HHG Freight Forwarders and Drayage Truckers Plan for Growth With "Direct" Residential Delivery System

Household goods(HHG) freight forwarders including ISO 20 steel containerized and lift van(wooden crate) shipments, both domestically and internationally, are looking to expand with exciting developments from Box Trotters that promise to cut origin-destination costs as well as provide new market and sales opportunities.

For years, HHG freight forwarders have struggled to provide "direct" residential pick-up and delivery service with the 20’ container and/or lift vans. Today, many shipments are restricted from "direct" pick up and delivery residential service due to limited equipment options needed to perform in the close quarters of residential neighborhoods and multifamily apartment complexes. Typically residential drayage(pick up or delivery of a container to or from a rail or ocean terminal before and after long distance transport) is performed indirectly and involves 2 parties, a drayage trucker and a full service moving and storage company. To get the shipment from the residence, a crew is dispatched from the local full service moving terminal to the residence. There, the shipment is packed, inventoried, and loaded onto a truck. The truck is driven back to the warehouse where the items are unloaded. Once the container arrives, the shipment is loaded into the container or into wooden lift vans before it goes into the container. If the shipment will not completely fill the container, the shipment must go into lift vans so that it can be easily fork lifted as it travels from point to point until it reaches its destination. A second restriction that local drayage truckers have had is gaining access to small confines with the fifth wheel articulated chassis which requires a wide radius for turning and backing. Clearly, with all this required handling and labor needed with this procedure, "direct" delivery would have many benefits and provide the degree of cost savings that many forwarder’s corporate accounts continue to demand.

Direct residential delivery of container has been an operational obstacle for truckers for a long time. Currently, to deliver the 20’, 40’ or 48’ container into a residential area, the container must be placed upon skeletal, articulated chassis that’s towed behind a commercial tractor trailer truck in a fifth wheel configuration. This is standard equipment and has been primarily unchanged since Sea-Land developed the system decades ago. The chassis system works well around commercial loading docks where height to the ground and a loading ramp don’t matter. It is these rigid, commercial features that are obstacles to using this equipment for "direct" residential delivery for drayage truckers, those who are the primary service agents of freight forwarders in the field.

On the other hand, for years, drayage truckers being contracted by freight forwarders for residential drayage haven’t been exactly thrilled about the service responsibilities. Delivering containers into residential neighborhoods has its challenges. One way that drayage companies overcome these challenges is how they charge for the service. There are zoning restrictions which require special permits and the risk of fines if their driver happens to get off the main travel route. Then the trucker must:

Many drayage truckers don’t like to provide residential service and since "direct" residential drayage is such a burden to many drayage truckers, many will simply gouge the customer with the intent of scaring off the customer or simply preparing for a lot of risk with a lot of return. Now, truckers who do and do not practice this economic technique can get the resources, equipment, technology, and training to capture market share from this exciting market which promises sales volume and profitability without all the headaches.

The Box Trotters equipment is a modified straight truck container pick up and delivery system similar to the European "swap-body." While these systems provide ways to deliver the container or box and support it with telescopic legs where a truck drives out from beneath it, the Box Trotters system is uniquely different. The Box Trotters equipment, unlike the European "swap-body" does not require a specially built chassis or truck. In fact, the equipment is designed to mount onto almost any type of standard, commercial, medium duty straight truck chassis similar to the size that truck rental companies use with their 24’ truck. The key advantages of the Box Trotters system is that it features; a loading ramp, capabilities of delivering and picking up in residential neighborhoods, multifamily apartment complexes and one way streets associated with downtown areas of large cities. The Box Trotters system also features a tight turning radius, and flexibility for delivering and picking up equipment in un-level terrain to meet the needs of P&D drivers.

But Box Trotters is more than an equipment technology. Box Trotters provides a "system", which is a comprehensive package of tools that moving and storage companies as well as drayage truckers use to gain an array of benefits while servicing their freight forwarder partners. In addition to the actual hands on driver training that Box Trotters provides to its dealers, partners, associates, service agents, and sales representatives, Box Trotters provides a real time, web based information system that is open and enables freight forwarders to gain immediate access to the origin and destination agent’s service rates. This enables less time on the phone playing phone tag. But it also allows the local agent 24 hour access to adjust rates for seasonal fluctuations and other factors that impact the business.

Box Trotters also works diligently to bring benefits not only to its dealers but also to contractors who perform in the field, such as drayage companies, as well as forwarders, equipment brokers and lessors. For example, Box Trotters works to get its dealers and drayage partners in compliance with equipment sharing agreements, so that they can tap into the enormous equipment pools that railroads and steamship lines provide.

As the world focuses more on gaining the technological resources needed to service this fast growing market segment, the Box Trotters system can be an attractive way that drayage truckers and freight forwarders can reduce their costs while expanding their market and sales opportunities. Combining intermodal, delivering into residential areas multifamily complexes efficiently, has so far proved difficult for truckers. But with improved techniques and equipment, the market may be a tremendous opportunity for those who are challenged to go in that direction.

For further information about Box Trotters value enhancing systems for your business, you can contact them at: 843-381-0596, Fax: 843-248-5499, email: boxtrot@sccoast.net, or go to their web site at: http://www.BoxTrotters.com