Los Angeles to Victorville freight

A growing High Desert, supplied from below the pass

The Victor Valley, the cities of Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Adelanto on the high desert above the Cajon Pass, has grown into a sizable urban area, and it is still building. New subdivisions spread across open desert, distribution centers and factories have gone up along Interstate 15 and on the old air base at the edge of Victorville, and the retail strips along Bear Valley Road keep adding stores. Nearly everything they need comes up the hill from the warehouses and yards below the pass.

That makes the freight on this lane: lumber, trusses, drywall, roof tile, block and rebar for the tracts; structural steel and storage racking for the new warehouses; palletized goods for stores and distribution centers; and furniture, appliances and fixtures for homes and businesses.

How we cover the hill

Our own tractors are based in Covina, a short run from Interstate 15, and they pass through Victorville on their way to Las Vegas and on the way home from Reno, so the High Desert is familiar ground. A van load can ride with one of ours when the schedule allows; flatbeds, box trucks and the rest go to partner carriers that have cleared our Highway screening. Whoever hauls it, a single dispatcher stays responsible from pickup to the signed receipt and is the person you call.

North on Interstate 15 through the Cajon Pass

From the Inland Empire the route is Interstate 15 north from Ontario, past Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana and the junctions with Interstate 210 and Interstate 215, into the Cajon Pass, the gap that separates the San Gabriel Mountains from the San Bernardino range. The climb is long and steady, with railroad tracks winding beside the freeway and trains often in view. A load that starts in Los Angeles County first heads east on Interstate 210 or Interstate 10 to reach it.

Over the top the road eases down onto the high desert at Hesperia, and the Victor Valley exits follow: Main Street, Bear Valley Road, and Palmdale Road into Victorville, with the Mojave River running through town. Adelanto is a few miles northwest, Apple Valley across the river to the east.

Wind, fire and the occasional snow

The Cajon Pass becomes a wind tunnel when the Santa Ana winds blow, mostly from October into March: gusts pour down the pass toward the Inland Empire, strong enough to push a tall, light trailer across a lane or tip it, and the California Highway Patrol posts warnings for high profile vehicles. Empty vans and box trucks feel it most, and carriers sometimes wait a few hours for the wind to drop. Some winters bring snow to the summit, rarely for long, and it can close the freeway until plows clear it.

Wildfire is the summer and fall risk. Brush fires in the pass have shut Interstate 15 for many hours at a time, and the detours around the mountains are long. Summer on the high desert is hot, though milder than the low deserts, and winter mornings there start below freezing.

Return loads down the hill

Much of what the Victor Valley sends away, its cement and aggregate above all, travels in bulk equipment rather than vans or flatbeds, so a carrier delivering a flatbed of trusses in Hesperia may well head back to the Inland Empire empty, unless one of the High Desert distribution centers has a load going down. On a lane this short an empty return costs an hour, not a day, which is one reason trucks for the trip up are usually available on short notice.

Our own tractors coming home from Nevada through Victorville can also carry Victor Valley freight down to the basin, so mention any loads going that way.

Trailers for the High Desert

Flatbeds and step decks handle the building trade: lumber and truss packages, steel beams and joists, rebar, block on pallets, roof tile and solar panels. Tract sites may be unpaved and unloaded by a forklift on site, so tell us the ground conditions and who unloads. A warehouse girder or a modular unit beyond the legal width travels under a California oversize permit that the carrier obtains and our office tracks.

Dry vans carry palletized retail and distribution freight to docks along Interstate 15 and around the old air base. Box trucks, usually with a liftgate, are right for stores without a dock, small businesses, and furniture or appliance drops at homes, where a full size tractor and trailer has no room to maneuver. If the delivery is residential or behind a gate, say so in the request.

An hour up the hill, and the Las Vegas factor

The drive from the Inland Empire takes about an hour without traffic, so this is a same day lane by a wide margin. The federal limit of 11 driving hours rarely matters here: a driver can make two round trips up the pass in one shift when both docks load and unload quickly, which helps a builder who needs several flatbeds on a site in one day. A pickup in Los Angeles County adds the basin, where rush hour rather than miles sets the time. Next day delivery is the plan only when the pickup is late in the afternoon, wind or weather has closed the pass, or the receiver wants an early appointment.

Interstate 15 is also the main road from Southern California to Las Vegas, and that shapes the week. On Friday afternoons northbound traffic through the pass can crawl, on Sunday afternoons the southbound lanes fill with drivers coming home, and holiday weekends are worse both ways. Weekday mornings and early afternoons are the easy windows. Both ends are on Pacific time.

Ordering a truck to the Victor Valley

Give us both addresses, the trailer you think you need, the pallet count or the piece dimensions, the weight, and how the freight comes off: dock, forklift, crane or liftgate. If several loads must reach the same job site in sequence, give us the order and the times, and set the window with the site superintendent first. If the lane carries a price today, the dated range is posted above the quote form, and your firm price comes back from the dispatcher once you send it.

For basin pickups, see Los Angeles truckload shipping or the Inland Empire page; Victorville is in San Bernardino County, covered with freight shipping in San Bernardino along with freight shipping in California. Freight continuing up Interstate 15 belongs on our Las Vegas lane, and our trucks come back down through the Victor Valley on Reno to Los Angeles freight.