O/O Container Hauling

Allot of companies out here have some thing called "Landbridge" Basically whatever cans don't make it onto the the On Dock Rail are taken by truck to one of 2 major Rail hubs here in L.A. BNSF and Union Pacific. the avg miles from Port to Rail is about 22 miles, BEST PAID!!!!!!!!

 

Well its not like that out here anymore, we have D.O.T. doing inspections sometimes, and sometimes we have both D.O.T. and C.A.R.B. out here inspecting trucks for both mechanical and smog regulations compliance with these newer trucks 2007 n up that we were basically forced to buy/lease (some look like they are 15 yrs old) lol but that's due to drivers that don't regularly wash them so they look like ####

 

FEC Rail Yard is about 1/2 mile from Port Everglades. FEC has their OWN carrier that they "lease on" O/O's to. Drivers I've spoken to tell me they aren't making squat. Actually the comment was; "look at my truck - does it look like I'm making any $$ ?". They're building a yard IN the port in a few years - so the "FEC Highway" carrier will probably go away at that point.

The independents hauling out of the rail yards are "hit or miss". Again, not due to the Longshoreman that load in the yard. Each of the yards have 5 Toploader Drivers dedicated to loading the container haulers (in addition to a 1:1 ratio of yard trucks with bomb carts & toploaders - 5 each per crane crew for each container ship that hits the port - you should SEE how quickly we get cans off/on these ships). And if you think the trucks that haul are POS's, you should try driving one of the yard mules the shipping company owns - LOL.

It's usually the OFFICE at the yard that causes the wait time for Container Haulers - and for the life of me, I couldn't tell you why. Drivers are sitting waiting on PAPERWORK, not for the Longshoreman to find/load their can.

Not saying there ISN'T money in intermodal/container - and obviously the OP found an "angle" that works for him.

Rick

 

Hi my name is diego i live in the east coast i was in cali last year drove around with a friend of mines he haul containers in los angeles port and long beach port,im a new a driver and im planning to buy my own truck and move to california also i want to haul containers,As a O/O how to i register or how does it work to book a container pick up how does it work? thanks Diego

 

Container hauler what will you recommend me to do ?

 

Hi my name is diego i live in the east coast i was in cali last year drove around with a friend of mines he haul containers in los angeles port and long beach port,im a new a driver and im planning to buy my own truck and move to california also i want to haul containers,As a O/O how to i register or how does it work to book a container pick up how does it work? thanks Diego

 

Get your hazardous endorsement, doubles and triples, tanks, and apply @Horizon Lines they are union or Toll that's another union company other than that all of the companies out here that lease O/O are all essentially the same as lease purchase like one of Mega Carriers. Its not like before when we had the older trucks they were OURS and we could lease onto 20 different carriers if we wanted to.... There is no future here unless your signed on to the right company which there aren't many.... most of them pay cheap and competition is fierce just last week my carrier lost an account because someone else came and under bid it. Luckily my carrier has allot of accounts that pay alright but you have to really pick n choose what get everyday which is what i do


So in other words words look for a union job if you wanna pull cans down here in L.A. and Long Beach.... that's the future out here

To book a pick up some terminals don't require an appointment some do but you have to have your authority so you can register your company with both Ports or be leased onto a company so they can do that for you.


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anyone have any thought about pulling containers out of the ports in Jacksonville or Tampa?

 

I made a effort at the Tampa port, 4 mos. I made a paycheck but put no money into the maint. acct.