A very large truck with a very small trailer

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CashWideCock@reddit

These trucks are known as expediters in the trucking industry. They specialize in moving things quickly. They will have two drivers so the truck doesn’t have to stop for rest breaks. The type of cargo they haul ranges from art work to medical supplies to industrial equipment parts and more.

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TheLostTexan87@reddit

I've never done FedEx custom critical, but I've hired cross country with teams and with truck swaps for full truckloads. Last time was a few years ago and it cost something like $5 thousand to go coast to coast. I've also done air couriers - paying for someone to book a last minute flight to carry a package on. Also a couple thousand dollars. You can accomplish just about anything for a price.

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StandardWeekend8221@reddit

I used to perform environmental labwork in remote Alaska that involved gathering and preparing samples to be shipped off to a monitoring facility in Anchorage. These were critically sensitive biological samples that had to be handled by the recieving party within 24 hours and at a specific temperature range.

I was provided with a standard cooler you could find at walmart, a roll of tape, and gel ice packs.

Once a week, for about 700 bucks in expedited-air shipping, i would hand-deliver this 2.5 gallon cooler to the tarmac. Oftentimes at 2 in the effing morning. Id get the results in no more than 24 hours.

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IndependentMacaroon@reddit

DHL started as an air courier service out of San Francisco

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Draco-REX@reddit

Back in the early 90s on a whim I called Fed Ex and asked if they could overnight a car from Japan to the US. I was told they couldn't overnight it, but they could second-day air the car and it would cost roughly $30,000.

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JaxRhapsody@reddit

$30k‽ It'll get here when it gets here.

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xpkranger@reddit

We used to use Delta Dash (same day delivery cross country) to ship hard drives because it was faster to ship data seven hours on a plane than to try and transfer terabytes coast to coast.

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Sawfish1212@reddit

Air cargo on airlines can get weird. Last time I needed something, it made it to the airport, but then got lost before they could get it to the courier.

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xpkranger@reddit

Yeah, you’re not wrong. We have in-house couriers so we’ve never lost anything between the offices and airports but it’s always a gamble once you hand it off. Fortunately for our use case - data, we always have it backed up so not a big deal if it doesn’t make it (I mean it’s a big deal for other reasons, but not like we’ve lost the data. )

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Freakishly_Tall@reddit

I always figured that was a corollary to Moore's Law: Shipping a box of hard drives will ALWAYS be faster than a network transfer.

(And a possible addendum: But it will never be cheaper... or a great idea.)

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olcrazypete@reddit

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of hard drives going 70 on the interstate.

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radiorental1@reddit

there's even a spec for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

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Tomytom99@reddit

The packet loss photo on that page fucking takes me out every time I see it

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drfsrich@reddit

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

–Andrew Tanenbaum, 1981

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rqx82@reddit

Dedicated truckload has gone up significantly in the last year or so, and is only getting worse with the current oil price situation. I did custom critical one time for some equipment that absolutely had to get to site ASAP and air wasn’t an option, it was eye-wateringly expensive. The fly a person with the item as luggage trick is a good one too, it can be cheaper than ASAP air freight.

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thync@reddit

I do import customs clearances and kind of specialize in those last minute passenger carries, can confirm we will try to make it not worth your while cost wise because it’s a pain in the ass for us.

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blaykareyano@reddit

We use Custom Critical regularly for aerospace hardware.

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amaurer3210@reddit

Same, not because it really matters but certain government contracts usually specify it. Even basic Custom Critical is very expensive, but there are layers and layers you can add too. When I shipped hardware for JPSS-2 they demanded:

- Custom critical
- No stops/straight through
- Dedicated truck (no other customers)
- Air ride suspension only

I don't know if this was standard or not but we also got names and pictures of the drivers in advance.

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JaxRhapsody@reddit

I don't know of any commercial straight truck, or cargo carrier that doesn't have air ride, above a class three or so.

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xrelaht@reddit

The Department of Energy has its own crews for moving stuff under these conditions. They often don’t have that much work, so I’m a little surprised they don’t hire them out to other govt agencies.

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I_Am_Coopa@reddit

It's a small price to pay to keep them on retainer doing essentially nothing when there's only a handful of people qualified to move things like warheads across state lines. That process is no joke, I'm only familiar with the commercial/NRC side, but even for relatively harmless stuff like fresh fuel rods it takes an insane amount of coordination to move it over the road. Everything has to be coordinated between federal, state, and local agencies to ensure that things like weather delays don't end up making the convoy a sitting duck.

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blaykareyano@reddit

That's our standard suite of options as well. Air ride is a pretty common customer requirement and the other ones are inherent to customer critical through FedEx. There are sometimes more stringent driver citizenship/identification requirements or truck marking (i.e., branded vs not) too depending on facility it is being delivered to.

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Substantial-Quit-151@reddit

Is that due to handling requirements primarily, or time?

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blaykareyano@reddit

It's for schedule, but mostly for reduced risk of something (damage, lost shipment, theft) happening during transit. We do lithium ion batteries for spaceflight so the hardware is expensive and carries more risk of damage than other hardware may.

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HB24@reddit

And body parts?

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Beaver_Squeezer77@reddit

They hardly ever have much in them. I met a couple in the early 2000’s that ran a 144” sleeper and a 144” box. Said they never filled it.

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ConsistentRegion6184@reddit

Some 53' team trucks out there have 1-3 pallets at less than 1000 lbs, burning 10 mpg for 2k+ miles.

Odd fact that I learned. Some shippers want the anonymity and insurance of a mega carrier semi to haul things that can fit in a utility van.

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jsonson@reddit

We've put 2 custom wooden crates in there before lol. Shit was pretty empty lol

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_badwithcomputer@reddit

That's part of the reason why custom critical is so expensive

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airfryerfuntime@reddit

They can fill it if necessary, but their loads generally aren't that big. We used Custom Critical to shop some machine parts and it took two fully packed trucks. It was very expensive.

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DolRex@reddit

It’s cold out

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prettybluefoxes@reddit

Find this weirdly unsettling.

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impoppinfresh@reddit

When you think it’s a grower and not a shower, but it’s really neither.

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JosephStalin1953@reddit

FedEx custom critical, for when it needs to be there yesterday.

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Carbon87@reddit

*but can’t fly on an airplane.

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ronin-pilot@reddit

Hotshot rig. When you ordered it and you need it right now. It’s a team operation that does not stop, I’m surprised you found this one. Might be on a 34 hour reset.

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Only-Catch-152@reddit

Hey hey… it’s not the size of the trailer that’s important. It’s the size of the load…..

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spitfirelover@reddit

If the trailer represents what you're getting at then this is a female.

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Cassie_Darkborn@reddit

idk, I know some women with pretty big loads.

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fluteofski-@reddit

If you make the box smaller, the load looks bigger too!

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Willing_Big194@reddit

😔😔

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joezupp@reddit

It’s an expediter truck for running hotshot loads

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WhiskeyMikeMike@reddit

It’s not a trailer it’s just a container on the back

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GloriousToothless@reddit (OP)

Neat!

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ryandaydrinking@reddit

That's not a truck it's a tractor unit. Hence tractor trailer, the tractor unit is what pulls the trailer. Pretty neat huh...

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JaxRhapsody@reddit

A big rig is still a truck, and that is a class 10 straight truck.

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356885422356@reddit

It's funny how often the incorrect mass drills the down vote without understanding the message... It could be your inclusion of,

Pretty neat huh...

but I'm not really sure. Reddit is as reddit does.

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dirkdirkastan@reddit

r/confidentlyincorrect

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Maleficent-Door6461@reddit

it doesnt have a 5th wheel

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V65Pilot@reddit

Nope, it's got 11, if you include the steering wheel...

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Maleficent-Door6461@reddit

😂

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JohnnyShadows@reddit

No I don’t think so.

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loganman711@reddit

I love it when people are smart asses, and wrong.

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GrannyLow@reddit

Its called an expedite truck.

Pretty neat huh...

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Ohiolongboard@reddit

🤓

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ntbirk@reddit

That's not a tractor trailer though. It's a box truck with a sleeper.

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9061yellowriver@reddit

I think these are used mostly for FedEx Express, One Day Shipping services. Hence the sleeper cab paired with such a small box.

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Numinak@reddit

High value/priority hauling. Usually team driving the truck, and having that extra large sleeper is nice because you don't go home.

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jsonson@reddit

Yeah its custom critical. We've had to ship some stuff across the US in it. Not super cheap.

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pinkfloyd4ever@reddit

But it is super expensive

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Accomplished-Ad-2612@reddit

We get them pretty often where I work, luckily the clients foot the bill for them. Between those and dedicated expedited trucks it's a ton of money that some of these companies spend to get their components to us in a timely manor.

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pasaroanth@reddit

Most of the time the cost per day of downtime dwarfs even the higher custom critical freight costs.

I briefly worked for a company involved in industrial turnarounds and it wasn’t uncommon for each day of downtime to cost in the 7-figure range.

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Accomplished-Ad-2612@reddit

Yeah that'd sounds about right. Any time a clients components don't get there on time they're on the hook for 6 to 7 figures while wasting time and still having to pay our facility. The clients are always responsible for shipping in our line of work. Everything is time sensitive and sometimes the clients don't do a very good job with their arrangements.

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pasaroanth@reddit

Not uncommon at all for sure. Any time our contracts had liquidated damages clauses we always had the client manage/hold the liability for anything to do with the logistics of equipment movement. Basically we agreed to do our part of our job on time but weren’t taking responsibility for things out of our control.

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Accomplished-Ad-2612@reddit

That's exactly the same policy we've got. We definitely don't want to be liable for their shipping issues.

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MeatAndPotatoesVegan@reddit

Not even a little cheap!

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sebwiers@reddit

Lol, I can imagine. We got to "overnight" a few 55 gallon fiber drums once. I think it was like $3000 each, and that was just picked up by a normal van (they weren't super heavy, maybe 120 lbs each).

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jroc421@reddit

Yep my work uses them several times a week for pharma intermediates either across the continent or straight to the airport

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Sawfish1212@reddit

A couple friends of mine drive one of those, they're sisters and make a good living at it. Still not what I'd be willing to do though as they live in that cab for weeks at a time and deal with all the idiots on the road

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the_Q_spice@reddit

Not Express, but Custom Critical, which is the Express division of Freight.

I work with them a fair amount at Express, but they are going to be spun off into a different company this June.

Photo is from loading one of these trucks at work a while ago with a temperature-controlled RKN that just came off an airplane.

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kindarollin@reddit

I came here to say this, usually it is used to shipped red overnight. or to small cozy towns in the boonies.

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JamesRevan@reddit

That is not a shipping container. (Worked with shipping containers for almost 20 years)

This is just a short trailer with its wheels moved closer to the truck for weight distribution. Probably something important in there as it is a full size cab with room for two people

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WhiskeyMikeMike@reddit

Correct, I did not mean container as in shipping container.

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fartsfromhermouth@reddit

The efficiency seems lacking here wouldn't a smaller engine be better?

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xrelaht@reddit

I imagine sleeper cabs probably don’t come in small sizes, so they don’t have a choice. It could be configured with the smallest engine, but the cab body would still be huge.

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Some_Quality6796@reddit

They get better mileage than some people think. My Volvo bobtail with a full size factory sleeper gets about 10 mpg going 70. I talked to a custom critical guy that had a mid-size Freightliner M series, and he got about 12 everywhere. Loaded, pulling a trailer, I usually see 5-7.

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xrelaht@reddit

That’s pretty impressive. Similar to a full size pickup near its max tow rating, and better than my brother’s Detroit Diesel powered bus.

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Some_Quality6796@reddit

Detroit Diesels were a wonderfully efficient system for creating noise.

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Caligulas_Prodigy@reddit

From 7 liters up to 15 liters, these things usually see 7-10mpg empty and 5-7mpg loaded. The only real difference with the engine sizes is the ability to maintain speed while climbing long or steep hills.

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RuinFabulous3077@reddit

Yep, a very large Class B CDL truck. It might also pull a 5th dolly and a trailer behind.

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Jlx_27@reddit

This makes no sense at all with that type of cabin. A cabover would make much more sense.

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MonacoMaster68@reddit

Unfortunately we don’t get cabovers in the states. All the good ones are in Australia.

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justfirfunsies@reddit

“Who’s a big boy!”

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joejoe6851@reddit

That’s what they use to carry them hot shot, got-to-be-there-yesterday loads. I believe.

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hindusoul@reddit

Short bus

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Disgruntleddutchman@reddit

It’s FedEx custom critical, these guys have a team of drivers and will pick up your shipment and drive straight through. In my last job I used them 2-3 times a year. Top notch service, the best in my opinion.

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ashyjay@reddit

It's a rigid. It's for very spicy deliveries https://www.fedex.com/en-us/custom-critical.html

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Left_Ad_8268@reddit

If it’s technically fixed, is this a class B license situation?

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hostile65@reddit

Yup. Continues driving for ASAP delivery with a load you'd prefer not to have on a plane. And sometimes can't.

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Apexnanoman@reddit

Or for things like German V12 diesels that there are exactly two of them for sale in the entire country, one on each coast and you are in the Midwest and needing one badly.

They will get you the engine very quickly. It will just be very expensive.

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jtablerd@reddit

Yes! I've had to use Custom Critical a few times and it is eyewateringly expensive but hey I was passing that along it we needed to move big stuff fast

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Apexnanoman@reddit

I work for a railroad and we had a large specialized machine called an RM802 undercutter with two V12 Deutz diesels.

We started it up one day and went to work. The workhead of the machine was in the ground.

And suddenly one of the engines didn't want to be an engine anymore and proceeded to throw enough of tantrum that you could see completely through the side of the engine.

Which is impressive on something that large. Phone calls were made and an engine was located somewhere in New York.

We were in Southern Arkansas. Fedex custom critical was called and told where the engine was. We had the replacement on site 27 hours after the original engine exploded.

This was in like 2006 so there were no electronic logs. I'm guessing there was much pencil whipping and speeding involved.

But for what the shipping costs were I'm sure they were happy to deal with any fines.

When you need a 5,000 lb engine overnight, that's who you call.

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chops351@reddit

If you ain't runnin 2 log books, you ain't runnin

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Ok-Sprinkles-5151@reddit

Ooh, so that is how I ship my, er, recreational plutonium. Awesome!

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xrelaht@reddit

Funny you say that: the Department of Energy has very similar vehicles for moving certain things around. They’ll put three drivers onboard with enough fuel to go coast to coast. This is normally used for exactly what you’d guess, but we had a piece of civilian equipment sent from Los Alamos to Oak Ridge and DOE decided it had enough neutron activated steel that they wanted it to go by this crew.

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ashyjay@reddit

Yes, even if you needed some Uranium Hexafluoride for something. FedEx ain't the cops.

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TheWavingFarmer@reddit

+1 for the spicy deliveries!

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optidave1313@reddit

Agreed. Spicy deliveries! lol

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jmhoneycutt8@reddit

It's a twuck

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nascarsimracing@reddit

I saw one of these goofy box trucks go by my work a couple months ago too. It's such a waste of all that truck for a little box 😭

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Patto324@reddit

Looks very MA Pike

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Beemo-Noir@reddit

I think it’s average sized to be honest

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MooseTed@reddit

It's just cold out.

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savechad@reddit

"Custom Critical" is definitely more PC than "Short Bus"

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dospinacoladas@reddit

Meep meep!

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Batfink-1999@reddit

How many of those actually look like a FedEx Express truck but are an undercover FBI vehicle used as a surveillance or mobile mission control unit?

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Lurking_poster@reddit

I worked near a FedEx hub and it was fun watching for this kind of truck to roll in. The one that visited our area was an elderly couple that did this as part of their retirement fun.

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metrawhat@reddit

I've seen the custom critical air ride FedEx trucks used to transport very sensitive high dollar satellite components in the aerospace industry. They're highly trusted specialized transit provided by a surprisingly familiar name.

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blooregard325i@reddit

That's my 5 metric tons of anti-seize. Costco Special.

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Monsterpiece42@reddit

How do you like living in New England?

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hostile65@reddit

Diddy, is that you again?

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DriveQueasy1857@reddit

me cuz im fat and hav small willy :(

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Not_me_no_way@reddit

Every 35 pounds you lose your willy will grow an inch.

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chops351@reddit

So if a fat guy loses 350lbs he'll have 10 inches of meat???

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Not_me_no_way@reddit

Only one way to find out!

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chops351@reddit

Time to gain 350lbs and loose it all, then ill finally have 12 inches

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DriveQueasy1857@reddit

Ty I will try

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XmotnaF@reddit

I know them as over nighters. The “get it there last week.”

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dubsdread@reddit

Open your Mind!!!

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flat_moon_theory@reddit

it's not even a trailer, it's essentially a semi truck built like a box van. the idea is that they can have a team of drivers keeping the vehicle moving as much as possible to get the most time-sensitive stuff delivered asap, but because the service is very expensive there isn't really ever going to be enough stuff going to the same place to justify loading up a full 53' trailer for it.

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romulan267@reddit

I was wondering why the sleeper/cab was so big. Looks like there's room for 2 beds while 1 person drives.

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kelppie35@reddit

https://youtu.be/-3PauN9I4hE?si=pgUVdj3tlLi7jHnx

I found a video tour of the exact truck if you'd like to peek inside.

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romulan267@reddit

Hotel room on wheels! Nice!

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kelppie35@reddit

I'm still unsure if they have a bed, but the shower and toilet onboard was surprising.

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chops351@reddit

Most high top sleepers have 2 beds in them. They're just stacked like bunk beds.

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Some_Quality6796@reddit

You want two beds when your hours for the week run out, and sometimes you just don't have anything to do for a day.

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Low-Individual2815@reddit

Some of them have showers in them. Pretty wild

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SL4YER4200@reddit

When I worked for FCA, we had an engine shipped in one of those. Big new customer bought like 20 Promasters when they first came out. Needed an engine after a couple of months. Was a BIG deal, apparently. Could not get an engine, and FCA pulled one from the assembly like in Mexico and shipped to us in MA. It was the only thing in there. It was a single engine on a 6-pack engine stand. 5 empty slots. Parts manager said it was over $10,000 just to ship 1 single engine pulled from the assembly line.

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Anwallen@reddit

For special needs packages?

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z0mbiemechanic@reddit

Its called an Expediter. I used to work at a dealership that sold them. Depending on the year of that one, there's a chance that I touched that truck before the driver took it off our lot.

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PeanutTheBoy@reddit

They call these things expediters. They expedite smaller loads that need to be delivered asap. Most work on teams of 2 and drive all day all night.

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Wiz21Reddit@reddit

What Mass pike plaza was this?

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Slapsh0tSc0tt@reddit

I noticed this too! Maybe Charlton east bound? The one past Springfield but not quite to Worcester yet…

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Wohn-Jayne@reddit

That’s a certified chode.

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CaptianBrasiliano@reddit

It's for expedited deliveries. If you're willing to pay an arm and a leg they'll get it too you as fast as possible. Team drivers, no other stops.

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heyinternetman@reddit

She says the big ones hurt

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kinkhorse@reddit

This is the "babby" tier of the freight expedition industry. The next level is crazy foreigners driving ProMaster vans and tag teaming sleeping on a mattress in the back, which is almost the same but with somw stretching of the DOT rules. Then you get to chartering aircraft... Then Helicopters.

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loddytoddy@reddit

I was in the pool!!!!

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wanker_wanking@reddit

I called them ass haulers lmao

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Right_Plankton9802@reddit

I worked as an automotive technician for one of the big three years ago. We had a brand new car come off the delivery truck at the dealership and stopped. No reverse. Transmission took a shit in just 8 miles of the vehicle’s life. This was a new release transmission as well, first model year. I called our technician support services and they calmly said, “ok. You’ll have one tomorrow, can you have the disabled unit out by tomorrow morning?” I removed the unit, went home, returned the next morning and one of these was sitting in our parking lot outside my door. They unloaded my new transmission, took the old one, and were off, back to Detroit. Got a call the next day from someone in engineering who had stayed until this unit came back. They disassembled it overnight and discovered an assembly flaw that saved well over the cost of whatever they paid Fedex for this service.

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juwyro@reddit

As much as I've traveled the country I've never seen one of those.

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FiddleFeet1000@reddit

Inside of one. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3PauN9I4hE&pp=ygUgaW5zaWRlIHRoZSBmZWRleCBwdmVybmlnaHQgdHJ1Y2s%3D

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Animal907@reddit

That's no trailer...

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Calendar-Careless@reddit

There are semis now that are “off grid”meaning they have a functional bathroom/shower and kitchen some even have recliners.

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kubes@reddit

That would make one hell of an RV conversion

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SR70@reddit

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maseratichris556@reddit

Lolololol

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RunningAtTheMouth@reddit

That is just SO wrong.

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Far_Audience_7446@reddit

It’s just a wheeled apartment with a storage unit attached, and a couple of roommates live in there to share the driving burden

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Dannyboyrusso@reddit

That is funny

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qmoorman@reddit

That's an average sized trailer thank you

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Coreysurfer@reddit

Pretty neat..indeed

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Jahbomb1974@reddit

Never seen a cab with such a large sleeper

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He-who-knows-some@reddit

—Definitely like a private operator was requested to move— I change my vote mid sentence. It’s a goofy ass box truck, no bogey under the “trailer” lol! What ever it is it’s one of them hyper important long haul no stops type deliveries. The ones I’ve seen personally are built on stretched “box truck” chassis, so it’s got a blunt nose, but an extended sleeper.

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