Back loads 2018
These are the 18 return loads we advertised during 2018, as they were written at the time. Each one was a lorry finishing a job away from home with an empty bed and a journey to make anyway. Nothing here has been reworded.
Half of every haulage job earns nothing. The lorry goes out loaded and comes back empty, and the second half of that is paid for out of the first. This list is what we managed to do about it in 2018.
The half of the journey nobody pays for
A back load is a load carried on the unpaid half of a journey. The vehicle is going home regardless; a load on it turns dead mileage into work, which is why it can be priced so much lower than a trip laid on for you alone.
It saves you a second haulier and it saves us an empty motorway, and both of those are real. What it does not do is let you pick the day. That is the trade, it is the only trade, and everything else about a return load follows from it.
Because every vehicle carries a crane, the load does not have to be somewhere with lifting equipment. Yard, field, verge, farm track — the lorry brings what it needs to pick the load up and put it down again.
18 return journeys, as posted
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Artic Hiab and Artic flatbed tipping in Bridgwater this afternoon.
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Wagon & Drag in Glasgow this afternoon.
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Rigid Hiab in Leicester this afternoon.
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Rigid Hiab in Gateshead tomorrow morning.
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Artic tipping in Swindon this afternoon driving back north for this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
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Artic Hiab available for hire in Chichester this afternoon.
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Rigid free in Edinburgh this afternoon / tomorrow morning looking for load to come south.
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Wagon drag available in Bellshill on Monday morning.
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Rigid Hiab clear in South Shields tomorrow morning.
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Artic Hiab with step frame trailer available in Bideford this morning.
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Hiabs & Artic flats for hire available in Newton Abbott tomorrow morning.
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Rigid & a wagon & drag just leaving Oxford heading north.
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Have a wagon & drag free in Oxford this after or ‪tomorrow morning.
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Artic Hiab going from Manchester to north London on Monday or Tuesday next week, looking for load going down.
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Looking for load going from Manchester to London for tomorrow.
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Rigid free in Barnsley this morning.
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Wagon & drag for hire heading north from Portsmouth.
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Artic in Kilmarnock free this afternoon looking to come south.
Where the lorries come home from
Counted from the 18 loads recorded in 2018 — not from a marketing map. These are the places that actually appear in them.
- Oxford
- London
- Manchester
- Glasgow
- Swindon
- Chichester
- Edinburgh
- Bellshill
- Portsmouth
- Kilmarnock
The pattern is the same one the fleet still works to: the M6 to the West Midlands and the South West, the M1 and A1 to Yorkshire, the North East and London, and the M74 north. Where the lorries actually go has the fuller picture.
Put something on an empty deck
Tell us what you have, where it is going and how flexible you can be. We will tell you honestly how often we pass and how long a wait it is likely to be.
