Longest you have gone empty/bobtail?

800 or there about .... load rescue thing ... fellow had abandoned the truck/trailer in the
middle of Montana

 

I am tanker it's pretty common to get deliver load and then come drive back empty 600-700 miles to getting tanker wash.
Longest , load of Resin from Dallas , TX to LA, CA and all the way back to TX with empty trl ( getting paid 10 cents less then when I am loaded but hey, ez money it's ez money).

 

At one time we drivers routinely deadheaded from southern California back to central Illinois or Houston.

 

Done a lot of specialized stuff over the years, so there is lots of empty/deadhead involved (30-50%). One of the longest regular runs was when I worked for Economy Carriers Limited (ECL). We had a contract to supply bulk grease to a mine north of Stewart, BC, but which had to be accessed via Hyder, AK.

The trailer was basically three full-length giant grease tubes. We would drive empty from Edmonton, AB, to St. Louis, MO, load grease, drive to the mine, unload and return to Edmonton. The empty/deadhead portion of the trip was about 4350 km (2700 m).

 

I was leased to Nestle back in the mid 90's, we had us a little dust up, I ended up dropping the trailer and went back to Dekalb bobtail from Mira Loma.

 

Seattle to Stockton , CA is my best.

 

Well I probably have everybody beat. I have bobtailed both directions at different times from orlando and dayton beach florida to new mexico. I don't know how many times I have run empty from Alaska to seattle area, and have bobtailed from fairbanks to new mexico once and from new mexico to anchorage once. lol
Many times I have run empty 8 or 900 miles to either go home or to pick up a load.

 

I've bobtailed several times from Dallas, TX to Durango, CO almost 900 miles, after delivering empty trailers from the manufacturer in Clearfield, UT to the DFW area.

 

When we had time off with one company, we were allowed to take the bobtail wherever. It had qualcomm on it so if a load came up we were on it. Very rarely because you were given three to four days off. Vamanos!

There were times with a passenger we would be exploring Florida and the midwest and back. Essentially everywhere east of the mississippi. Did denver on a dare once all out. Round trip too. Literally no logs. PC. Fuel? Cash in my pocket took care of that. In college people pretended to take road trips, We were the road trip in our day. Took the USA map threw a dart at it and that's where we went for the weekend. Most of the time it was good. Once in a while not so good. A few times sun comes up Monday Morning, dispatch says you gotta load harrisburg for Indianoplis. Where you at? Alabama... Not even the old Cresent Limited Steam train could get that far from New Orleans as fast as we did on that one. Whole states put away with the fuel on the floor. We were in Indy by appt time the wed am. (The night before)

This has not been a lunch counter story. When that company went out of business that ended that year of adventure for us. what a year.