One more thing:

Hm. Two different Zeniths then? Possible? The one I think it was Television People. You were the Furniture folks right?

 

Yes.. we do strictly furniture. white trucks with a blue and red stripe.
I'm pretty sure the Z tvs have been out of business for about 30yrs. China killed em

 

@jammer910Z What's a typical run like? Lots of stops to retail joints? Or are they warehouse type deliveries? Interesting business to me.

 

50/50.... can be major retailers, like Cardis, or Bob's, or , Raymours etc... or it could be a bunch of mom n pop start ups.

We deliver a lot of Wayfair Internet shipment furniture to final mile home delivery companies as well.

You might go out with a 1, 2, or 3 stopper... or you might have a 12, or 15 stopper. Depends.

Usually, when you get empty you shut the doors and hightaill it back home with empty so they can reload it with some more high dollar freight. They don't mess around with cheap backhauls that tie up trailers half a week for very little revenue. If there is a furniture pickup, or a switchout at a manufacturer you'll be asked to swing by and do that on the way in.
There is a LOT of personal customer interaction involved in this biz.. you have to be clean and pleasant , and know how to finesse a difficult situation. LTL is a different animal. Skip a stop when trucks are lined up or they're at lunch and get another one.

Furniture can be heavy. Triple dressers stacked three high to the roof and you have to get em down. Some loads are a real turd. Some are easy.

Most places are accessible, but you come across some that are not meant to have trucks in there. Even after doing this for 25+ years I still come across some where I have to stop and think , "how in the world am I gonna get this in there?". I've rolled freight 2-3 blocks bc I refused to take a chance on tearing up property. I knew it wouldn't fit.

They'll say trucks come in all the time , but when you show up they say " I didn't know your truck was that big" . They're used to 28ft pup trailers and single axle day cabs.

I couldn't do anything else. I love this business. I'm not sitting around at shippers docks waiting to load, or laying in truck stops waiting from Friday to Monday... we move all the time. The only thing that slows ya down is that darn elog. Lol

 

@Mike2633 may seem like a wealth of knowledge, but I'm pretty sure he just Wikipedias stuff for us!

Our resident trucking historian.