madmaveric

madmaveric

Well Known Member
Hi guys,

Not sure if this is correct forum to post in but I wanted to ask if any uk builders on here had recommendations for a delivery company.

I had the Empennage delivered by Fedex which was ok up until the delivery when the guy turned up at the house, in a curtain side truck with no tail lift, stating I needed a forklift and he would have to take it back.
Luckily for me my neighbor was there to help and we easily lifted it down onto a dolly I had.

I'm about to order a wing kit but I don't know how to take deliver this time.
I can't guarantee anyone else being here to help next time so I need to work out some options before I put an order in.

Note: The online tracking 'delivery notes' only stated the time of delivery (9-5pm), with no mention of a forklift needed (even though it wasn't).
Surely it is up to the carrier to actually deliver it to the property and not just park a truck outside and say 'there you go'. How many domestic houses have a forklift :confused:

So what options are there in the uk for delivery.
 
The weights of the individual boxes are shown on the VANS site. For my -10, there was nothing that couldn't be lifted off by a few big, strong men.

With the wing kit, I assume you will use sea transport in which case it's unlikely to be UPS/FedEx. The nice people at VANS arranged it for me quoting the best price they could find.

It was a different case with my engine although it was, of course, somewhat larger than a Rotax! Fortunately living in the country, my neighbours actually DID have a fork-lift!
 
Thanks, I hadn't figured on the fact that the sea freight won't be using Fed-ex (I had assumed it would be).

I guess I will just order it and see who/how they attempt to deliver it. The annoying thing is that with a residential delivery you'd expect them to be prepared to unload it (even if it is just the driver giving me a hand). From what I see on YouTube, at least the USA has proper 'delivery' drivers and not just drivers I seem to get here in the UK.

I guess I'll just order it and check the whoever the delivery company is at the time that they are willing to help unload it when it gets here.
 
Not many residential properties take delivery of anything bigger than a washing machine so you can hardly blame FedEx for turning up with a curtains sider or a box body truck when they do a delivery ..

Most of what they do is for commercial – so no tail lift as all commercial facilities have fork lifts. No need to have a tail lift (more cost) and the driver are covered by health and safety stipulation a max weight they can lift anyway ...

For sea freight its different as you now are dealing with the freight company ... When the box arrives in UK .. you MUST specify that you want it delivered by a truck with a tail lift. It will cost you a bit more .. But you should be able to at least get the box down on ground level .. after that you are on your own .. if the guy helps you to get it in to your garage .. then you are lucky ... My advice would be to make a small skid (think skateboard) ... that will help you to get it rolled into your workshop ... :) ...

Good luck !
 
Normally I would agree but their own delivery note specified domestic/residential delivery, hence my disappointment in them as they knew it wasn't a company. Given the number of deliveries they do I would expect them to know the difference (and I'm sure they do). Maybe they were just hoping to start the clock on storage fees when I couldn't get it off the lorry.

In fact, I just checked and it says it twice (but nothing about getting it off the truck)
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At least it sounds like I won't have to deal with them for the rest of the deliveries.

As the boxes are light enough to lift one end on my own and get the driver to push the dolly under, I guess I just need to ask for a tail lift and I should be sorted (apart from the engine delivery).

Now I know better, I will phone the delivery company first to make sure they can get it off the lorry when they arrive this time.

I have kept the dolly from work (They asked me if I wanted to keep it as they didn't want it :D) and also a few other wheels to make more as they were throwing some flight cases out so I nicked the wheels off them. So as long as I can get it off the truck I'm ok.

I wonder if this guy has a brother in the uk doing deliveries
RV-12 Tailcone - Empennage Delivery
 
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UK Health and Safety would have had a fit seeing that happening in UK !! :) ...

But then again I always used to smile when going into Wal-Mart and buying a few 6 packs of beer ... and a shot gun and a few rounds of ammo .....

Can you see that at happening at ASDA or Tesco ?? :)
 
The only time you'll see a shotgun in asda here is if someone is trying to rob it :D

Pretty soon we will have to all wear a hi-vis jacket if we want to leave the house :(
 
So true so true .. :) ... Just make sure you carry out a full risk assessment before you unload the next kit !! ...
 
Maybe I should put on my hi-vis, borrow a hard hat and cone off the road next time :D

Wing kit has now been ordered, just need to finished the garage extension and empennage before it arrives.
 
For all my large kits, I picked them up at the shipping depot. They have forklifts there and could load the crate into my pickup truck. As a bonus, you don't have to wait at your home for delivery. If you have a truck or friend with a truck, this may be an option.
 
Good idea, although I don't have a truck I have considered hiring a truck and picking up from the depot. If the next delivery is problematic then I will look at this for future deliveries.

I will probably need to do something like this for the engine delivery but at the moment I'm not even sure where the delivery will be going to for that one.
 
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