[TowerTalk] Looking for tower shipping company recommendations

[Jim Lux]

At 02:45 PM 5/27/2004 -0400, Cqtestk4xs at aol.com wrote:
>Tower is definitely class 55. The company I recommended (Roadway) does handle
>small loads very economically.  For instance, to ship maybe five sections of
>Rohn 25 a thousand miles might run around $100 or so.  The key to shipping
>this stuff economically is to ship it from terminal to terminal.  Choose a
>company that has lots of terminals and you will find that it probably will 
>have
>terminals near the point of the shipper and receiver.  You'll save quite a 
>bit
>this way.
Bill's right...

Terminal to terminal IS a lot cheaper, but also means that you have to move 
the thing yourself at both ends.  I think (but don't know) that the 
less(un?)regulated part of the trucking industry is the move from terminal 
to your door, which is where the differentiation really comes in.  If 
you're shipping a 500 pound transformer, and don't happen to have a 
forklift around, and your wife isn't keen on you shlepping it in the 
minivan, spending the extra $50-100 for  that LTL trucking company with a 
lift gate dropping it on your driveway seems like a good deal.

Certainly, also, the closer the terminals to your endpoints, the less the 
local delivery costs.

When you call the freight company on the phone to get the quote, you'll 
know right away if they're the kind of folks you want to deal with.   If 
they act like you should know what you're doing, and they start rattling on 
about loading docks and warehousemen, then you know they're probably not 
going to be ideal for a "pick it up from my backyard and take it to another 
backyard 500 miles away" kind of job.