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Menards and Lowes don't need appts. They have planned to have a big enough, and staffed enough receiving dept.

Also, in the LTL transportation industry, the standard for appts. would be a 2 hour window, not an exact time. Thus if HD says the appt. is at 1400. Our window is 1200-1400. When I show up at 1300 and am told I have to wait till 1400, this would be considered by all LTL companies as being 'detained' and the company would have to take the responsibility of paying detention time by the quarter hour.

I do agree that if I show up at 1401 and am told that I will have to wait until there is another opening, that is fair. Although as stated earlier, Menards and Lowes do not even need appts. Odd too, since Menards stores only have 2 dock doors (newer stores have 3-4), Lowes have 2 dock doors (some have 3-4), and HD has 4 with 3 of them not in use because of garbage and freight blocking them.

Menards and Lowes don't need appts. They have planned to have a big enough, and staffed enough receiving dept.

I would suspect that they will have the same rules that Home Depot has soon - cutting operating costs is something that these stores are always looking at and copying from each other. Look at it from the store's point of view. I have 8 guys to do freight, on 3rd shift (for example). If a truck comes late, I have to pull freight people to unload the truck when they should be stocking the store. I also have to pay receiving OT to stay over to receive the goods. If it comes early, I have to get sales associates to help out when they should be on the floor with customers. And like I said, when you get a shipment a day late, then the freight crew suddenly has one night with nothing to do, and another night with twice the amount of pallets to stock. I can't easily call up sales people and say - "how about coming in tonight from 9:30 to 6:00 AM to help freight"? I used to work freight there for a while when I got layed off, and double shipments were always a nightmare for us. (And don't get me started on Roadway - where the pallets would be smashed or the contents torn completely from the pallet and placed back on upside-down).

I did appreciate hearing your side of it.