item delivered on time.
If you are thinking about hiring a haulage company to move something across the country for you, then you should read ahead to find out what the haulage company will expect of you.
Booked In
The haulage company will expect that you will have booked the item in, in plenty of time. If you phone the company and try to book a job last minute, they will usually try to accommodate you, but there are no guarantees that they will be able to get the job done in time.
Therefore, you should make sure that you have planned ahead, in conference with your own client and made sure that the job was ordered with plenty of time for delivery.
Depending on the job, your own client might have to make deliveries themselves, so if you are late with ordering and the haulage company is late with delivery, your client will also be late. It has a knock-on effect for everyone involved in the whole process.
Special Procedures
When you do make an order for a job, you have to make them aware of all of the details of the item that you want moving. This is so that they can send the right equipment across to you.
For example, if you want machinery moving, then the haulage company will have to send a special lorry and a driver that is qualified to move machinery. You might think that it will just be the same as moving a crate, but it is not. Crates have obvious lifting points because it has been packed with a centre. Machinery does not have this. The driver will have to work out where to attach the crane to lift the machinery, without damaging the machine.
Clear Space
If you know that the haulage company are coming to collect something for you, you will have to make sure that there is a clear pathway for them to get to the item.
This includes the driveway for the lorry and for the area around the item. Hauling machinery and other things is a specialist job. It is not their job to move your belongings out of their way so that they complete their task. Furthermore, if they can’t access the machine, then it might result in a job not being completed.
About the Author
Emma Rafferty has had a long and successful career in the haulage business. Since retirement, Emma has made a new career in blogging about news from the haulage company, so she regularly checks websites for David Watson Transport and other haulage companies.
