Reno to Los Angeles freight

A homebound lane for our own tractors

Reno and Sparks are a distribution hub for the whole West: online retailers, pet and outdoor brands and parts suppliers keep warehouses there because a truck can reach most of California, Oregon and Nevada in a day, and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center east of town has added battery, electronics and food plants. Freight leaving for Southern California is palletized goods out of those warehouses, in vans.

Our own tractors deliver into northern Nevada and then need to get home to the Los Angeles area, so this is the lane where we put them to work on the way back. Every load we have put on it so far has been a dry van pulled by one of our own tractors, driven by one of our own drivers. The lane follows our northbound business, since each tractor we send into northern Nevada is one more truck that can bring a load home, and every load on it gets our own driver and our own dispatcher.

US 395: the back road along the Sierra

The shortest way is not an interstate. From Reno the truck heads south through Carson City on US 395 and follows the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada for 300 miles: past Topaz Lake into California, over the high country near Bridgeport and Mono Lake, through Lee Vining, Mammoth Lakes and the Owens Valley at Bishop, Big Pine, Independence and Lone Pine, with Mount Whitney on the right, then south across the desert to Kramer Junction. Long stretches are two lanes, with few fuel stops and no phone signal, and the scenery is the best of any lane we run.

At Kramer Junction the road meets State Route 58, and a few miles on US 395 joins Interstate 15 near Victorville for Cajon Pass, about 3,800 feet, the steep descent with the runaway truck ramps into San Bernardino. From there the Inland Empire warehouses are minutes away and Los Angeles County is another hour west on Interstate 10, State Route 60 or Interstate 210.

Sierra snow, Cajon wind and basin traffic

US 395 crosses several passes above 7,000 feet between Carson City and Bishop, and from November into April they get snow; the California Department of Transportation can require chains or close a section, in which case the alternative is Interstate 80 to Sacramento and Interstate 5 south, which adds 60 miles and a few hours. In summer the Owens Valley runs hot and wildfire smoke from the Sierra sometimes sits in it for weeks.

Cajon Pass has high wind, occasional snow between December and March, and brake fires on the descent for trucks that come down too fast. At the bottom, the Los Angeles basin has the worst freeway traffic in the West between 6 and 10 in the morning and 3 and 7 in the evening, and from October into December the retail peak fills the Inland Empire docks and stretches delivery appointments.

Next day, planned around the mountains

The drive is about nine and a half hours in good conditions, inside one driver’s legal day but with no margin for a chain control, so this is a next day lane: load in Reno, run the Sierra in daylight, overnight near Victorville or deliver early the next morning. The median on our own loads is about 20 hours. Our drivers know the road and the few places to stop on it.

Everything is on Pacific time. Winter deliveries get a note on the rate confirmation that a storm on US 395 can push the delivery back a day.

The trailer, the load and the trip back north

Reno to Los Angeles freight is mostly palletized warehouse goods, the inventory that online retailers, pet and outdoor brands and parts suppliers keep in northern Nevada, and a 53 foot dry van carries it best. Much of it is light for its size, so a van often fills before it reaches the weight limit; send the pallet count and note whether the pallets stack, because double stacked pallets need half the floor of the same load single stacked.

Where a Sparks warehouse runs its own trailer pool, a power only move is often the neatest answer: our tractor hooks the loaded trailer, hauls it south and drops it, and nobody waits on a live load. A drop trailer of ours left at your dock works the same way when you load on your own schedule. US 395 has long two lane stretches with few places to stop, so good brakes and tires and a driver rested for a long mountain day matter more here than on an interstate run.

The return is what makes this lane work. Our own tractors run north from Southern California to deliver in northern Nevada, so a southbound load is the second half of a round trip we are already making rather than a truck sent up empty to fetch it. When you can be flexible by a day, we match your pickup to a tractor finishing its delivery in Reno or Sparks, and the same applies in reverse if you also ship north from the Los Angeles basin. In the retail peak from October into December, when Inland Empire docks fill, we plan these pickups further ahead so a dock is still waiting at the southern end.

What we need to quote it

Pickup address in Reno or Sparks, pallet count and weight, the pickup date and the delivery appointment in the Los Angeles basin, and which side of the basin it is on. A truck of ours heading home can often take a load on short notice; tell us your flexibility on the date and we will match it. Where we have priced Reno to Los Angeles, today’s range by trailer type sits above the quote form, dated and refreshed each morning from our own lane history and the day’s diesel; your quote is the firm number.

Both ends have a page: freight shipping in Reno, truckload shipping in Los Angeles and in the Inland Empire. The northbound trip is on Los Angeles to Reno freight.