Am I kidding myself?

100% no-touch frieght is pretty much unheard of. Here is the reason: Companies don't know 100% of the time that all loads are no-touch.

For example, I pulled a load to the Red Cross in Baltimore last year near XMas. I showed up, backed into the dock, and waited, and waited.

Eventually, someone came to the front of the truck and said, "Hey buddy, you gonna unload this or what?" I told him "NO!", called my company, and after argueing for awhile, my dispatcher said "You've got to unload this. When we agreed to take the load, we didn't know it was 'driver unload.' Get Red Cross to sign the bills that you unloaded it, and we will pay you extra."

You see, a company might advertise 98% no touch, because that 2% of the time you've got to do it, because nobody realized better.

I had to unload the frieght, or drive it back to Tennesee.

 

You won't find 100% no touch or 100% drop and hook. That being said, in the 2 and half years I pulled a van, I only had to unload two loads. The unloading of those two loads was limited to using a pallet jack. Depending on the company you go with (I'm not familiar with Watkins-Sheppard at all), this could be all you'll have to do as well. Some customers, like K-mart and Dollar General stores (stores, not D.C.'s) for example, will be driver unload and you'll have to touch each and every case/carton in the trailer.

A lot of the dry van carriers out there are trying to do more and more drop and hook, but it's costly to the company. Having a 100% d & h company would require at least 5 trailers for every tractor.

 

Driver unloading is more or less going away due to insurance considerations but there are always going to be a few places that insist on driver unload, hopefully very few.