About 90% of my annual stuff is drop and hook, the remainder being split between loading live at a customer or loading myself out of a railroad car. I have to pick up 50,000 pounds of sugar early this morning, I will pull in over in Chicago, and they will load it through an opening in the top of the trailer. Then I take it down near Indy and will unload it into the bakery's silos.

After that it will go out across the country to rot the teeth of the youth of America....

Live loading is where thy put the load on the trailer while you are waiting. You show up with an empty trailer and leave with the same trailer loaded. Really drop and hook should be included with the phrase "pre loaded" which is how we refer to a trailer that is already loaded for delivery.

how often do you have to actually,physically load/unload?I see these ads for "no touch freight".whats that all about?

i work as a "yardman/administrative assistant" now, i wanted "off the roads", and i make (gross) "just under Burky/juggalo".............less aggravation, home after about a 8.5 to 9.5 hours per day, weekends off, full benefits, uniforms, an actual lunch break, no time card, and no fueling responsibilities (we have an on-site contractor for that), what else..........

oh yeah, i'm home after a "regular" day at work...........

gotta luv trucking...............heck, i'm old, i deserve it....................( i start my 19th year in february)

In my case, unloading consists of hooking up a hose from the rear of the trailer to the silo fittings, and connecting a hose from the front of the trailer to the unloading blower on my tractor. I then monitor the hoses and pressures while the product moves through the hoses. The term no touch freight usually measn that the product is in a van and handled by forklift or a dock crew.