Drop Trailers both ends multiple cities

I understand what you are asking but you are overthinking it.

With 11,000 trailers, they can plan on moving trailers to anticipate a customers needs.

A lot of these megas with regular or contractual customers are using data directly from customer as part of their supply chain, so most of the time they know where the trailers are at, they can easily have drivers with loads move them to a specific location, drop them and pick up empties. It is all a shell game for those in the company.

 

And never pay the driver sitting on the trailer with the tractor waiting for dock AS storage.

If I am in one of those moods, I should never have become a driver who does not get paid anything like what the Motor Carrier gets paid for everything.

 

Bear with me here:
If the megas run 3-4 trailers per power unit, can that ratio work for an independent given they have a contract or preferred lane that they consistently run? I believe I read that @PacManTrap owned 3 trailers that he set up his own drop and hook operation with as a solo OO on a contracted run.

The reason I ask, understanding the inherent cost of multiple trailers, is that with the time constraint of ELD's, is having the ability to drop and hook as an OO make you more competitive and / or profitable (once the initial trailer purchase is covered) and is the return on investment worth it when considering the "hourly rate" of the truck when sitting to get loaded

 

@Midwest Trucker
?
Are these contracts 3 month deals? Yearly deals? Do you price in a weekly adjustment for fuel fluctuations?

I get some of these offers to bid but I don't even consider it.. What am I going to do with 1 truck and 1 trailer and already steady runs. Maybe once I get my yard and shop together...

 

You operate just like me but on a bit bigger scale.

 

That is why Xtra lease or TIP (Transport International Pool) exist. Each one has in the neighborhood of 50,000 trailers. We move them around for both companies, and the dozens of smaller leasing companies that do the same thing. Depending on the state of the economy, I have been to some of their yards that have a 500 trailer capacity( you can hook to any of the trailers in an orderly row) that ballooned to 1500 trailers in the same yard where they were parked 6" away from each other down the aisles preventing access to almost all of them. In mothballs so to speak.
It is a very elastic business. If you have ever been on an airliner and looked out the window as you are on takeoff or final approach in a metropolitan area, take a look down at the number of semi trailers on the various properties. Or do some poking around on Google satellite and zoom in.
Somehow, someone owns the trailers and manages to make money from the arrangement, or else it wouldn't happen.