ReStore Truck: The Truck That Does it All!

The Restore has had a huge increase in donations over the last several months. A lot of our donations come into the store from the donation truck. We operate the donation truck Wednesday through Saturday. We schedule six to seven pick-ups per day.

The most common items we pick up are appliances, doors, windows, cabinets, and hard- surfaced furniture. We have picked thousands of doors from a local distributor, we have picked brand new cabinets from a local builder who had several extras, and we have picked factory seconds from flooring companies. The truck has been full of door trim and molding. We fill the truck with rolls of new carpet. We have received new appliances from model homes. We have picked up a generation worth of tools from a local handy man who retired. We recently picked up several used, but in good reusable condition, fence panels.

The donation pickup service is free. In return, the items we do send the truck to be pick-up need to meet certain requirements. We try not to send the donation truck out for items that are simply loaded into a family vehicle or items the are broken or neglected. We do ask the items are left in the garage or outside prior to pick up. We ask for our driver to have a safe, clear pathway to and from the donated items. This helps lower the risk of damages and injuries to our staff and the donor’s property.

The donation truck is a key component to helping keep the ReStores stocked with items. We pick up items from businesses, contractors, and individuals. We are typically booked out a week or two. I always say a fully booked truck schedule is a good problem to have.

Our donation truck also serves our marketing needs as well. It is a moving billboard. We often receive calls and have people approach the driver when out in the field curious about our services, programs, and mission.

In the past few years, we have made the truck driver position full-time. We have increased the number of days and in turn number of items donated.

The donation truck does have drawbacks. Our 2007 Chevy box truck is getting a bit older and the maintenance costs have been increasing every year. We have also had incidents of people cutting our gas line and siphoning our gas. We had our catalytic converter stolen which costs us over $1k to fix.

The donation truck is an indispensable tool that provides a steady stream of donations for the stores.

We are always looking for volunteers to travel with the truck driver and assist in loading and unloading donations. Reach out to Dave or Jake for more information