why pull two trailers instead of one ?

Much easier to do line haul to two different locations
I have a bud that drives UPS and does just that
No sitting time, just drop and hook and back

 

Both trailers may have originated at one distant city and both have the same destination. The originating terminal can load each trailer according to addresses and delivery route. Computerized loading can eliminate "cross-docking" at the destination terminal. I used to get a 28' pup with 35 deliveries on board. That is about enough for one city driver.

 

I pulled turnpike doubles for years, the loads didn't pay enough to pull single loads.

 

I've pulled triples for a LTL company out of Las Vegas NV. It's much easier for the company to drop a whole trailer at a mine site than to go through the cargo and find what's theirs. This is how it would work. I'd leave LV around 10pm with the first drop right on the north side of Beatty. I'd drop their box and hook an empty. Then I'd go onto Tonopah and drop the loaded two boxes and back load whatever trailer they had going to Reno. I'd get to Reno in the early A.M. and put the first trailer up to the dock. Then I'd go to the hotel and wait until 10 P.M. that night. Then I'd go in for my run to Salt Lake City. I'd have maybe 4 or 5 drops along the way. Nothing easy, always the heavy trailer was the one that needed to stay. I'd stop in small towns like Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Wells, and Wendover. Nothing straight through ever. Get to Salt Lake early A.M. and off to the motel. Then back around 10 P.M. to head back to Las Vegas but not down I-15. I'd have a drop in Ely NV which meant mostly two lane roads. However, Hwy 318 is great. All the driving was done at night just like all the other LTL companies. You're never home and the pay was lousy I made more with my tanker job in two days then what you could make with the LTL company in 6 days. But it was fun pulling trips.

 

Doubles became legal in Illinois in 1969. I had a run that began in Ottawa at midnight. I would leave Ottawa with a 27' trailer . Going west to LaSalle/Peru, I would add a loaded trailer and converter dolly at Quesse Moving & Storage. Going north to Mendota, I would break the combination and hand load outbound freight at Ralph Boelk Trucking. Then, I would take both trailers south and then east to Chippewa's terminal in Chicago where they would be exchanged for two different trailers but using the same converter dolly. Chicago yard hostlers would do the hook-up while I waited for up to two hours of free time at the farthest turn-around point. Returning to Mendota, I would kick off their freight before dropping the second trailer and dolly at LaSalle/Peru. After that, I would peddle and pick up freight in Ottawa with the lead trailer. I would be home in bed by 3:00 p.m., get up to have supper with the family, and then back to bed before leaving out again at midnight.

When Chippewa opened a terminal in Ottawa, I bid for a city delivery route and never pulled doubles again.

 

I beg for pups (short trailers) for some of our customers. We don't have any at our terminal though.

Life is a bummer when you have to squeeze a 53 ft trailer in a hole designed for a day cab and a 48 footer.

Load I'm under now. Everyone else had to wait for me to leave the dock. Before they could enter the yard...I had everything blocked

 

I love pulling doubles... except if you have alot of drop and hooks. You can turn in tighter places. The other replies tells you why so I don't have to repeat it.

 

two trailers like this work well...

B-double.

OR Proper road train trailers.