Loading up a truck. Even though this is a crucial skill that, when properly executed, can save a production rental company lots of time, money and headaches, it’s a skill that isn’t often taught, and even less-frequently learned.
A little history: Back in the day, it used to be that you started out as a truck unloader and loader. Didn’t matter who you knew — that’s what you started out doing.
Now, this is not a glamorous job, but it’s one of the most essential of any show. A good truck pack makes your load-in and out smooth and sets the tone for the rest of your day.
A Tale of Two Gigs
Lets compare two gigs I’ve been on this year:
Load-in; Gig #1: The trucks were not organized at the shop when loaded. The Lighting/Audio/Video leads were not given shop time before the show to prep their gear. Three truckloads of gear were sent out to the show site. Everything was dumped onto the dock, brought up to the ballroom level and then sorted on the floor during the load-in. It was a mess, and the load-in took about five hours longer than it should have.
Load-in, Gig #2: The lighting/audio/video leads had one day of shop prep time. In addition, the shop had the orders pulled ahead of time. The trucks were loaded by the leads at the end of the shop day. When the trucks arrived at the dock, the gear was quickly unloaded, pushed up to the correct locations in the ballroom and ready to hang in a easy efficient matter.
Load-out, Gig #1: No one was in charge of the load-out. The gear was placed in random cases, shoved into the trucks and someone (me) almost got hurt due to a case falling off of a double stack that was not done correctly.
Load-out, Gig # 2: No one wanted to call the truck pack. And then three people pointed at me. So I stepped up and called the truck pack! The gear was correctly doubled-stacked, loaded quickly onto the truck, and no one got hurt. The truck was sent back with more room in it than when it arrived, and the load was balanced for the driver on the left/right sides.
Planning Ahead
Now, I do not claim to be the best truck pack calling guy out there. But I know a thing or two about a thing or two. First thing, when you do your gear prep, think about how the show is set up. Can you pre-label your fixtures with location, DMX and other info? Can you pre-address them? Can you have the cases packed in such a way that it makes easy sense to get four cases for the upstage truss 1?
You can make everyone’s life easier if you have your cable sorted into bins/trunks. Pre build looms if you can. Have a good, stocked workbox with extra 5 to 3 pin adaptors and gel. Remember, prep time here will save you time on the load-in. If your prep and truck pack went smoothly, now, when you unload, your gear gets out quick, goes to the right location, and your team can start building the rig.
Time is Money
Okay, fast-forward to the end of the show. Time for load-out. First things first: You’ve got maybe five or six hands. Video has four hands. Audio has six hands. Some have come in for a quick four-hour strike call. A couple of others have been there all day, assisting other areas, or running followspots. Time is money on a load-out. In other words, everyone just wants to get the heck out of Dodge, quickly. Load-out can be total craziness. On larger shows, they now give color T-shirts to each department, just to keep track of who’s who, and on what load-out team.
So you should have, once more, your cases staged as the riggers get the truss ready to come down. Make sure you’ve got cases going to the right truss. So now the truss is coming down, lights are going into the proper cases, cable is being picked up, coiled, and put into the right bins. As the lead loader, now is the time for you to step away. Get a good overview of the gear and figure out your truck pack. Ideally, it should pack back the way it came.
First, look what you can double-stack. Remember, double-stacking is your friend. And remember also that you are leading this. If you feel that you need six guys on the case, then the case doesn’t lift until you get six guys. If you have a forklift, use it. My motto is, “A Lazy Tech, is a safe tech” when it comes to lifting.
I repeat: Use the fork lift if one is available to you. On the gig I called, the forklift was locked up. No manner of asking nicely or bribing the night manager with drinks at the bar would work to get us a key. However, you can be sure that, for the following year’s show, we did get a key.
The Right Order
So now the cases are all double-stacked and they are lined up in the order you want them in the truck. What order is that? Well, there are two schools of thought on this. If you’re on a tour, then the order is how it comes off the truck on your next load-in. If you’re going back to the shop, then just think about these two things: #1, weight; and #2, space.
For my truck pack, I sent all the double-stack cases of fixtures in first. They were pretty light, and they fit three across in the truck with ease. I did this because the trucks sit on an incline going down towards the dock — which is great for unloading, but not so good for loading. Normally, I would send heavy items first, but I didn’t want to put so much weight uphill on us.
Then we sent in some dimmer racks, followspots and other miscellaneous cases. All of this took up the first half of the truck. Now all that was left was a bunch of heavy cable bins. So in went the cable cases and, finally, we were left with a few odd cases that would not easily go three across and two platform and followspot kits. Those went on last, and fit nicely.
Calling It? Don’t Touch It
Keep in mind, we had about 12 guys doing the push. They are like rabid dogs who want to kill you if you let them loose! You gotta hold them back. They will just start pushing crap all over, and if you don’t hold them back and stick to your plan, you get a mess.
There is going to be one guy on the crew, however, who will make a good suggestion about some crazy odd case that you didn’t ever think about, and he’ll give you an idea on how to fit in there. Take his suggestion. For the rest, don’t let them push cases around until you tell them it goes in the truck. In other words, if you are calling the pack, you do not touch the gear. You direct it onto the dock quickly and easily and with a plan. The crew guys like a guy with a plan, they can see the end is near, that the beer is getting close, and that’s a good thing.
Well, our truck pack went very smoothly. We had two trucks packed up in under 30 minutes, and that included the time it took to move one trailer out of the dock and get the other trailer in its place and put a bunch of truss onto it. No one got hurt, and the crew was out of there nice and quickly, and in a good mood. When the trucks arrived at the shop, it was easy for the shop guys to unload them. And even if those guys don’t know that I’m the one who did that truck pack, I do know they had an easy day getting the truck dumped at the shop.
Orlando-based freelance tech Jason Roland keeps his website at www.ilovelights.com.
