Phoenix to Provo freight

What fits a truck from the Valley to Utah County

A load leaving Phoenix for Provo and Orem is a single trailer going 619 miles, so the first question I ask is how much of that trailer you will fill. A 53 foot dry van legally carries about 44,000 to 45,000 pounds of freight under the 80,000 pound gross limit that holds on the interstates in every state along this road, and palletized freight that stays dry and clean belongs in that box.

Freight that has to be loaded from the side or the top, or that will not fit through van doors, goes on a partner flatbed instead. If your own trailer is sitting loaded at a Phoenix dock, a power only truck can hook it and pull it to Utah County, and a smaller shipment can ride a box truck so you are not paying to haul 53 feet of empty air across two states.

The road north, in the order the driver sees it

The truck leaves the Phoenix metro on Interstate 17 and climbs the Black Canyon grades, the long pull from the desert floor up into the Arizona high country. At the top it turns onto US 89 and runs north through the plateau toward the Utah line, a two lane stretch for much of the way where the driver plans fuel and breaks with more care than on an interstate.

In southern Utah, State Route 20 carries the truck west over to Interstate 15, and from that junction it is Interstate 15 north all the way to Provo and Orem. About 12 hours of driving is more than one driver can legally do in a single shift, which is why the honest transit here is two days rather than a same day turn.

Snow on the Black Canyon climb and what this route avoids

The hazard I watch on this pair is winter on Interstate 17. Snow falls north of Camp Verde, right where the Black Canyon grades top out, and a storm there can slow a truck or close a lane before it ever reaches US 89. With this page going up at the end of October, that season is starting, so I check the forecast for that climb before I confirm a pickup time.

Several Interstate 15 trouble spots that slow other Utah freight are not on this road at all. Cajon Pass, Mountain Pass and the Baker grade sit on the California side, and the Virgin River Gorge lies south of where State Route 20 meets Interstate 15, so a truck running Interstate 17 and US 89 bypasses all four of them.

Rail ramps in Phoenix and the Utah ports of entry

Phoenix has two rail yards in our sheet, BNSF Phoenix at Glendale and UP Phoenix. If your freight comes off either railroad and then has to finish the trip to Utah County by road, we can pick it up from wherever it is unloaded in the metro and run it north as a full truckload. Provo and Orem have no rail yard listed, so this pair ends at your dock, not at a ramp.

Utah weighs and checks trucks at ports of entry at St. George on Interstate 15 and at Wendover on Interstate 80. Neither one sits on the US 89 crossing into Utah that this routing uses, but a scaled load with clean paperwork matters on every mile, so I want an honest weight and piece count from you before the truck is dispatched.

How we quote this lane

A useful quote request gives me the pickup and delivery addresses, the trailer type, the weight, the pallet count or dimensions, and whether either dock needs an appointment. With that in hand I can price a 53 foot van of our own, or go to partner carriers for a flatbed, power only unit or box truck, and tell you which one fits the freight.

How I cover the load and keep the clocks straight

Coverage starts on the road itself. Our dispatch desk in Covina books our own 53 foot dry vans and the partner carriers we have vetted, and I look first to the trucks our network already runs on Interstate 15 and the Arizona interstates. I stay on the load from the first call through the signed delivery receipt, and you can reach me directly if a pickup moves.

The two ends of this lane keep different clocks. Phoenix stays on Mountain Standard Time all year because Arizona does not observe daylight saving, while Provo and Orem follow Mountain time with daylight saving. In summer Utah runs an hour ahead of Phoenix and in winter the clocks match, so every appointment we set names its time zone at both docks.