Ive always wondered.....

New trailers being delivered around the country
Trailer pool out of balance

 

Who the trailer is owned by makes no difference, insurance follows the tractor typically. As long as you have the paperwork for the load your good to go. I have been cross dispatch lots of times, where it might say Load Walmart Trailer SWIFT 2230973, BOL #### Just give the pickup number to the guard at the gate go get the trailer, complete pretrip, and away you go.

 

Some companies interline that's an LTL trucking thing, where one company may not go into a certain region, but they partner with a company that does go into that region. A good example is Dayton Freight and A. Duie Pyle. A. Duie Pyle does a lot of east coast stuff, while Dayton Freight's strong hold is in the mid west, yet both companies offer mid west and east coast shipping, how do they do this? They interline with each other. A trailer full of goods for Cedar Rapids, Iowa coming from West Chester, PA care of A. Duie Pyle is dropped off at the Dayton Freight Terminal in Valley View, Ohio. The trailer is an A. Duie Pyle trailer. At that terminal there is a Dayton Freight trailer with goods bound for West Chester, PA.

The Pyle driver hooks on and takes the Dayton Freight trailer and the Dayton Freight Driver hooks up to the Pyle trailer and heads west with it. I see it everyday around here.


Or USF Holland and Speedy Transport. Speedy Transport is the Canadian LTL company USF Holland interlines with and Holland uses Speedy's trailers so much I actually thought that they bought them out lol.

 

A lot of Truckload Carriers also engage in what’s called Trailer interchange programs. They’re all covered amongst the Companies. JB Hunt had a deal with Wal Mart, along with Schneider and a few others, that allowed any of them to pull an empty from a DC after delivering. I could do it myself, as a single Truck O/O, with anyone, Let them use my trailer, or use theirs, just have to get the proper insurance coverage.

 

This maybe a silly question,but I'll ask anyhow, how would you as an O/O monitor where your trailer is at or be able to get it back? And what I mean by that is obviously you can put a LoJack sensor on it stuff like that, but what say it gets into the system and next thing you know it's 3000 miles from you, or does it not really matter, it's kind of like retail propane cylinders you buy 1 or 2 cylinders 1 time just to contribute to the system and then once your in your in? Or is it like a rail car another carrier gets it and uses it, but if say your trailer needs a brake chamber replaced does the other carrier send you a bill for that?

 

I don’t know how they do it. I personally never have, but even Landstar does it, for D+H automotive runs. Each O/O has the option to buy a Trailer, and put it in the system. Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. But if they want to D+H, they do it.

 

I have done it once, when I hired another Carrier to deliver my load. I also let them load it back. No different than adding any coverage. But how others keep track, I have no idea.

 

Sure sure makes sense for a once in a while out and back or whatever totally understandable, but on a big time big corporation account I would be thinking though once the trailer enters into the system that thing could be gone. I know where I work every once in a while will get a voice mail Hey has anyone seen trailer 123456 it's been a way for a while now and it's due for maintenance and we haven't seen it now in some time.