No Empty Trailers

It sounds funny, and some of you may be scratching your heads on this one, but the veterans probably understand.

Most of our runs entail hooking up to an empty before going to the shipper , even if you're picking up a pre-loaded trailer. Well, some of the terminals have plenty of empties parked on the yard, but even a carrier as large as Swift doesn't have empty trailers everywhere, which came as a surprise to this rookie.

We've had to run local freight in the North West, because that's all they've got, so we do it without complaints. The following day, we get a 2,000 mile run. "Great! Our patience has paid off," or so we thought. There are no empty trailers on the yard. The issue has now become the terminal dispatcher telling me: "we are NOT trailer solutions!" Hahaha...

So a call to my drive manager at my home terminal, rather than the terminal I am currently sitting in, has to find me an empty trailer before I can pick up a pre-loaded trailer at the shipper. Yes, this is part of the life sometimes.

My experience has been that the planners not the driver managers control the trailers

Been there, done that, got the t shirt. It will happen more often than you'll like!

Planners do have that power over the trailers.. sometimes, they'll make you bobtail anyway, even after they've said you cannot go without a trailer. Hahaha it's pretty awesome sometimes...

And it really does happen quite a bit

I have learned that if an empty is available, grab it before someone else takes it!

Sometimes you get called in to get your oil changed. You come in with an empty, but they wewant you to disconnect he empty before bringing your truck into the shop... that happens... and when you go back to get your trailer, its gone.

By the way, this is why they make kingpin locks lol

"Trailer Solutions" is an office at Swift that tries to keep track of empty trailers for people who need them! They aren't always successful, though.

Sometimes you get called in to get your oil changed. You come in with an empty, but they wewant you to disconnect he empty before bringing your truck into the shop... that happens... and when you go back to get your trailer, its gone.

By the way, this is why they make kyou ingpin locks lol

We were actually facing this scenario this morning here in Denver. My mentor's truck had to go in for an inspection. We had an empty and an appointment to pick up our next load tomorrow morning. We opted to pick up our load this morning rather than risk losing our empty while waiting for the shop to finish working on the truck. LOL

We had a Swift trailer come into our shop to get a door fixed that had been ripped off. Driver was mad because he was told there were no trailers in the area. We told him where he could find about 30 empty ones 90 miles away in their drop yard. He called dispatch and was gone.

I always kept a list of customers that I'd come across with empty trailers. That way when I needed one I knew some places I could go look. Often times there would be other bobtails sitting around waiting to hear from dispatch about where to go look. I'd just pass em on by and go find one myself.