Toughest type of trucking: Moving companies? specific tough docking? Opinions...

Some of the toughest loads I've ever had involved farms & ranches.

Tractor paths with a tag axle 660 doesn't work out to well.

Tight tight tight ....annnndddd....sink.

 

Most of the truly tough residential areas as far as turns and narrow passages are accompanied by trees that preclude a 13' 6" truck from navigating even if they wanted to. Meaning they have to ferry the goods via a smaller vehicle such as a U-haul from a nearby parking lot. Yes, lot's of additional work and lot's of additional dollars for those involved.

Really, some commercial area streets (or streets in areas that are a blend of commercial and residential) are as bad as any old neighborhood residential streets to navigate. And the guys who deliver Dollar Stores and similar are quite familiar with difficult docking situations

 

To call some of those roads cow paths would be to insult cows. I'd still rather that than skinny streets with impatient 4 wheelers. Cows are smarter than people.

 

I ran for a farmer when I first started out a couple decades ago and some of those country "roads" are a real treat to navigate on with a 48' flat bed with tomato tubs on it, ditches on both sides, sleeping in a Transtar II cab over with no AC in the middle of July/August, oh those were the days

 

Oh common. LTL is easy. We see those 3-10 ton weight limit signs and breeze on through. Oh crap, "dispatch" I just snagged a overheard cable. "driver" did anyone see you ?

"homeowner" Glad you made it, thank you for the 9,000 foot ladder.

In PA, The overhead wires have to be certain amount feet above any road way, We are good to go if pull down cable/phone lines. It's not right, but crap happens.

 

I broke into trucking in '77 as a "bed bugger". That summer my brother and I had a delivery of a full van load of household goods to a large house in the West Virginia Appalachians off a narrow road. We arrived at the break of dawn, and came to a stop with our 4 ways on to study the problem and figure out how to get UP to the house.

The gravel driveway to the house was about 1/4 mile, but had two switchbacks and gained at least 150 feet of elevation. After hiking all the way up to the house and studying each switchback carefully we decided that the only way to do it was to:

1. Back our way all the way up the driveway, beginning with a blindside back off the narrow country road.

2. Break out the pickaxe and shovel to do some road improvement on both switchbacks.

3. Break out the 24" and 16" chain saws, harnesses, and ropes and trim branches for clearance.

By early afternoon we finally made it into the generous parking area in front of the mansion with a real nice porch that gave us a straight shot from the back of the van to the front entrance. The two of us had the 40' van unloaded by 10:00 pm and the grateful customers invited us to stay the night, gave us dinner, and also made us breakfast in the morning.

You don't get customers like that in any other type of trucking as far as I know.

 

Everyone is family in West Virginia! Sleep over, pork my sister/wife and pork for breakfast