I've been shipping pallets for about 4 years now. Started off driving them to the terminal. The guys there would use a forklift to remove them from my trailer. About 9 months ago I got some shop space and did some LTL shipping. I don't have a loading dock, but do have a forklift. With the LTL, the driver had a pallet jack and moved the pallets after I put them on the truck. Today, I did my 1st FTL and was surprised to learn that the drivers do not normally move the pallets once you put them on the back of the truck. Good thing I have a pallet jack at the shop. Turns out that because the driver helped out (I didn't have extra help) that there is an additional charge.

I'd like to know, from others that deal with freight on a regular basis, is this typical? If so, is it only typical with FTL or did I just get lucky with the LTL?

For anybody that has driven a tractor trailer, wouldn't you want to see how your trailer (weight wise and to ensure that things don't shift easily) was loaded?