If you’re familiar with the trucking industry, then you must’ve heard the term drop and hook. Drop and hook is thought to be the holy grail for shippers because it saves you from the trouble of dealing with unloading a truck filled with heavy goods. However, is drop and hook really as good as it sounds? Read on to find out!
What is Drop and Hook Trucking?
If you’re hearing the term drop and hook for the first time, then you must be wondering what is drop and hook? Well, as the name suggests, drop and hook refers to the process of dropping off a loaded trailer at its destination and then hooking a new one to your truck at the same place.
The biggest advantage of this process is that you, as a truck driver, don’t have to deal with the hassle of loading and unloading the cargo. Rather than wasting your time unloading the shipment, you can spend your time delivering new cargo to its destination.
That said, there are obviously certain challenges to this process. For starters, there might not always be a loaded shipping assignment waiting for you at the drop-off location. And you might even need external help to hook the cargo shipment to your truck. But most truck drivers believe that these troubles are worth the overall drop and hook experience.
The Advantage of Drop and Hook Over Live Loads
First, let’s understand what do live loads mean. When a truck driver has to wait in line for their truck to be unloaded or loaded with the cargo at the dock ,then it is known as a live load. Furthermore, if the truck driver has to pick up another shipment while on his way back (also known as backhaul) then it can add a significant amount of waiting time to the truck driver’s watch.
This is not the case with drop and hook loads wherein most of the time the loaded cargo trailer just needs to be hooked to the truck at the drop-off site. Another major advantage of drop hook is that it doesn’t need a scheduling window to operate fully whereas live loads do.
The Process of Drop and Hook Trucking
Now that you’ve understood the differences between live loads and drop hook, let’s get into a little more detail about the drop and hook trucking process. In an ideal condition, drop and hook trucking operates pretty simply. You take your truck to the unloading site, unhook the cargo shipment, and hook a new shipment to your truck at the same time. It’s super simple and efficient.
But, let’s be real – things don’t always go the ideal way. Even if you operate using the drop hook mechanism, you can run into significant delays if you don’t position your truck in the right manner or if you’re stuck in line behind other trucks at the same site.
In such a case, you’ll probably need technical external help to hook the shipment to your truck. That said, the average waiting time for drop and hook trucking is still much less when compared to live loads.
Pros of Drop Hook Trucking
- When you spend less time on the docks, then you can deliver your shipments to their destination faster. This can be a time saver for you as a truck driver and also help you to earn higher pay.
- Drop hook trucking eliminates the need to operate on a tight trucking schedule. It makes the whole process of shipping a consignment easier for both the truck driver and the customer. Rather than operating in a non-negotiable time slot, shippers can pre-load trailers with cargo at their convenience and have them ready to be picked up by truck drivers as their schedule allows.
- Drop hook trucking can be a godsend for shippers who deal with high volumes of cargo in their warehouse.
Drop and hook trucking is a modern and efficient way of shipping cargo. Shippers nowadays are more inclined toward this process because it helps deal with warehouse backups, solve the problem of limited truck parking spaces, provides a way to efficiently load loose containers, has no time constraints, and can be used to ship high volumes of cargo. If you, too, want to make more money in the truck driving business, then it’s time to go the drop hook way!
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