So, let’s imagine that you’re thinking about ordering sod from Red Hen Turf Farm, and you’re considering opting for DELIVERY rather than picking it up.
Perhaps you’ve measured your area already, and maybe you’ve even called us to receive a FREE QUOTE and to talk about delivery versus pick-up. Maybe when you called, you asked questions about prepping and installation, and general care of the sod, especially initially. There’s SO MUCH that we can cover when you call for a quote or information on ordering sod that we NEVER have the time to cover EVERY SINGLE THING.
If you’re at this stage of planning your sod project and have not talked to the Red Hen Customer Service Team yet, give us a call at 574-232-6811
Sometimes, when we’re talking about scheduling a delivery or when we’re calling you to confirm the details on the day of your scheduled delivery, we may not always gather enough information to provide our TEAM of EXCELLENT FARM SEMI DRIVERS so that they know ahead of time if the delivery site is tricky to access with Flatbed Semi Truck in some way.
The first question to consider when envisioning your sod delivery is WHERE DO YOU THINK THE SEMI TRUCK WILL BE ABLE TO PARK?
Our flatbed semi trucks are about 9 foot wide by 70 foot long, and to offload your sod order, they first have to unload our 2-1/2 TON Piggy-Back-Style forklift, which is about 8 foot wide by 8 foot long. If Our Driver needs to park on the street, to stay safe, they’d need to have plenty of visual distance in all directions. Once the forklift is off the truck, they’ll take each 2-TON pallet of sod off of the truck and place it as close to your desired location as possible, which brings me to the next question to consider …
The next thing to consider is HOW TO LET RED HEN KNOW WHERE YOUR DELIVERY SITE IS LOCATED … ESPECIALLY for new developments and areas where Google Maps does not find your address correctly for some reason.
While you are onsite and considering where Red Hen’s delivery semi should park, let’s make both of our jobs easier by helping us find you using your Android or IPhone and the Google Maps app, which lets you share your location in real time. The best part? It’s all quite simple to do once you know where to look.
- First, go to the best spot you feel the semi will need to park.
- Now, make sure your LOCATION or LOCATION SERVICES is turned on in your phone settings
- Next, open the Google Maps app (which is simply named Maps on your phone screen) on your iOS or Android device. The Google Maps Icon looks like this:
- Tap the blue dot, which represents your current location and select “Share location” from the menu. If it’s your first time using Google Maps like this, it’s normal if your phone asks you to authorize the app to access your contacts before continuing.
- If you want to share your location for a specific amount of time, select the “1 hour” option, and you can use the blue plus and minus buttons to increase or decrease the time as you wish
- If you want to share your location with a trusted source indefinitely — that is, until you manually turn it off — select the “Until you turn this off” option
- On an Android, select the person with whom you want to share your location from the list of suggested contacts or select an app (like Gmail or Messages) to send a private link. You can also opt to copy the link to your system clipboard and then paste it wherever you like.
- On an iPhone, tap “Select People” to choose a person from your contacts, select “Message” to send a private link to someone in your messaging app, or select “More” to send a private link via another communication service. Your phone may prompt you to give Maps ongoing access to your location before it moves forward.
- To manually stop Maps from sharing your location, open the Google Maps app, and look for the “Sharing your location” bar at the bottom of the screen
- Tap the “x” next to the line that says how and for how long your location is being shared
If you have an iPhone, there are more ways to share your location from the Messages app, Contacts, and both Apple Maps and Google Maps. You can read all about those options in a recent article by Business Insider called, “How to share your location on an iPhone in 4 different ways” at https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-share-location-on-iphone
Now, think about where you envision each 4ft-by-4 ft pallet of sod will be placed, and then have a back-up plan in case Red Hen’s driver feels they may do more harm than good driving approximately 4-and-a-Half-Tons across the worksite. A hard surface like your driveway is typically the easiest to access. They can spend some time placing pallets here and there, within reason. A wheelbarrow will come in handy!
When you initially order your sod or when you confirm the details on the same day your sod is to be delivered, if you let us know what you’re thinking and pay by credit card by phone or on our Homepage with the CLICK TO PAY NOW button, with mindful communication it’s not even necessary for you to be home when your sod is delivered.
Thanks for reading about the basics of the type of communication that is key to a smooth sod delivery.
Got more questions? We’d love to hear from you at 574-232-6811!
– Jeremy, Cindy, Lisa, and the rest of the Red Hen Turf Farm Team
Article Last Updated: 04/10/24
