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Delivery can be a dangerous job, especially for those who own and operate their own vehicles. The owner operator is always in a hurry and needs to get his deliveries signed for as soon as possible so he can make the next delivery. The pay is good, but there are certain hazards the owner operator must be prepared for.

A helper and I had a crate to deliver to a dentist office. This crate weighed about 700 pounds, was about six feet tall, and very top-heavy. We would need to lower it to the ground on a lift gate and then to take it inside and un-crate it at the exact spot that the dentist would point out to us.

As I said before, owner/operators are always in a hurry. I went inside and told the receptionist that we had a delivery and we needed to know where to put it. "I don't know where he wants it, but it costs £40,000," she warned us. I sure hope you're insured!She directed us to the office manager.

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"Where do we need to set this?" I asked. "I don't know, but that's a £40,000 piece of equipment," she said menacingly. She directed us to one of the dental assistants. We got the same response from him. "I don't know, but that thing costs £40,000!" By this time I was tired of hearing it and I informed him that we were insured for 2 million pounds and that we really didn't care how much it costs, but we would like to know where to put it.

He directed us to the dentist. The dentist smiled pleasantly and pointed to the exact place where he wanted it. We went outside and carefully lowered the crate to the ground with the help of the lift gate and some good strong straps to hold it steady as we lowered it. We used a pallet jack to roll it to the door. Once we got to the door's threshold, we used a hand truck to get it to the cubicle he had pointed out to us, using extreme care to not let it topple.

After getting it to the cubicle, we carefully uncrated the piece of machinery. We removed all the bubble wrap and plastic and tossed it back into the crate. We unbolted the machine from the pallet it was on, and carefully removed it from the pallet. We loaded the crate back into the truck. While we did this, the assistant had already started the job of wiring the machine up.

Just as the dentist signed the delivery bill stating that we had delivered the machine and uncrated it to his satisfaction, we heard a terrible crash. We ran to the cubicle and saw the dental assistant standing next to the toppled machine, his face as pale as a ghost. "Do you have any idea how much that machine cost?" asked the dentist angrily.

My helper replied with a smile "Forty grand! I sure hope you're insured!"