News

Save Yourself

No smashed fingers.
No being covered in oil and dirt from chains and straps.
No chiseling mud out of corner castings.
No throwing straps over a container.
No summer heat.
No winter cold.
No sliding around on a slippery deck.
No squatting next to a winch cable and chain under tension.
No customers complaining about damaged driveways.

QuickLoadz makes all these things go away.

“I don’t care, I just hire the driver.” Okay, then…

No trying to convince a driver to stay in the summer.
No trying to convince a driver to stay in the winter.
No Workman Comps claims from a driver slipping on the deck.
No Workman Comps claims from a driver’s hands.
No injured driver from a cable snapping.
No injured driver from a chain breaking.
No worrying if the driver strapped down the container.
No customers complaining about damaged driveways.

Instead of buying a trailer designed to tow cars and forcing it to move containers, buy the trailer that is designed to move containers and will tow cars, unload itself, and in the truck version, give you a free dump truck.

It will save you money in time, injuries, and maintenance.

See how the 40k Super Bed works in snow in just one minute.

- Sean

Another Clever New Use For A QuickLoadz

A clever Canadian customer came up with a use for the QuickLoadz Dual Chain Drive that we use all the time now.

After seeing a QuickLoadz, Bill said:

“Why don’t you take that tow bar of yours and use it in reverse to push pallets off of the trailer? A lot of times, I am dropping off pallets at a yard or job site and have to wait around for a forklift, sometimes for an hour.”

The answer is, “We didn’t think of it.”

Unloading pallets off of the flatbed is a problem for us too. Every week, the plant generates pallets and pallets of compressed cardboard and other recyclables that we put on a 26k Super 40 trailer and haul to the recycling plant. Every week we wait around for a forklift. Now, we can just drop the entire load in two minutes and the forklift driver can pick them up and move them when convenient.

Can’t do that with a winch. Just one more advantage QuickLoadz offers. Like you needed another reason to buy a QuickLoadz.

QuickLoadz is designed to be the fastest, safest, easiest, and cheapest way to move loaded sea shipping containers. But it does much more.

With QuickLoadz, you get:

  1. A tow trailer for equipment and vehicles. Better than a regular tow trailer, you have a built-in rear view camera you can see on your smart phone when backing up, and a smart phone remote control. Sit in the car and steer while pulling it up on the trailer. No other truck or trailer manufacturer anywhere has ever offered something that convenient or safe.
  2. A flatbed trailer which can tilt, and with an optional “push bar,” unload itself of pallets and skids. Unload at a construction site without needing a forklift.
  3. An automatic container mover. QuickLoadz is designed around moving containers easily. QuickLoadz works with any standard ISO shipping container with no modifications required. It is the simplest, lightest, fastest system ever devised to move sea shipping containers. The system is so automated the driver literally does not have to leave their seat in the cab of the truck. With QuickLoadz you would be the only company that can move loaded containers. A service that can charge a premium.

Have 15 seconds to see how it works?

- Sean

$85,000 New Trailer, But No Driver

A new trailer that works exactly the same as the old trailer isn’t an improvement.

One of our large clients had an average CDL driver turnover of five months. In some locations, it was as low as one week. They had new equipment, but it was the same as the old equipment, just shinier. The driver was still getting in and out of the truck eight times using chains, winches, and straps in the cold and in the heat, sliding around on the deck. Nothing was different. The job wasn’t any faster, easier, or safer.

After a year of talking about it they finally bought a QuickLoadz. That driver stayed, and has stayed for the last two years. Zero injuries. Production doubled.

They have bought more QuickLoadz.

 

The 26k Super 40 with Dual 20′ Container Locking Pins

Every driver who runs a QuickLoadz is still there.

The turnover for QuickLoadz drivers is zero. What is that worth?

You have to buy a trailer anyway. Why not buy a trailer that keeps the drivers safe and happy? Why not buy a trailer that adds the ability to move loaded containers?

How can QuickLoadz change freight and logistics?

Want to see which model is right for you?
www.quickloadz.com/help-me-choose/

- Sean

Two Large Flatbed Carriers Close in Ten Days

April 27th: Flatbed transporter Falcon Transport closes doors with 500 drivers suddenly out of work. [1]

May 4th: Flatbed transporter Williams Truck shuts its doors. [2]

And those are just the big ones that get articles written about them.

Why would you buy a standard flatbed? The market is crowded and the margins are thin.

It’s time to get flexible in what you can do and add capability no one else has.

With one QuickLoadz, you get three trailers of capability:


A tow trailer for equipment and vehicles.
Better than a regular tow trailer: you have a built-in rear view camera you can see on your smart phone when backing up and a smart phone remote control. Sit in the car and steer while pulling it up on the trailer. No tow truck or trailer manufacturer anywhere has ever offered something this convenient or safe.

A flatbed trailer which can tilt.
And with an optional push bar, it can unload itself of pallets and skids. Unload at a construction site without a forklift.

An automatic container mover. QuickLoadz is designed around moving containers easily. QuickLoadz works with any standard ISO shipping container with no modifications required. It is the simplest, lightest, fastest system ever devised to move sea shipping containers. The system is so automated, the driver literally does not have to leave their seat in the cab of the truck. With QuickLoadz, you would be the only company that can move loaded containers. A service that can charge a premium.

 

Check out the most versatile 40′ QuickLoadz in the lineup, the 40k Super Short 40: https://www.quickloadz.com/product/40k-super-short-40/

- Sean

Walmart Does It, And They Seem Good At Math

Walmart already understands one of the ways QuickLoadz will change the world of freight and logistics.

Containers can be used as cheap, flexible warehouses.

Walmart understands math. Walmart understands that store space is $130/sq.ft. and a container is $3/sq.ft. Which is why when you drive by any Walmart, you will see a dozen sea shipping containers being used as storage. When a truck arrives at a Walmart store, it waits an average of 20 minutes for a loading dock to become available. The truck and driver then wait another three hours for unloading. The merchandise doesn’t stay in the store; they don’t have room for it. It leaves the $130/sq.ft. store space and goes into the $3/sq.ft. container space. Getting handled and possibly damaged again.

During holiday seasons, Walmart gets more sea shipping containers, because they need more warehouse space. Incredibly cheap, dynamic warehouse space.

If Walmart moved to QuickLoadz, they could drop off entire loads of merchandise in three minutes instead of three hours. The merchandise would only be handled once instead of multiple times. Expensive loading docks would not be tied up, or far fewer would be needed.

With QuickLoadz, nothing has to change about how Walmart does things now. QuickLoadz works with all existing freight systems. If it is a partial load, or for some other reason the container needs to be partially emptied at a store, then simply back up the QuickLoadz to the loading dock. QuickLoadz works with loading docks. If a full load, simply drop the container and go.

This is the heart of the change QuickLoadz can make all over the industry.

Large retailers to small mom-and-pop shops that have seasonal warehouse needs can add containers as needed, then load finished product into containers and take it straight to a rail or sea port.

Intermodal for everyone. The most efficient distribution system ever devised can now be used by everyone.

- Sean

It Is No News That Freight and Logistics Are Starting Rapid Change

The question is, “How do I capitalize on this; am I too late?”

The North American Freight and Logistics market was around $1,684,000,000,000 in 2017. Without freight and logistics, there is no economy. This $1.684 trillion dollar market is in rapid change.

New logistics companies like Uber Freight and Convoy are rapidly automating the connections between shippers and trucking companies. This software change is already well underway and a crowded space. Lots of competition.

Companies like Embark, Volvo, and Tesla are building autonomous trucks with new entries every month. Lots of competition.

Software doesn’t move boxes.

Neither do trucks. It is the trailer that moves the boxes.

There is one company in the world that is, right now, selling a trailer that can move loaded sea shipping containers all by itself in three minutes. It is fully freight compatible, fast, light, safe, cheap, and opens up enormous new markets.

No competition.

Competition is for losers.

– Peter Thiel

QuickLoadz trailers are so heavily automated, they can be made to run remotely.

QuickLoadz trailers carry around a Wi-Fi network and a computer. QuickLoadz trailers are all ready to be the next cloud based logistics system.

QuickLoadz trailers are the last piece of the puzzle to change freight and logistics.

- Sean

QuickLoadz vs. Four Corner Jacks

Moving a container with four corner jacks and backing a trailer under it? I love this question.

I do have some thoughts on the four corner jacks, both from personal experience (before QuickLoadz) and listening to customer pain. We got a new customer after his employee had his foot crushed by the four corner jack system that they tried to build themselves. They had spent months building and tweaking these jacks, then one jack slid out because it wasn’t getting jacked up evenly, and crushed the employee’s foot. They never even got to the hard part of backing a trailer under the container.

Let’s detail what this involves.

You want to put a jack in each corner of a container, jack it up high enough that you can either get it off of a trailer or slide a trailer under it, depending on whether you are picking it up or dropping it off.

  1. A container is 96″ wide. In the US, the trailer can’t be more than 102″ wide without a permit. That leaves 6″ for tires. Okay, so the tires will have to be under the container, not on the outside. That means instead of jacking up a container maybe 24″ (at best) you need to jack up a container 36″ (also at best). You are proposing jacking up a container at the four corners three feet off the ground. Doable, but…
  2. The jacks themselves are pretty heavy, so someone has to carry these things around, load and unload them, in snow, fog, and rain; and get pretty filthy doing it. Everything about a jack is going to be greasy or dirty.
  3. Find a solid way to mount these things to the container. In other words, I have seen and used jacks that go into the corner castings, but they are not the most stable of things. Plus, finding one that will jack up to the height you need isn’t easy. Most jacks elevate maybe six inches because of stability. Think about lifting 4,500 pounds 36″ in the air on four corner jacks. They have to have a way to be secured to the container. You must do this without scarring up the paint or logo stickers on the container. I haven’t seen a system that does this with all containers; containers are different in the way they are made.
  4. You need to find four solid points that aren’t slippery or too uneven on the ground.
  5. You have to jack evenly, which means two to four people, or one person pumping one pump on one jack, running to the next corner, one pump, next corner, one pump, etc… in the snow, fog, and rain.
    Well, what if you hooked all the jacks together and used an electric hydraulic pump to pump them up all at once? This will not work, but you wouldn’t know that unless you dive into the details of hydraulics. In short, the hydraulic fluid will always go to the point of least pressure. With four jacks, one corner will always weigh less than the other corners and jack up first. The container will tilt and bend or break the jacks. Unless you knew this about hydraulics and had thought about it enough in advance, you won’t know about this problem. Wonder what other problems might you be overlooking? We’ve been building QuickLoadz for six years—tens? hundreds? of thousands of containers have been moved.
  6. Here is the part no one thinks about: You have your 4,500 lb. container (if it’s empty) jacked up at least 36″. Now you must back a trailer under the container perfectly without hitting any of the jacks that are sticking out right next to the container. That means for the full 96″, 240″, or 480″ (depending on the container length) backing up straight within a margin of maybe 2″. Sure, I’ve seen truck drivers that can do it. But I can’t. Try it with four traffic cones. Then try it at night, in the snow, in the fog, in the rain. Then remember that every time you bump a cone means you knocked over a jack, a 4,500 lb. steel container toppled three feet, landed hard on its corner, and is now stuck lopsided on your trailer. Sooner or later, something is going to get broken.
  7. You can’t travel with these jacks attached because you would be too wide, so how do you take them in and out once the container is on the trailer? The trailer is going to have to be special to allow this to happen. Access to all four corners, with cutouts for the jacks. But then where do you put your trailer lights? At least in the US, you have to have a light on each corner. Also, how do you lock your container onto the trailer with part of the trailer cut out for the jack access?
  8. We haven’t talked about securing the container yet. QuickLoadz is more than the fastest, safest, easiest, cheapest, most versatile way to move containers. It’s also the fastest, safest, easiest, and cheapest way to lock containers. Push a button, the container is locked. With your four corner jacks, after you’ve got the jacks out of the corners, you still have to strap, chain, or in some other way lock the container to the trailer. In the US, the container has to be locked by the four corner castings. Without a system to do that, you’re looking at manual straps and chains.

I guess it all depends on how often you move these things, and if you see a need for moving containers for others. Without QuickLoadz there is no way to move loaded containers short of a crane truck (really heavy, slow, dangerous, expensive) or having forklifts or cranes waiting at both ends.

If you only once in a while move containers, and don’t care how long it takes, or how difficult it is, or how dangerous it is, or what you might do to the surface, and don’t think that there is any need from anyone else to move containers, then some four corner post / jack and regular trailer thing might work sometimes, after you spend a lot of time creating it.

Essentially, it boils down to these two choices:

  1. You can try to make your own system (So long as you don’t wander over our patents, so no hydraulic side corner locks, no lift wedges, no dual drive chains, no big rollers on the back, no smart phone controlled hydraulics), but you will need time (It was four years of development and two years of testing before QuickLoadz went to a customer), it won’t work perfectly the first time (Certain QuickLoadz parts are on version 12), you will still have to buy a trailer and modify it, or build one from scratch and make sure it’s DOT compliant (Are you familiar with the Federal bumper rules or light color laws?), you will have to buy a bunch of jacks and modify them (If you go with the four corner jack method), you will still have to find some way to secure the container. And what do you get? In the case of the four corner jacks: a system that will be slow, dangerous, heavy, dirty, require a lot of skill to operate safely, and not something you will feel good about sending an employee out to do (I’d let my daughter move containers with QuickLoadz).
  1. Or, you could buy a QuickLoadz and immediately start moving containers fast, safe, and easy in 3 minutes without getting out of your seat. You can do this not only for yourself, but for anyone else that needs containers moved. There do seem to be a lot of containers out there, and sooner or later, they all need moved.

Seems like a clear choice.

- Sean

The Problem With Your Manager

Does your manager make your job hard, slow, and dangerous? If you are moving containers the old way with winches, straps, and chains, tell your manager about QuickLoadz.

Drivers want a safe, fast, easy way to move containers. But the managers buying the trailers have never moved a container in their lives.

The drivers who move containers know that moving containers is a difficult, time consuming, skilled, and dangerous job—which is why those drivers are so rare. It isn’t just driving a truck.

This is the management failure: The executives sitting in an office that have never delivered a container in their lives are simply searching for the very cheapest tow trailer that they can buy to put in their fleets.

The executives that sit in the office staring at spreadsheets constantly complain that they can’t keep drivers, yet turn around and buy the same old equipment that they have bought for 50 years.

QuickLoadz takes a 30 minute skilled, dangerous job and turns it into 3 minutes of pushing buttons on a smart phone. There is nothing else like it in the world. Move entire loaded containers in 3 minutes without getting out of your seat.

Drivers want QuickLoadz.

Moving containers with QuickLoadz is fast and easy. The driver loads the container with his smartphone or tablet, from inside the truck cabin.

Some of the largest mobile storage companies in the US have seen production double using QuickLoadz. The US Army is a customer.

Make your drivers happy. Without a driver, nothing gets delivered, and that half price new trailer is useless.

Move into the future. Buy QuickLoadz.

- Sean

Another Year, Zero Customer Injuries

QuickLoadz turns six in April, and it has been another zero injury year for our customers.

Zero injuries is not an accident. QuickLoadz came about because I used to move containers every day using the old style tow trailer. Every day getting out chains, straps, digging mud and rock out of corner castings, blocking up container fronts.

It was a particularly icy day when I was winching on an empty container and the chain hook end came out of the corner casting and was whipping at my head. Lightning fast, I ducked and smacked my head on the trailer side rail. I am not actually sure if it was better or worse than getting hit by the chain hook.

As I sat there woozy with ice melting through the seat of my Carharts, I decided to build a system where I didn’t have to get out of the truck to load a sea shipping container.

And now, QuickLoadz is turning six with zero customer injuries.

It is pretty hard to hurt yourself when you are sitting in the cab of the truck and haven’t touched a chain or strap since you bought your QuickLoadz. Maybe sprain a thumb (but that has yet to be reported).

As a birthday present to you, we are offering for free in April our very most popular option: the hydraulic foot jacks. No need to stand out in the summer sun turning a crank to lower the front of your trailer when you’re hooking up, simply push a button. I can’t think of when we last built a trailer without hydraulic foot jacks.

Order now. When April is gone, so are the free hydraulic foot jacks.

For those procrastinators who really want to get rid of rust, you only have a few days until our winter special of free hot dip galvanizing goes away. What kills a trailer faster than an angry driver? Rust. What is the very best rust protection you can get? Hot dip galvanizing. Free until the end of March.

- Sean

New Video Series: Win Freight

QuickLoadz is the freight and logistics platform for the future. Load and unload containers in three minutes, directly onto ground level, without leaving the seat of your truck. How can this change freight and logistics? The seven part series shows how.

  1. Eliminate 19 out of 20 Trailers: https://youtu.be/MiuFsLUQAzg
  2. Elimination of Loading Docks: https://youtu.be/Q1roo1CqQMU
  3. Time Savings: https://youtu.be/vLTyfgvxBik
  4. Pop-Up Distribution Centers: https://youtu.be/nkJBKaCloIc
  5. New Markets: https://youtu.be/YD4H9GvDFrI
  6. Ready for Self-Driving Trucks: https://youtu.be/yVUXITTwPVo
  7. The Future of QuickLoadz: https://youtu.be/2Xps7H6G14o

The 60k Super High 40 shown in this video can move fully loaded containers and is fully freight compatible: https://www.quickloadz.com/product/60k-superhigh40/

Music by Kevin MacLeod. Narration by D. Griffin Jones.

- Sean