Power only trucking in California for shippers with loaded trailers
Lifetime Logistics Services LLC handles power only trucking in California from Covina, dispatching a tractor and driver for trailers that shippers have already loaded, most of them at Inland Empire warehouses, and regularly pulling them north to Seattle and Tacoma. Inside the state we haul trailers from Riverside and San Bernardino County docks to Salinas and between Central Valley and Bay Area docks, using our own tractors and partner carriers screened through Highway. To price a move, put the trailer’s location, its destination and the date on the quote form.
From our dispatch records
- How often we run it
- Regularly
- Trailer
- Power only: your trailer, our tractor
- Who hauls it
- Our own trucks and partner carriers screened through Highway
What California shippers hand us to pull
California power only freight starts where the trailers are parked: in the distribution centers of the Inland Empire, from Ontario and Fontana out to Riverside, Rialto and San Bernardino. Those buildings hold a large share of the import cargo landing at the twin ports on San Pedro Bay, unloaded from ocean containers and reloaded into 53 foot trailers bound for stores and regional warehouses across the West. The shipper owns or leases the trailer, the dock crew has loaded and sealed it, and the missing piece is a driver.
Power only suits California companies that keep more trailers than tractors: a retailer with its own trailer pool, a manufacturer that preloads trailers overnight for a morning departure, or a carrier with trailers in the yard and nobody to pull them this week.
California rules a shipper’s trailer has to meet
The trailer is yours, so its setup matters as much as our tractor. California allows a 53 foot semitrailer on the national network and terminal access routes only when the distance from the kingpin to the rearmost axle is 40 feet or less on a trailer with two or more rear axles, or 38 feet with a single axle, and some cities and counties hold their own roads to 38 feet.
Many 53 foot vans have sliding tandems, so tell us where yours are set before the driver arrives; a trailer with its axles slid too far back has to be adjusted at the dock before it can leave.
Width is 8 feet 6 inches for any vehicle or load. Height is 14 feet, though anything taller than 13 feet 6 inches may only use roads where the operator judges it safe. Without a permit a combination may gross 80,000 pounds, with 20,000 pounds on a single axle and 34,000 on a tandem.
California Highway Patrol weigh stations must be entered when the signs say so, and state agriculture inspectors check vehicles and commodities for invasive pests at border protection stations on the main highways into California, which matters for any trailer we bring back in from Arizona, Nevada or Oregon.
Where the trailers go from here
The northbound run from the Inland Empire to Seattle and Tacoma is a regular one for our power only work, and the details sit on our Puget Sound lane page. Trailers also head to Portland, Salem, Spokane and Missoula in western Montana several times a year each; see the Portland and Missoula lanes.
Inside California, Salinas Valley receivers get Inland Empire trailers from us several times a year, a lane set out on the Salinas route page, and we book trailers to Santa Maria, Redding and the Bay Area as shippers need them. We quote trailers from Bakersfield to the San Francisco Bay Area, and Arizona trailers come west into the Inland Empire on the Phoenix lane several times a year.
Passes, heat and the import season
Every trailer leaving the Inland Empire climbs out of the basin. Interstate 15 crosses the Cajon Pass toward Las Vegas and Utah, and Interstate 5 crosses Tejon Pass, the Grapevine, toward the Central Valley and Oregon. Both are on the Caltrans list of chain control areas, along with Interstate 80 over Donner Pass and Interstate 5 north of Redding.
When chain controls are posted, a truck over 6,500 pounds must mount chains on a drive axle and on at least one trailer axle if the trailer has brakes, and snow tires do not excuse it, so a winter storm can hold a power only move at the foot of a grade for hours.
Summer brings the opposite trouble. Desert heat on Interstate 15 and Interstate 10 is hard on tires, and a trailer that has stood in a yard for weeks may have cracked or underinflated tires that fail at highway speed. Late summer into the holidays is the busy import season in the Inland Empire, when trailer pools and tractors both get tight, so book northbound trailers early in that stretch.
Booking a California power only move
Give the dispatcher the trailer number, the yard address and the hours the gate releases trailers, and whether the trailer is loaded or empty. For a loaded trailer we also need the seal number, the weight, the delivery appointment, and whether the receiver keeps the trailer or the driver waits. If the empty should come back to California or go to another yard, say so at the start, because that leg changes the price.
One dispatcher in Covina takes the move from your first call to the signed delivery receipt. Our own tractors are based in Southern California, close to most Inland Empire yards; when ours are committed, a partner carrier screened through Highway pulls the trailer and we tell you before pickup. Start with the quote form.
City pages in California
Questions shippers ask
- Does my trailer need to meet the California kingpin rule?
- Yes. A 53 foot trailer in California needs 40 feet or less from the kingpin to the rear axle, or 38 feet with a single axle, and some local roads cap it at 38. If your trailer has sliding tandems, set them forward before pickup or tell us so the driver can check.
- How long does a trailer take from the Inland Empire to Seattle?
- About 1,170 miles, normally two to three days for one driver. In winter, snow at the Siskiyou Summit just north of the California line is what usually slows it.
- Can you move a trailer between two California warehouses?
- Yes. Short repositioning moves inside the state are quoted like any other power only load. Send both addresses, the gate hours at each end and whether the trailer is loaded.
- What happens at the California agriculture stations?
- Inspectors at the state’s border protection stations check vehicles and commodities entering California for invasive pests. Make sure the bill of lading describes the cargo clearly, especially plants, produce or anything shipped with soil.
- How is a California power only move priced?
- By the miles, the time the driver spends at each end, whether the receiver keeps the trailer or unloads it with the driver waiting, and where the empty goes afterward. Tractor supply in the Inland Empire shifts through the year, so we price each move when you send it.
Ready to price a load?
Send the quote form or call us. Quotes within 15 minutes, Monday to Friday 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific; operations team available 24/7 for active loads.