Load/Unload times

Last unit I had was a Cottrell High Rail with a Sterling cab and matching head rack. It would take me 2 + hours to strap a load of 9 or 10. And that was for a pulled load beside me. Once I had all the units, checked vins and exceptions, it would take 15 + minutes alone just to unpack the straps and walk them around the truck to their spots. Then the rest was just as you'd expect - load - strap - raise - repeat - stack - pin - go.

 

With My Units Staged The One ive got now is a 9 car day cab Volvo with next gen low rail trailer takes about 45m
Had a 10 car sterling ive loaded in 25 minutes the trailer plays a big roll depending on how many times you have to move it to load

Example
Volvo
Load 2 Move decks
Load 1 Move Decks
Load 3 Move Decks
Load 3 Move Decks

Sterling
Load 5 Move Decks
Load 5 Move Decks

 

Not to hijack Brad's thread, but does anyone else find it odd that when Freightliner killed off Sterling that they either didn't,

(a) Keep the Sterling AH Cab/chassis and just rebrand it as a Freightliner, or

(b) Dedicate one of their Freightliner models to Auto Haul?

It just seems dumb on Freightliners part to kill that truck since it is/was literally the ONLY truck that without cab mods could get down to 90+ inches.

I know it's not a O/O truck like a Star Car, or Pete, but from a work truck/ OEM sand point, I don't see how you can beat it, and that was 8 years ago already, some minor updates on the truck would have gone a long ways.

Or am I just goofy?

 

Not goofy Stan. Last I heard was back room dealing with Volvo and International. You wait and see. There will be a new low pro Freightliner sooner then later. I have heard it may come back as a CCC (CraneCarrierCorp) low pro just to keep things interesting. Remember all those cool low pro garbage truck cab and chassis over the years ? And some modified for car haul ? I'm told they're about to go fleet low pro. Under what name, dunno .

 

The guy at Midway Ford that Cooper deals with spent a lot of time with Freightliner to design the new carhaul chassis. Saw a story about a year or so ago, but I've only see a few a them, since I'm not out and about anymore. Here's a pic:

 

As far as load times, it always varied so much, depending on the load, and how much abuse I wanted to put on the body. I've always been anti-short chaining, and that always adds time. I always figured if I had a big load, and was going to try and keep overhangs down ( Iowa will break you of the habit of cheating off the back,) that 90 minutes was a good time for an auction load, maybe two hours for a big 10 car I had to fiddle with a bit. That said, I have put the 10th unit on the truck in hour, and was ready to roll in 20 more minutes. But that was a straight rental load and I was racing an incoming squall line. Guys running the same freight all the time can easily cut a half hour off load time, as they know exactly where to put each unit and can set the pins as they secure the bottom, as they have memorized where they go with what vehicles. I could easily walk and load 8 Fords in under 2 hours after a month straight of ABQ railhead freight. These next-gen quickloaders we have are really quick to load, even the newer guys get down close to an hour within a month or so. But I think they lose as much time on reloads at stops as they gain at the yard, so unless it's straight loads, I don't know they are that great of a timesaver.

Unload was normally an hour to an hour fifteen, skids out to skids in, if I got to park the units fairly close. I put 10 down in 40 minutes one time, start to finish, when the salesmen were grabbing the cars from skids, which will definitely spoil you!


I try to teach the new guys that slow will make them fast, that getting a routine and cutting down your steps will make you faster than rushing, and definitely cut down on damages. But I'm just a ramp manager, and what do I know? Sigh!

 

When I was a driver few years back, if I hustle, it would take me about 1 1/2 hours to pull 9 cars and tie them down with 4 chains each car and 2 hours with wheel straps on a chain truck. If the load was staged already, 45 minutes to put on and 30 minutes to pull off. As we all know, this is car hauling, not pier containers, fastest driver out the gate is hardly ever the best car hauler in the yard.