ITAG Equipment is a direct shipper of empty semi-trailers, semi-trucks, and construction equipment. Our load availability comes from our deep customer base, who buy the equipment we source from national vendors. Over the past 12+ years, we have shipped thousands of semi trucks, machinery, and trailers all over the country, both domestically and to places like Canada, Mexico, Haiti, Grenada, Hawaii, Africa, and beyond. We process a large volume of loads through the online load boards, where we advertise our trucks, trailers, and other equipment to carriers needing loads nationwide. We have well-established business relationships with a vast community of trucking companies that we rely on to help our products reach their destinations. The importance of the truckers and dispatchers we work with here cannot be understated. Through these logistics companies, we can provide our customers with an optimal degree of fast, cost-effective shipping service. We have created this page to cultivate a more accessible and better working relationship with those carriers. By advertising on load boards and leveraging our past carrier relationships, we can provide our customers with as timely deliveries as possible.
The used semi trucks we ship are handled differently depending on the truck's location, condition, and age, among other factors. Most of these trucks are built in the past 12 years, fully operational, and available as "drive-away" loads. This involves a driver transported to the truck's location and then dead-heading to the desired area of its new owner. These shipments are typically a more desirable, cheaper option than having the truck shipped as cargo on a lowboy. If the semi-truck in question is in a less-than-ideal condition for road use, it will be treated as cargo and transported on a trailer to a place of its buyer's choosing. Any service or repairs needed to get the truck in shape for use are made at the customer's discretion and cost.
Most of our business comes from the sale of used semi-trailers. As such, we ship a high volume of these weekly. Most of these are offered as "load out" power-only loads. The carrier that takes the load is given a period of time, usually a week, to use the trailer for business with a third-party broker or shipper. As of October 2022, Power-only load-outs are offered at an average rate of $1.50 per mile. Still, this rate can change depending on the trailer type and geographical complications associated with its's location and destination. Weather, load availability, and fuel prices play a huge role. We also offer faster, more expensive shipping options which forgo the load-out period in favor of a straight-through delivery. These are usually more expensive, averaging at around $3+ a mile.
The most common used semi-trailers we ship are the following
· Flatbed Trailers
· Drop Deck Trailers
· Lowboy Trailers
· Gooseneck Trailers
· End Dump Trailers
· Dry Van Trailers
Only some carriers are open to running load-outs, as it is a less straightforward process than most power-only loads. However, it creates an opportunity for truckers who would otherwise be dead-heading to reach their home base of better cargo hubs while still driving revenue and working. Many fleets have begun to specialize in and exclusively operate power-only and load-out loads. It requires a particular type of hustle for which only some truckers are cut out. Successful trucking companies and dedicated power-only businesses are usually competent with all equipment and have power units that are highly versatile for all attachment types, from ball hitches and 5th wheels to gooseneck hitches.
Ideally, the 5th wheel positioning on their trucks is highly adjustable to accommodate different trailer types. Their semi-trucks might have ramps on the back to help quickly hook up to lowboys or double drop decks and air-ride suspensions that can be lowered to make these hook-ups a more fluid process. Any carrier running a load-out must source their securement accessories such as tarps, chains, binders, straps, dunnage, bungee cords, and whatever else is needed to secure their loads, pickup, and drop-off safely. We believe successful load-out power-only truckers' best practices include the following:
· Proper pre-trip inspections.
· A dot inspection before loading.
· Airing up tires to adequate inflation levels before loading.
· Weighing both the truck and trailer before loading,
· Knowing the limits of their equipment before booking loads.
· Set up ahead of time with shippers in the pickup area to ease securing loads.
· Thoroughly inspect the pictures of the trailers we have available. Asking for more pictures if needed.
We work incredibly hard to help our sub-contracted truckers have as successful and safe a run as possible. We encourage every carrier to get a DOT inspection as the first thing they do after picking up a trailer so that everyone is safe on the roads. Any trucker worth working with should want to avoid risking their driver's motor vehicle records or company authority records for someone else's faulty equipment. Getting a DOT inspection out of the gate can help ensure the carrier's success and benefits our customers when they receive a trailer that is, in essence, "road tested, load tested, and DOT inspected." We do not sell our equipment with the promise of passing an inspection; however, if we deliver a trailer and hire a carrier, we strongly encourage them to get a DOT inspection on the trailer.
We have a setup process before we send out a rate-con. We have the following requirements for a carrier to be approved:
· A or B carrier performance rating based on your DOT or MC number on TruckStop.com
· A quality-rated insurance provider provides insurance. The Certificate of Insurance should be emailed to our shipping rep.
· Non-owned trailer physical damage coverage with $40,000 minimum or Actual Replacement Value and a maximum $2,500 deductible. This is the ONLY coverage type we accept for our loads. We do not enter interchange agreements or allow trailers to be covered under cargo policies. Exceptions are made for cargo coverage if the trailer is stacked onto another trailer as cargo to be transported with wheels off the ground.
ITAG Equipment should be listed as an additional insured and a certificate holder on the COI we are sent. Certificate holder info should read ITAG Equipment, 115 W 7th Street, Suite 1322, Fort Worth, TX 76102.
30-day cancellation notice of the policy.
We will also collect several documents on the carrier for our records before issuing a rate confirmation. These include a certificate of authority, a voided check with the bank routing information for payment, and the driver's CDL, among other things. All documents should match the name of the carrier listed on the voided check. If the trucking company is late with delivery, then upon the 4th day late, we will deduct $250 per day for trailer rental.
If carriers have all the above to us within a reasonable time frame, we can have them teed up for business and swiftly pump out a rate confirmation. Our rate confirmations are sent out electronically via DocuSign for ease of signature and the security of sensitive carrier information. It's a simple one-page agreement that will include the terms of the load, rate, and other details. Note that we do not include pickup and delivery addresses on our rate-cons and instead email them once the document is signed and verified. We do this to ensure carriers pick up our shipment with authorization and allow us time to confirm that all information matches. The rate confirmation will have a place to enter relevant payment instructions so that we can pay in a timely fashion upon delivery. We only pay our carriers directly via ACH transfer and avoid working with factoring companies as much as possible. Anyone who sends an NOA from a factoring company to us will be paid for all future loads via a check mailed to the factoring company, resulting in delayed payment.
After electronically signing the rate-con, a downloadable copy of the signed document will be readily available for record-keeping purposes. We have a file for each carrier that will have all the above documents, along with the contact information for everyone involved in the load. All inbound and outbound calls, texts, and emails are recorded, tracked, and logged in the file for quality assurance and our future reference if needed. As a carrier with a truckstop.com login, you can check our experience factor rating and average days to pay on TruckStop.com. We have maintained an A rating and an average of 1-3 days-to-pay rating for many years. If you have any additional questions, contact our shipping team at 833-800-2955 or email us at shipping@itagequipment.net.