Las Vegas to Reno freight

Gaming equipment, mining supplies and the Las Vegas outbound problem

Las Vegas has one manufacturing industry that ships north in volume: gaming. The slot machine and gaming system makers are headquartered in the Las Vegas valley, and their cabinets, signage, seating and electronics go to the casinos of Reno, Sparks and Lake Tahoe on this road. The mines of central Nevada draw equipment and supplies up US 95 from Las Vegas distributors as well. Beyond that, the northbound flow is what Las Vegas usually offers: redistributed goods from the North Las Vegas warehouses, hotel furniture and fixtures moving between properties under the same owners, and convention material for northern Nevada companies.

Our own trucks reach southern Nevada carrying Los Angeles freight up Interstate 15 and our carriers work Reno from the California side, so a northbound load has trucks to choose from, and one of ours taking it rather than returning empty is a price advantage worth asking about. The dispatcher who books it stays with the driver through the climb to Tonopah and confirms the Sparks delivery the afternoon before.

North on US 95 to Tonopah, then down to the Truckee Meadows

The truck leaves Las Vegas northwest on US 95 past the air force ranges, through Indian Springs and the Amargosa Valley to Beatty, the gateway to Death Valley, then north through Goldfield to Tonopah, climbing all the way to about 6,000 feet at the old silver town that marks the halfway point. From Tonopah the road runs down through Mina and Luning to Hawthorne and along Walker Lake, then on to Fallon, where it meets US 50 and Interstate 80 for the last 60 miles into Sparks and Reno.

Between Las Vegas and Tonopah there is fuel at Beatty and little else for 200 miles. Hawthorne is the next stop. A driver on this road carries water, fuels before Beatty and before Hawthorne, and expects no phone signal for an hour at a time.

The climb to Tonopah in winter, the wind all year

Northbound, the trip starts in the desert and climbs into snow country. Between November and March, Goldfield and Tonopah sit high enough for storms to put ice and snow on US 95, and the Nevada Department of Transportation closes stretches a few times a winter. The descent from Tonopah toward Hawthorne is long and exposed. Wind is the constant, blowing across the basins from the west and rocking a tall trailer on the straights south of Walker Lake; in a strong wind a carrier running an empty or light van waits it out at Hawthorne. Summer heat is a Las Vegas problem at the start of the day and fades with every mile north.

Same day with an early pickup

The drive is about eight and a half hours, inside one driver’s legal day, so a load picked up in North Las Vegas at 7 AM is in Sparks by late afternoon. Afternoon pickups overnight at Tonopah or Hawthorne and deliver the next morning, which is how most receivers in Reno schedule it. One time zone, Pacific, start to finish.

Slot cabinets, mine supplies and the trailers they need

Gaming freight sets the standard northbound. Cabinets, bases, toppers and the electronics behind a casino floor are top heavy and costly to damage, so they travel in air ride dry vans, 53 feet long, with straps or load bars at every row and blankets between units, and the driver delivers to a receiving bay where the machines can be rolled off over a dock plate or lowered on a lift gate. Hotel furniture moving between properties under one owner travels the same way, often wrapped and loaded by the hotel’s own crew, with a piece count signed at both ends so nothing goes missing between Las Vegas and Sparks.

The mining side of the load list goes on flatbeds. Central Nevada’s gold mines draw pipe, steel, drill parts, conveyor belting and the giant tires that haul trucks run on up US 95 from Las Vegas suppliers and equipment dealers, and some of those pieces are wide or heavy enough to need a Nevada oversize permit, which limits the hours and sometimes the days such a load may travel on a two lane highway. Tell us the dimensions with the quote, because a permit load is planned around daylight at Tonopah and Hawthorne rather than around the receiver alone.

Las Vegas sends out much less than it receives, so in this direction trucks are plentiful and the shipper holds the advantage on timing: carriers finishing a delivery in the valley would rather run north loaded than sit and wait. The catch is at the far end, since freight leaving Reno leans toward California and the Northwest, and a carrier weighs where it goes after Sparks before it agrees. A delivery that leaves the truck near Interstate 80, with a reload toward Sacramento or the Bay Area in reach, is the easiest kind to cover and the quickest to price.

Getting a northbound price

Give the pickup spot in the Las Vegas valley, the commodity, pallet count or dimensions and weight, the pickup date and the Reno or Sparks delivery with its appointment. Say if the load can wait a day or two for one of our trucks already in southern Nevada. On mornings this lane is priced, the range over the form is updated from our own trips on similar Nevada roads and the price of diesel; use it to plan, and use the quote, which a dispatcher sends back, to book.

Each end has its own page, Las Vegas and Reno and Sparks. The southbound trip is Reno to Las Vegas freight, and our Southern California lane into Las Vegas is the Los Angeles run.