Loadboards - Do you haul your own trailer, or is it provided?

You can do both...

 

most of the posts on loadboards expect you to have a trailer. you may see some for power-only but they're pretty rare. now, you may be leasing a trailer from someone or some kind of agreement, but when you call a broker with a load posted for van, stepdeck, flat, rgn, etc... yes, they will expect you to show up with a trailer.

 

Mostly using your trailer. However, there is a listing for " PO " { or something similiar } on most boards which means power only. That means your tractor, sombody else's trailer. Those loads are usually few and far between. Could be somebody needing to move a trailer, a driver has a broken down tractor and needs the load delivered, a company has excess freight, a trailer was sold and needs to be delivered, many reasons. I have a friend who is leased to a trailer delivery company. All he does is go to a trailer company, pick up a trailer someone has bought , and deliver it. Could be 50 miles, could be 2,000.He is not allowed to load the trailer, and it does not pay much, but he keeps busy.

 

I'd imagine delivering empty trailers leaves him with incredible MPG

 

I assume this is purely an academic question from somebody who has no interest in actually hauling stuff. Jumping in at the loadboard level of this game is not recommended. I strongly recommend starting where many truckdrivers start off, that is probably at the truckdriving school or the SWIFT or England recruiting office.

If you consider hauling anything with a semi-truck, then, in my opinion, you are asking the wrong question here. In my humble opinion, the right question would be: How and where do I get started. And I am not even remotely qualified to answer that question.

But back to academics, shippers specify their requirements to brokers, who in turn dispatch their own trucks or post it to a load board. The load board then lists the options a carrier has on how to transport the freight on their load board. (For instance, what type of trailer has to be used) If a carrier don't have a trailer, it would generally haul power only loads or trailer interchange loads.

With trailer interchange loads, the carrier uses the trailer provided by the shipper or broker. JB Hunt has a power only program that utilizes this method. You do not need your own trailer.

With power only loads listed on a load board, the carrier hauls the shippers' trailer somewhere, mostly one way traffic. This is a popular practice with oilfield companies. You do not need you own trailer.

The rest of the loads are generally a "bring your own trailer" affair. You need your own trailer.

This is a very basic explanation, in reality it is somewhat more complex than this.

 

ctff, based upon what you are saying I'd think being a hotshot driver would be a better fit for you. You can even check out companies that deliver RV's or trucks. It would give you more freedom to sight see and do your own thing--which isn't easy with a tractor-trailer.