I did some pricing for forklifts today. The plan was to built a couple if stands to rest one end of the machine on while I reposition the forklift to lift it out of the container and onto the ground. One place had forklifts for $285 / day and another for $226 / day. But both charge $140 each way for delivery. That doubles the cost. With all the fees and taxes I was quoted $744 and $586 to rent a forklift for a day if I have it delivered. I literally need a forklift for 20 or 30 minutes! Thats like $20 to $25 per minute! I could probably rent a trailer to go pick up a forklift for less than their delivery charge. I mean I’m renting a semi anyway. But honestly the forklift plan just isn’t feasible at those rates. So I need another plan. Oh joy!
Stopped by the garage today to do some stapling since I forgot to take the stapler the other day. I so enjoy stapling above my head. But the workshop is starting to look pretty good. As they said the other day when we spoke, the property owners removed a bunch of stuff from the space. While we were talking the other day they asked how I was going to get the machine in the garage. I explained the plan and mentioned I had explored several options including using a flatbed tow truck. They actually know someone with a flatbed tow truck and gave me his number just in case. Well after the disappointing forklift costs I sent him a text today to get an idea of if he could do it and how much. So he was like just to take it out of the trailer and put it on the ground is $50 which is the minimum he charges for a run. FIFTY BUCKS! Seriously? I mean I’ve spent months now trying to figure out how to get the machine out of the container without hiring a tow truck and it’s only fifty bucks! So my original concerns were trying to find someone that would do it and do it without charging me $500 and of course how to do the scheduling. I mean I can’t ask the tow truck to wait indefinitely for the semi to arrive and I can’t ask the semi to wait indefinitely for the tow truck to arrive. But since I’m the semi driver now all those problems go away since I can tell him exactly when I’ll be there and I can wait for hours if needed.
So my offload expense went from $744+ this morning to $50 this afternoon. Now I need to call Penske and find out what they’ll need in order for me to rent a truck from them and call CSX and get my information added to their driver registry. I wonder which one of those will be the next problem.