I’m modeling the present and wondering if anyone has any idea how model a deliver truck that would deliver products to a store I have for my little southwest town it is ho scale Woodland Scenics Lubener’s General Store model since the Big box store is out by the city limit " off if the layout " this store would only be a convenience store now . . Would a big trucking company like swift ,a small company or owner operator trucker driver deliver the products ? Thanks
The smaller stores get their stock by delivery truck from their local wholesaler not a 18 wheeler.
Trucks like these:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-11291
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-11393
Or beverage trucks.
Convenience stores are primarily food stores, though they have automotive- related incidentals in one aisle for emergency purchase (oil, brake fluid, etc). Wouldn’t a more realistic general store be like Tractor Supply, where a wide variety of equipment is sold? They are modern! Cedarwoodron
Having worked most of working life in retailing {and food service as well}, I can tell you that the shipments of goods come in a variety of ways.
As mentioned, “straight trucks” {those on a traight single frame} like those pictured would be ONE possiblity.
IF the General store is part of a chain, though, or accepted drop shipments, those shipments could very easily come from semi tractor trailers, from both the “head distribution center” and other drop shippers, even in more remote or even citified areas.
so a tractor trailer, probably a 53-footer would come in as well:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-VNL780K
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/734-90070
or the whole shebang here:
[8-|]
I think it all depends on what type of store & it’s location that you are trying to depict. There’s actually a considerable difference between a convenience store (like those found in cities & suburbs) and a small town or rural true general store. I live in a remote, rural area, 4 1/2 miles outside a very small, backwoods town of just 840 people. We only have one store in town & it is a true general store. He sells a little of everything: Groceries, including meat & produce, Beer & Wine, soft drinks, basic automotive supplies, hardware, fishing tackle, bait, ammunition, over the counter medicines, work clothes, gasoline and also has a diner/lunchcounter etc, etc.
I have more or less seen three types of deliveries there. He gets about 70% of his stock from a wholesale supplier about 60 miles away called Pine Tree Trading Co. They deliver in 18 foot box trucks. He get’s beverages from a beverage bottler & wholesaler also about 60 miles away, from a mid-sized beverage truck. The food supplies for the diner portion come from Sysco, also in an 18 foot box truck. He also gets small deliveries of a few things from some more local suppliers, usually delivered in Vans. I’ve never seen any big rigs delivering goods there at all. You might see that with more urban convenience stores, especially chains, but not at the local general store out here.
It also depends on what their delivery and ordering cycle was like.
I worked in one of the big box bookstores (well there’s just the one now, so…) and we got three sets of orders in three ways:
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the cafe did its ordering every two weeks and would be delivered by a 48’ reefer that did most of the stores in the region in one day.
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the books were about a pallet’s worth of boxes delivered in a 20-ish foot box truck that also did deliveries to unrelated businesses (the Gap and Old Navy had boxes inside the truck most days, as I recall) but that truck came daily.
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the cafe’s milk arrived weekly and was in what I’d guess was a 28’ trailer that delivered to pretty much everything smaller than a supermarket.
Thanks for all the Info ,I guess the 53 foot semi trailer is out and 27 ft trailer or box truck is in .
I checked with my daughter who lives in a small town (pop. 600) about 57 miles from the city. Their town has only two stores–a pharmacy and a grocery store. She says that the soft drink companies like Coke and Pepsi deliver in semis. Most likely the driver is out on the road for a few days delivering to all the small towns in the area. The store gets its bakery supplies from a bakery in a larger town about 30 miles away in a box truck. They get their major supplies from a food distributor in the big city 57 miles away and they come in a semi. Quite likely these deliveries are made once a week and the semi carries supplies for stores in more than one small town in the area. Perishable fruit and vegetables might be delivered in a box truck with refrigeration. So, modelling either a semi or a big box truck pulled up to the store would be right.
Tractor Supply definitely gets shipment from 18 wheelers.
Great store, they actually have things in stock. [tup]
LION lives in zoo (monastery), big trucks deliver groceries from commercial grocery company, big trucks deliver milk from dairy, big trucks deliver paper goods, big trucks deliver Pepsi products, big trucks deliver coal, big trucks deliver wine. Even meat is delivered on big pallets.
LION does not recall any smaller trucks making deliveries (outside of UPS). A straight truck does pick up wine here for distribution to other churches.
Especially out here in the hinterlands, all deliveries would be by big tractor trailer rig. Too many miles out here to make little trucks profitable. Maybe in a small city or a suburb, but not out here.
ROAR
Lion, I was going to make the same point. It would be more profitable for a big truck to make the rounds of a number of small rural towns than to drive some distance to supply each store individually.
The BIG TRUCKS
The come up 4th Street and directly into our east driveway, They head in between buildings 8 and 9 and then back through the parking lot to building 4. They can pull straight out the way they came.
The Coal Trucks arrive same way but pull in further down the farm road and then back into the coal loader just north of building 6. Sometimes the truck does not make it out again and slides all the way down the hill!
The Wine Trucks come in same way, but drive head first across that east-west road north of the Power House and just past the north west corner of building 4. There we unload the truck with fork lifts and pallet jacks. That road now extends west of the Library (Building 3) and rejoins the main church parking lot.
My location is similar to what AVRNUT describes. Reilly,s Market in New Harbor, ME gets his most of his food from a wholsaler who delivers in a medium length tractor trailer. Beverage suppliers also deliver in short to medium length beverage semi-trailers or straight trucks. He also gets fresh local fish direct off the boat from local fishermen or CO-OP; I have not seen that truck, but it’s probably a smaller box truck with an insulated body.
Sylvan Scale makes a number of beverage trucks, mostly dating in the late 40s-early 50s timeframe. The tru
What the heck Lion… Hills in North Dakota???
Closest I’ve been to your neck of the woods was Estavan SK to the North East of you over the US Can border. Twernt any hills there that I can recall.
Dennis
For small custom deliveries like furnature, news print, other goods…
Go with something like this, An Iveco, or Mercedes Sprinter, repainted & decaled up for your ops…
Also don’t forget the ubiquous Panel van, also good for PD Stakeouts…
I’m in the “often 18-wheeler” camp. I lived in the mountains right near our general store, and sometimes the delivery semis really messed up the traffic on the small road up the canyon. But once they left the interstate, they were heading all the way to South Park - provisioning stores along the way - so a large trailer made sense.
Of course, smaller trucks also came and went, as well.
AVRNUT had mentioned Sysco delivering in an 18’ box truck. Around here they use a short wheelbase truck with a 28’ pup trailer. A-line makes a 28’ wedge trailer that looks similar
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/116-50130
Walthers International 4900 single axle truck would go with this - it is from the line that used to be Boley
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-11190
The box truck from this line would also work
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-11290
They also have a reefer van
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-11393
If I remember correctly, Boley also used to make beverage delivery trucks. Walthers has been releasing more of the former Boley line under their Scenemaster line, manufacturer #949. Keep an eye out, maybe they will bring the beverage trucks along in the future