OP
CurlyDave
Elite Member
The move went very well.
uship had promised a rebate of some sort, if I gave feedback, which I did; but have never heard anything more about the rebate.
There was a little bit of excitement about the pickup when the transport guy got delayed with a drop off in Oregon and I had to leave the 110 and half the payment with a neighbor, instead of doing it myself.
He brought the tractor down to CA and left it at a storage yard in a nearby town until I was back in CA and he could deliver it. I made a last-minute change in drop-off location to the house under construction rather than the rental house I am living in, and he accepted the change with no additional cost.
Delivery was arranged at a mutually agreeable time and he was within the time window for showing up.
The only real glitch is that he uses some kind of a dispatcher who works out of her home. While she returns messages promptly, she did not relay my instructions to stop at a nearby intersection and call me when he arrived. So he drove right up to the house, which is on a very narrow winding street in a sort of a "trap" configuration for even medium rigs. You can drive right up very easily, but getting back out is a true adventure in trucking. In the 6 months or so I have been working on the house, I have seen 3 tractor-trailer rigs get stuck on the street right in front of the house. Usually, the sheriff shows up and has to make arrangements to get the trailer towed out backwards. I don't ever want to find out how much this costs...
Anyway, he took my advice on how to get out and I directed traffic until he got turned around and on his way.
Cost was $580 of which $80 went to uShip and, $500 to him. There was also a $32 cost for an upgraded listing with uShip. Other bids were in the $750-800 range.
I took his business card and will call him direct for shipment back in 6 months or so.
He had an unusual type of a rig, a Dodge 3500 diesel with what looked like a gooseneck trailer maybe 30' long. The bed had been removed to install the hitch. It might have been one of those mini 5th wheel hitches they use on camper trailers. I was too shocked to see it show up in front of the house to think to get a good look at it, knowing how hard it was going to be to get it back out.
He was good natured about almost getting stuck, and I recommend him to anyone who needs transport along the I-5 corridor. He is a younger guy, late 20s early 30s maybe. I know he works at least between Portland and the SF Bay area, possibly further north and south.
Jon Hetzel, 503-888-8075. I paid cash, which was appreciated -- no PayPal "tax".
P.S. The shipper had insurance, they emailed me the certificate, and I took out additional insurance on loss and physical damage through my own agent -- $230 for a year.
On the economics of it, I have already used the tractor for a couple of unanticipated small jobs and there are a couple of bigger ones I can now see coming up, so I am money ahead vs. renting the mini-ex. The backhoe & thumb are great for loading 200-300 lb items into the dump trailer instead of the sheer brute force and awkwardness approach we had been using.
uship had promised a rebate of some sort, if I gave feedback, which I did; but have never heard anything more about the rebate.
There was a little bit of excitement about the pickup when the transport guy got delayed with a drop off in Oregon and I had to leave the 110 and half the payment with a neighbor, instead of doing it myself.
He brought the tractor down to CA and left it at a storage yard in a nearby town until I was back in CA and he could deliver it. I made a last-minute change in drop-off location to the house under construction rather than the rental house I am living in, and he accepted the change with no additional cost.
Delivery was arranged at a mutually agreeable time and he was within the time window for showing up.
The only real glitch is that he uses some kind of a dispatcher who works out of her home. While she returns messages promptly, she did not relay my instructions to stop at a nearby intersection and call me when he arrived. So he drove right up to the house, which is on a very narrow winding street in a sort of a "trap" configuration for even medium rigs. You can drive right up very easily, but getting back out is a true adventure in trucking. In the 6 months or so I have been working on the house, I have seen 3 tractor-trailer rigs get stuck on the street right in front of the house. Usually, the sheriff shows up and has to make arrangements to get the trailer towed out backwards. I don't ever want to find out how much this costs...
Anyway, he took my advice on how to get out and I directed traffic until he got turned around and on his way.
Cost was $580 of which $80 went to uShip and, $500 to him. There was also a $32 cost for an upgraded listing with uShip. Other bids were in the $750-800 range.
I took his business card and will call him direct for shipment back in 6 months or so.
He had an unusual type of a rig, a Dodge 3500 diesel with what looked like a gooseneck trailer maybe 30' long. The bed had been removed to install the hitch. It might have been one of those mini 5th wheel hitches they use on camper trailers. I was too shocked to see it show up in front of the house to think to get a good look at it, knowing how hard it was going to be to get it back out.
He was good natured about almost getting stuck, and I recommend him to anyone who needs transport along the I-5 corridor. He is a younger guy, late 20s early 30s maybe. I know he works at least between Portland and the SF Bay area, possibly further north and south.
Jon Hetzel, 503-888-8075. I paid cash, which was appreciated -- no PayPal "tax".
P.S. The shipper had insurance, they emailed me the certificate, and I took out additional insurance on loss and physical damage through my own agent -- $230 for a year.
On the economics of it, I have already used the tractor for a couple of unanticipated small jobs and there are a couple of bigger ones I can now see coming up, so I am money ahead vs. renting the mini-ex. The backhoe & thumb are great for loading 200-300 lb items into the dump trailer instead of the sheer brute force and awkwardness approach we had been using.
