Schnieder, JB Hunt, and a couple others have home terminals, But they do not have regional terminals like they should.
They insist on long haul and will NEVER get drivers because of the dispatchers who insist on getting the drivers out on the road and KEEPING them out for 5 weeks or longer.
Then they constantly have to baby sit rookie drivers that use GPS for directions. They end up in residential streets stuck in somebodys yard trying to turn around. Case in point..the el tram in Chicago..how many drivers ended up wedged under that thing trying to deliver.
Local drivers wouldnt have that problem in a transfer system. They know the routes and how to get around.
I know what you are saying. I pull a 40 ft. horse trailer, not commercially.
I have a few stories of my own. Like the front yard in IN. Narrow narrow road that slowly petered out.
But there is always a solution for those who will think.
Small truckers should do what the Ace Hardware members do. They have survived against the big box stores by joining together.
Small truckers should form an organization where a trucker drops his trailer at a member terminal and picks up a trailer there going home. Or if it is an overnight trip and ordinary cargo, unload it and reload the trailer with stuff going home.
Like railroads. Like me, you have sat at many a railroad crossing and watched boxcars going by with the name of some railroad that is located a thousand miles away.
I realize the idea has problems, but there is no problem worse than having no driver to move a desperately needed load.