Is Anyone Driving Trucks To Alaska And Back?

I've driven the ALCAN 7 times during moves with the military, sometimes having the wife drive a 2nd vehicle while I pull a trailer full of my own stuff.

I recall seeing trucks going both ways but, never managed to catch a name of the company they're working for.

Are those trucks just supplying stores along the ALCAN up through Canada and back or are they hauling to Anchorage and Fairbanks?

I know household goods go by ferry or boat to and from Alaska and then loaded to trucks for their final destination.

Any information on running the ALCAN would be greatly appreciated.

One of the things on my bucket list would be to drive up there for a delivery. Not a very good freight lane for returning, though.

There is a guy I've heard call in on the Dave Nemo Show that runs a dedicated route from VA to Alaska and back twice a month. Not during the winter though. Going up there would need to be maybe April through September.

I've been on this dedicated account out of Delhi. Louisiana for over five years now. When I first got on it they mentioned that on a rare occasion they have a load going into Alaska. They wanted to know if I'd be willing to run it. I told them I'd jump all over it! To this day I've not seen any of our drivers dispatched on that mystery load.

Fairchild and Lynden are two that I know of that run Alaska. If given a chance I would probably run up there once just to do it but not something I would want to deal with on the reg.

Four different hours of service to mess with (maybe elds simplify all that), and some pretty treacherous weather up that way.

Talking about remote delivery, on my Canada trip last August, we stayed at the Alexis Hotel in Port Hope Simpson, which is on the Translabrador highway and pretty much on the northern edge of civilization in Canada. The helicopter below delivers to places further north where there are no roads. The stretch of the Translabrador highway, dubbed the Loneliest Road in the World, from Port Hope Simpson is 250 miles of about half gravel road and half fresh pavement with no services on any kind on that 250 miles stretch. See the other picture below.

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Kivi brothers out of Duluth Minnesota. We run roughly 8-10 loads a month up to Fairbanks and Anchorage and sometimes more during the summer months. This time of year, they generally only send the more experienced drivers up.

Hey Robert, what kind of backhaul do you typically have?

It depends. We haul quite a bit for the mines up there and will take equipment, supplies, parts etc up and if they have a load of parts or machines for repair, that's what comes back. Otherwise, they'll bounce the driver back empty but even empty, the load more than pays for the trip.

One thing I forgot to mention, we're on percentage which works out to the drivers benefit big time on those runs when you see what they're charging per mile. An otr load is getting between $5-$7 a mile and our heavy haul ranges $9 and up depending on the load.

Cool!

How's the driver's pay calculated when you run back empty?