What is Drop and Hook Trucking?
Drop and Hook Trucking is sometimes referred to as the holy grail for truckers because you don’t have to deal with unloading the trailer.
“Drop and Hook” is a trucking industry term for when a carrier drops a full shipping container at a facility and hooks their tractor to a pre-loaded trailer at the same facility, which is super efficient for the carrier and for the shippers. This reduces transportation costs, increases potential earnings for carriers, and ultimately saves time for everyone involved.
How Does Drop and Hook Trucking Work?
In ideal scenarios, drop and hook trucking is simple. You drive up and unhook your full trailer, then you hook up the new trailer that’s full and go on your way. It’s easy, efficient, and gets you back on the road ASAP.
Keep in mind that there can be hiccups in the process. You might run into delays if the new trailer isn’t positioned well, or is stored at a different facility, or is stuck behind other trailers. In those cases, you might need help from a facility worker to get the full new trailer hooked up and ready to go. Even under these circumstances, average wait times for drop and hook trucking are less than an hour. You could potentially three hours or more for a live load.
Benefits of Drop and Hook Trucking
Most of the benefits of Drop and Hook Trucking are straightforward. Some facilities require truck drivers to help load and unload trucks. Others have a dedicated team for that. Either way, drivers need to hang around the dock until the job is done. Drop and hook means drivers avoid the load and unload process altogether, allowing for No-touch freight.
It also allows for faster deliveries. Skipping load and unload means less time at the dock and more time on the road. This can be a huge time advantage, and more mileage means more pay.
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Drop and hook makes scheduling easier for drivers, carriers, and shippers as well. Rather than having to deliver in a tight window, shippers can pre-load at their convenience, and drivers can pick up and drop off at theirs. This also helps lower shipping costs. Drop and Hook may be less expensive than managing backups for shippers with warehouse issues or who deal in high volumes.
Drop and Hook Vs. Live Loads
A “live load” is when a carrier arrives at a facility, docks with the trailer, and waits for workers to load and/or unload the freight. As the carrier waits, detention fees can accrue and increase overall costs for the load.
Live loads can often require more coordination from everyone involved with the transportation of the load. Incoming and outgoing loads need to operate within scheduled appointment windows so that workers are available to move freight on and off trailers. If the schedule falls off track, there’s a heightened risk of facility backups which can increase driver wait times and detention payouts.
While Drop and Hook loads still require coordination and scheduling, they bring much more flexibility to everyone involved. Facility workers have a much wider time window for loading and unloading trailers. Drop reduces average carrier unload wait times from three hours to under one hour, which in turn results in fewer detention fees paid by shippers.
What are Detention Fees?
Within the shipping and transportation industries, the terms “detention fees”, “detention charges” and “per-diem charges” (or, “per day charges”) are often used interchangeably. These charges are assessed to the cargo owner when a load is not returned within a set time (free time). “free time,” varies depending on the carrier. Generally, it’s two hours at pickup and two hours at delivery.
Fees are generally around $50 and $100 per hour, though once again, it depends on the carrier. You can always figure out how much detention will be before shipping. You can also negotiate detention ahead of time if you plan on taking more than the allotted free time for pickup or delivery.
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