Swift hauling vans?

The postal trucks will move faster than the Swift truck pulling them.

 

Swift has been in and out of the car haul segment for the last almost 20 years, at one time they had a good size fleet of enclosed and open carriers. How about their convertible trailers with the racks inside that lifted up to the roof so they could backhaul dryvan freight? Right now they are running those car trailers as somewhat of a team, they have a big truck like in the pictures and a smaller one with a Freightliner M2 tractor, they run together for one half of the trip with the little truck loaded onto the bigger trailer, then they load up to 5 vans between the 2 trucks heading in the same general direction, deliver them, load up the smaller rig onto the bigger one and head back down to get more. I can't see how this is efficient, but then again when your drivers work for almost free I guess they don't have to be efficient!

 

These vans are made in Mexico and come into the USA at Laredo, TX by Trans-Mex, a Mexican trucking company owned by Swift. They are staged at the Swift terminal in Laredo, TX and then sent out to various Dodge dealerships to be sold. The wheelbases of these vans differ and three of them can be loaded on a step deck. Usually they put two on a flatbed. If you drive flatbed for Swift, and find yourself in Texas, you will be transporting this type of freight.

I have seen other carriers getting loaded at the Swift terminal in Laredo also, as the volume was once relatively high, not sure what it is now due to the slowdown of the economy. Most of the dealers I talked to at delivery time told me that they are required to take so many of these vans per month whether they liked it or not.

 

Get a laugh each time I see those trucks riding piggy back. Less fuel, second truck is cheaper. And once stacked can run as a team back.