take the machine (entire box) off the pallet in the semi truck, lay it on it the side that says "truck this side only" (the bottom of the game), then slide it from the semi to the back of your pickup. then, drive up to the house and then slide it from the back of your pickup to the ground, then into the house.

Easy to move a pin strapped to a pallet on a hand truck. Easier if that hand truck is the taller "refrigerator/appliance" type for sure - with the wrap around strap.

Challenge is that MOST of those style hand carts tend to have hard wheels that just don't roll on gravel. Air tubed tires are better for gravel
If you have a utility wagon you could lay it down on the "truck this side only" side and pull it along ...

Edit ... missed the "you've got a pickup truck part" - follow advice in previous post ...

If they are using a pup trailer the driveway is not a problem. A 53’ box trailer could make it, if backing from the right side of the road.

Either case, do they have a lift gate? If not, I don’t know how you get it out of the trailer.

Opening it up outside may be your option. A hand truck likely won’t work well with a small pallet.

Kind of curious how you solve this. “Inquiring minds want to know”.

You are not going to take 270#s of weight all at once. My experience is from a minivan, but in general you slowly slide out the pin until it just starts to tip and then slowly let it down while pulling out. Put a moving blanket on the ground if you are worried. At no point are you expected to take the entire weight of the pin. You are just slowly letting it down and tilting it on it's bottom.

Have the pallet (bottom) closest to the tailgate. Slide backwards (slowly) until it "tips" up onto the pallet, standing upright on the ground.
You should be able to hand truck it around after that.

This is how I would do it. Won't hurt it. I've done regular pins out of the box this way by my self. Most of the weight is leveraged between the tail gate and then the ground fairly rapidly. With you and the wife it should be easy . Also I use a residential dolly every time I move a pin and have never had a problem. Make sure the tires are pumped up otherwise it will be even harder.

Slide game on lift gate. Back your truck to lift gate. Lower lift gate to match your truck. Slide it onto your truck.

LTG : )

As this is your first NIB...
1. Inspect the Hell out of that box for Any questionable damage. If not certain plan B Open the box!
2 Everything KingPinGames said but Important, when sliding the game off the truck to the back of your pickup truck make Sure the Top of the game goes in First or when you unload it, it will be sitting on its head.

After reading through this thread, I firmly believe, that you are nervous.

Truck driver here.
If trailer does not have liftgate- take machine off pallet, lay it down so "truck this side" faces down. Slide from trailer to your pickup that is backed up to trailer.

It trailer has liftgate- once on ground, take machine off pallet, face the "truck this side" to the front of your truck, now lean the machine against your tailgate and pick-up and slide(think see-saw) pushing into your bed.

I like to unbox on my porch and the put machine on dolly and bring inside.
You'll have your own plan for that.

And with so many homeowners bitching about damaged driveways, it has pretty much become policy everywhere that drivers of trailers are not to go onto driveways,not allowed unless they are in a straight truck.
Best wishes
-Mike

Bummer, always sucks when something like that happens, especially your first NIB. Don’t worry, Stern will take care of you.