So... do you use plastic milk carton crates on your apparatus? I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It's just funny to think that so many of us use these storage containers even though they have the name of the milk company embossed on the side of the crate. My hunch as to why we all love mile crates is the heavy plastic light weight construction, built in handles and open design so liquid does not accumulate. But... shouldn't we buy these instead of stealing them? Just a thought...


CBz


Got Milk Crates?
By ILAN BRAT
June 6, 2006; Wall Street Journal, Page B1

Bill Kroese hired a staffer and an efficiency consultant last year to help him stop a crime wave.

Their mission: to track missing milk crates.

Rockview Farms, Mr. Kroese's employer, lost 424,000 milk crates in 2005, up from 350,000 in 2004, he says. Replacing them cost the southern dairy business $1.6 million. This year Mr. Kroese, Rockview's safety and loss-prevention director, expects his company's milk crate costs to keep rising -- and he blames most of it on theft. "Where's that black hole out there?" he says. "Where could they all be going?"


We know that some of them are on our apparatus... Just a thought... you can buy mile crates for about $30.00 each commercially... Here's just one advertisement I found online:

The Film & Video Industry Storage Standard! 


These crates are the authentic 24 quart 19 x 13 x 11, classic, heavy duty "Milk Crate" used by the film and TV Industry throughout North America. Not the college student dorm model but the genuine milk man crate designed to be abused and carry a ton of gear. Rehrig's dairy crates have a heritage that helps them not only cope, but excel. Engineered to be strong, resilient, high-density polyethylene which stands up to abuse. Use it for cables, lighting, stage boxes -- you get the picture (Do we really need to tell you how to use a milk crate ?!!!)

  • Features:
  • Ample Storage Capacity with Minimum Weight
  • Clean Grid Bottom
  • Stackable
  • Size: 19 x 13 x 11
  • Weight: 4 1/2 lbs

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
- Mark Twain

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That was a quick recant Michael from Yes, we are guilty to we have ours donated... nice touch.

Fraternally,
CBz
Well Mike I read your post then went to the Station to see if we had any "stolen" milk crates. While there I tripped over a "stolen" crate and hurt myself even though a stack of twenty crates broke my fall. Can I sue the dairy who "owns" the crate(s)? I'm not the suing type but ouch that hurt.
so what's the URL for the milk crate ad?


We use a couple of 5-gal pickle buckets from Firehouse Subs for washing, dunking masks, etc... $2 each and the money goes to the Firehouse Public Safety Foundation which helps fire departments with funding for equipment and training.

They smell really good for a couple months when you buy them, too!


Greenman
Milk crates..The sign of a true fire department.
No, seriously... ours were donated too, by Dean Dairy, a local dairy we respond to on alarm drops several times a month. Oh, and the free school sized milk cartons and juice drinks they give us, yummy! And let's not mention the mess of milk, several thousand gallons, we cleaned up that one of their drives made by taking a sharp turn a little too fast.
We have a few, I also donated some produce crates like the ones you see in walmart they hold more and stack better.
We graduated to Pelican boxes. They are tougher than milk crates, waterproof, and protect the contents much better.

For things like short cribbing blocks, we've changed to canvas bags with canvas handles. It's easy to carry twice as much cribbing per firefighter with the bags.

For some applications like small wedges for doors, small shoring wedges and shims, and lifting tools to the top of rail or road tankers for hazmat, we've bought several of the Tool Bucket hydrant tool bags. We don't use them for hydrant tools - the open-toop construction tends to spill the hydrant tools. However, they make great open-top carry bags and make great hoisting bags with the addition of a utility rope and a single carabiner.
When I was assigned to the heavy rescue squad, we kept all of our cribbing in milk crates. We have since re-done our cribbing thus eliminating the need for milk crates. However, our engines all use a milk crate for bottles of oil for the saws, etc. I don't know where the milk crates came from, but they were already here when I was hired and that was 16 years ago. Is there a statute of limitations on milk crate theft?
Guilty
We have some on our Rescue truck holding some of our cribbing. I have no idea where or how we got them. But man they come in very handy.
I was in Firehouse Subs the other night and I thought about buying a couple. So are they kinda tuff or cheap made?
And let's not mention the mess of milk, several thousand gallons, we cleaned up that one of their drives made by taking a sharp turn a little too fast.

Everyone grab a straw and start sucking.

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