Do any moving companys use domestic containers to move across country or it all still done by OTR trucking?
Interesting photos.
Kinda surprizing that moving companies would use containers for moving. My guess and it is only a guess is that Allied is using those containers for international moves or a special products division.
Just a guess.
Ed
Many moving crews are independent contractors, and the same crew loads and unloads the van, and thus have to travel with the van.
There might be a market for moving PODS by rail. They don’t involve labor, just picking up and delivering the POD.
I don’t know the current status but I had a friend wo worked for United Van Lines who said that test loads sent TOFC resulted in extreme cargo damage due to slack action. This was twenty years or more ago. I also had a neighbor International Harvester transferred to Europe and his possesions were loaded in a container about thirty years ago.
ABF, and maybe some other carriers, are trying to break into the household goods market with a “load it yourself” rate. They will drop off a trailer at your house, you load it, call for pickup, and they will deliver it to the specified address. You unload the trailer at the other end. This market may be fairly small at this time.
I don’t know the current status but I had a friend wo worked for United Van Lines who said that test loads sent TOFC resulted in extreme cargo damage due to slack action. This was twenty years or more ago. I also had a neighbor International Harvester transferred to Europe and his possesions were loaded in a container about thirty years ago.
Didn’t Norfolk Southern own United Van Lines at one point?
Don’t know about Domestic moves but when my brother moved overseas. The moving company dropped off a 40 ft Container from the shipping co (Zim Container service if I remember right) The movers loaded it and away it went. Don’t see why this could not done domestically.
They owned North American Van Lines and used its trucking expertise to help set up and market Triple Crown Services.
Because if, as is common, the moving crew is an independent contractor who ownes his tractor and leases it back to the moving company, he would have to hire another crew at the delivery end to complete the transfer.
If they are company employees, then I would agree with you.
Since those containers are 48 feet long, shipping them outside of North America is unlikely.
Just guessing here, but I would think that a self-loaded container (ie, the homeowner loads) would probably be a disaster. I seriously doubt they would adequately package Aunt Mindy’s antique vase securely enough to deal with the slack action it will encounter on the RR. Most likely they’d wrap it in an old quilt and set it in a dresser (which wouldn’t be very well secured either).
The whole local vendor thing notwithstanding, I would thank that such an arrangement would work for long distance moves if everything was properly package. The question (which probably has an answer already somewhere) is how many moves are made where shipping the container by rail could be advantageous?
With a military base nearby I know that many times their household goods arrive here and get stored until they are ready for them, as opposed to the same moving van into which your stuff was packed showing up at the door of your new house. Containers would seem a good fit for that market: no need to unload anything - just stack the container until you’re ready for it.
Most of teh Domestic Containers if they are still being used were used for USMIL moves to and from Alaska. I know my Brother that just retired when his household was Picked up in NC loaded into a Container and then moved to Alaska. Then Unloaded by another contartor of the same company in Anchorage. Same thing happened when they left there for Clovis NM.