The sun is already fading behind the ADESA Auto Auction in Moody, Ala., before Neal Ivey can load his first vehicle onto his car hauler. The 43-year-old driver from Douglas, Ala., arrives at Great Rigs Inc., around 2:30 p.m., but he must wait until the dealers’ sale next door is over before he can pick up his paperwork at dispatch to find out how many vehicles he’s hauling and where they are going.
Ivey says the uncertainty of his destination and the various shapes and sizes of his haul are just parts of the job of hauling late model used cars. He loves the challenge of having to be ready to load and roll. “It doesn’t really matter where I’m going,” Ivey says. “A lot of our loads are regional so I can usually deliver the next day, and I get to be home a lot more.”
Challenges are numerous for car haulers because they load and unload their own trailers. But they can be even greater for drivers who pick up vehicles at used car auctions. The first test for the drivers is to find the dispatched vehicles in a virtual sea of trucks, cars and vans. Sometimes, the vehicles have been moved from their assigned spaces to the other side auction lot.
Other times, a dealer may decide to drive the vehicle home without telling dispatch or the drivers. It can be quite a scavenger hunt for drivers who are trying to load and get on the road.
Today, Ivey, a 10-year veteran car hauler, gets help in locating his cars on the lot. Henry Young chauffeurs fellow Great Rigs drivers around the lot in one of the cars he is to haul. This saves a great deal of time. “You don’t always have someone to help you find the cars,” Ivey says. “Sometimes you go to these big sales, and your cars might be a mile away. Time you find 10 cars, you’ve walked about 10 miles. Then, you’ve still got to load and then drive.”
Vehicles on the auction lot can also have dead batteries and empty gas tanks. Even worse are vehicles with the keys locked inside. Ivey says car haulers all know little tricks of the trade to combat problems with locked doors. “I keep an extra antennas handy that I can use to get in most cars,” Ivey says. “It works better than a slim jim.”
Long before all the cars have been found, Ivey is mentally loading his trailer. He says getting as many as 11 vehicles on a trailer is somewhat like working a puzzle. “A big part of it is trying to figure out what goes where and how to get the height and weight right,” Ivey says. “You might put a load on and have to take it back off and start again. You don’t want to do it over. After you’ve been doing it awhile, you get a pretty good idea of how you can put cars on there and make it work.”
