Load Out Trailers. Edjumacate me.

Many times you have to list the trailer owner on your insurance as certificate holder. Usually it is a company that has a bunch of drop trailers they need moved, so they give you 7 to 10 days to use it and you have to drop it by a certain time on a certain date.

The trick is finding a trailer near you, AND going to a location that you can make some money on the way to, AND once you get there, finding another trailer to pick up to get you headed home.

Things to look out for are things like trailers in bad mechanical shape (sills or trailer sides banged up, screwed up landing gear, hoses/wires cut or in bad shape, etc.), and make sure you document anything that is wrong with pictures and a written statement. Check the registration, annual inspection sticker, and all the other stuff you would on a normal pretrip very carefully. Another gotcha is who you need to contact if a trailer tire blows. If you're doing this through a broker and not the company who actually owns the trailer, refuse to move the trailer unless the information for the company who owns the trailer is on the load confirmation. Then once you get the load confirmation, CALL that number and see if it's the RIGHT number, and if so, if it is manned 24 hours. If not, have the company provide you with the number they give their company drivers for 24 hour road service. You don't want to have a load on someone else's wagon and be stuck because you can't get authorization for a road service.

Once you get the trailer, it's up to you to put a load or loads in it and make your way to where you need to drop it off.

I've done this several times, and it helped us move to Florida. We packed the first 5' of the nose of a 53' van with our stuff, put up some load locks, then found a load that fit in a 48' and headed south.

Got paid to move.

 

Just read the 'more info' post...well, you can get on the load boards and start looking for loads for that trailer now. Get on the horn first thing in the a.m. and start calling on the ones that seem like good prospects.

How many days do you have to move it? What kind of trailer, and where are you going from and to?

 

Do you have a small 'mobile office' in the truck? I have a laptop and an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax, and I would make a copy of the trailer registration to keep in the trip book along with the tractor info if you can. If not, I wouldn't worry about it...if you HAVE to go to the coop, grab the registration off the trailer on the way in. If you forget it, no biggy, just be respectful and apologize and tell them you have to run out and get it.

Quincy...Illinois? Sounds like you have something lined up already. Too bad you can't find something to pick tomorrow and drop same day or even on Saturday. When I've done power only moves like this, I try to maximize the use of their trailer.

I've never made a BOL for the trailer itself, only for the loads I've put in it (obviously). You say you're headed southeast...I wouldn't head into Florida if you can avoid it, the rates are horrible...unless you have to drop the trailer in FL. If you do, I might pick a load headed to one of the states north or northwest of Florida, then reload and if you have time maybe haul another load a bit closer, then load again and drop it on Thursday.

What are your plans once you drop the trailer off?

 

you have trailer interchange insur. some stainless side units are hi. $

 

I don't know how folks get by without the mobile office. My truck might be a '79 but my tech is up to date. I have a small inverter I plug into the cigarette lighter to recharge the laptop batteries and run the printer. I use a HP laptop and an HP Envy 110 all-in-one printer/scan/fax. I have a Verizon smart phone with wireless hot spot capability...Verizon seems to have a much better coverage area than the other companies I've tried (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile).

With these tools I'm pretty much self-sufficient, no need to wait at the fuel desk for a fax or bother the better half at home to find me a load.

I think as an owner-operator today the mobile office is simply a must-have.