Hauling Containers

Hi DL, I hauled containers out of Chicago for like 5 years. At the time, the chassis 's they'd give you were all junk, and tube type tires. Things have improved considerable, but they are still top heavy, and almost guaranteed to be over weight. Many chassis's didn't have slider rear axles, although, that has changed, but even still, they still want to "load the wagon". "It's just going on the train", they'd say, but you still have to get it to the train. There's like half a dozen things to do locally, and container hauling is one of them. I don't think loading and unloading is any different than regular trailers, but be advised, 53 foot containers and chassis's weigh as much as a reefer empty, and then they want to put 46 K in the box. Also, many loads are on the floor, as shippers know, they'll never see their pallets again. Good luck.

 

You might find some helpful info here - http://www.drayage.com/directory/results.cfm?city=BAL

There is a link on the bottom of the page labeled 'Jobs & Resumes'. It's mostly O/O but there are a few for drivers. I opened it and didn't see anything for drivers in MD right now but that links has company names and it may help to go knock on some doors.

BTW, I run I-70 a lot and see a ton of them running there and surprisingly most appear to be newer chassis. I saw one 10 footer the other day trying to climb the hill northbound out of Frederick MD. He was going so slow he may still be there.

 

Hi no names left, I don't think I've ever seen a 10 footer. You mean the 20 footers? I hated pulling 20 footers. Although, they were easy to get around with, it was best to pull them at night, so no one saw you. Shippers would routinely double stack the product, and it was not unusual to have 40K in the box. Try and scale THAT. Plus very top heavy. So I'm sure that driver that was climbing the hill had a ball buster on.

 

Nope, it was a 10'. I didn't get out and measure, although at the speed he was traveling I could have walked along side the container and taken measurements. I know when I was working construction that we rented 10's for storage but I am not familiar with shipping though. The chassis was really strange too so maybe it was not a normal shipping container. The chassis appeared to be about 15' or 16 long and had a strange 'hump' right at the rear crossmember (the container was all the way to the front). The hump was on an angle (from the rear), about 12" high and 24" deep. The front of the hump went straight back down to the chassis.