Pickups
Free Geek does pickups on a limited basis. Also referred to as Offsite Donations.
How people can request pickups
People contact Free Geek with questions about pickups in lots of different ways (email, phone, in person, etc). When people are interested in learning more about pickups, they should send an email with specifics about the equipment to be picked up to pickups (at) freegeek (dot) org . Look at Pickups Intake for more details as to what info should be provided when they send their email.
Logistics
When: Every Thursday and some Fridays. Typically between the hours of 9am and 2pm.
Driver: Austin Crouch
Equipment for Pickups:
The driver should ask donors whether they will require a pallet jack or not. If so, use one of the jacks located in the warehouse.
Other items to bring include:
- Wheeled carts (one for each person on the pickup)
- Hand truck (for systems)
- Gloves
- Tally slips
- Uncovered stickers (normally located in the glove box or the metal binder in the cab)
- Pencil
- Free Geek cellphone
- Log Book for recording miles, business purpose, staff members involved, and any money spent on fuel or other truck needs
The truck needs 10-15 minutes to warm up properly, and then it's good to go. This typically is only needed in the colder, wetter months. When it is warm out 5 minutes or less is all that is needed.
Special Instructions There is a lot of lifting involved, so be sure to use proper lifting procedure to avoid injury. Take breaks when needed to avoid injuries. Try to arrange the truck for easy loading and access to any items that may need stickers or tallying. Try to do any tallying before returning to Free Geek, or before unloading. Call and notify Receiving/Recylcling with 5-10 minutes notice of your arrival so they can block off the parking area in front.
Lift Gate Operation
Staff Schedule
At present, a Receiving staff-member is scheduled to accompany the driver for Thursday pickups, also known as Offsite Donations on the staff schedule. The Receiving area should be double-staffed on these mornings to both provide extra coverage to the area and help with organizing and coordinating volunteers in the loading and unloading of the truck.
In the event that a Friday pickup (or other day) is scheduled, and it appears there will be more items than one staff member (in this case the driver) can safely or realistically load themselves, please notify the schedule coordinator.