Usually we can tell you during the call, once we know the pickup spot, the weight and the hour. In Portland the quickest to send are usually vans and box trucks, so a van pickup on Swan Island or in Tigard is often done within hours. Finding a hot shot or flatbed takes longer, more so once evening comes, and freight waiting in Vancouver or Camas has to cross the Interstate Bridge or the I-205 bridge before it heads anywhere south. We name a pickup hour we can stand by and phone right away if that hour changes.

Usually. Seattle is about 175 miles up I-5, around three hours of driving, so a midday departure still delivers there that afternoon. Boise is about 430 miles out I-84 through the Columbia Gorge, six and a half to seven hours, which is a same-day delivery when loading finishes in the morning. Spokane, about 350 miles off, works the same way. Salem, Eugene and Bend are short runs. Loads for the San Francisco Bay Area or Salt Lake City usually arrive the next day, and winter snow in the Gorge or on the passes can stretch any of these trips.

Picture a scissor lift bound for a fab job in Hillsboro. A typical hot shot puts it on a trailer, gooseneck or bumper-pull, whose deck runs 32 to 40 ft behind a pickup of at least one ton. Most rigs max out around 16,000 lbs of payload, though each truck-and-trailer pair has its own number, fixed by its combined weight rating. Ramps let the lift roll aboard on many decks. Freight over 8.5 ft across, or more than the deck can hold in length or weight, needs a permit or the bigger 48 to 53 ft flatbed, which is why we ask for measurements up front.

Work up from the smallest. A boxed spare for a Hillsboro fab, or anything else covered and under 3,000 lbs, fits a Sprinter van. Heavier but still enclosed? A box truck manages 5,000 lbs; straight trucks, 9,000. Either can bring a liftgate for a store or job trailer. Past that, or when the freight is long or awkward, the hot shot steps in, its open deck good for 16,000 lbs, with a forklift, crane or ramp doing the loading, which is how a pump usually reaches a Columbia Corridor plant. If rain would ruin it, keep it in an enclosed truck.

Say a carrier you have never used offers to pick up at your Rivergate dock. Ask it for a USDOT number and, if it carries other people's freight across state lines, its MC number too. Paste either into SAFER's Company Snapshot on the FMCSA site, or into FMCSA's registration lookup. On that record, check that the carrier's registered name and address line up with your paperwork, the authority status is active, and the entity listed is a carrier, not a broker, if the company claims to run its own trucks. The same record shows what insurance is on file and how its trucks fared at roadside inspections. If a caller later changes the pickup or delivery plan, phone the carrier back at a number you had on file beforehand.

Yes, all four. On the Oregon side we pick up in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties: Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard, Tualatin, Wilsonville, Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Clackamas and Oregon City. On the Washington side we cover Vancouver, Camas, Washougal and the rest of Clark County. Salem is included too.

Yes, with some notice. Terminals 4 and 6 and the Port of Vancouver only admit drivers unescorted if they hold a TWIC card. PDX air freight is released at one particular cargo building, and the Hillsboro chip plants check drivers at the gate and receive in fixed windows. Booking it, tell us which site and which gate or door, the check-in routine and the receiving contact, and mention any crating or jolt-sensitive freight. We plan the arrival around that window, and a dockless receiver gets an enclosed truck carrying a liftgate.

Yes, and they can be. The desk is staffed around the clock and on holidays, but fewer trucks are out on Saturday nights, Sundays and holidays, which can mean higher rates and slower dispatch. So if you learn on a Thursday that a Rivergate warehouse will have freight ready Saturday morning, tell us that day and we'll have the carrier lined up while Friday is still a workday.

Take a Tualatin machine shop sending a crated spindle to a fab in Hillsboro. We would ask for both street addresses with ZIP codes, the crate's weight and its three dimensions, and the piece count. Next: forklift, hand truck or crane at each end, which side has a dock, when the spindle is ready and the hour the fab needs it. Last, flag hazmat, fragile parts or oversize dimensions. Answers to all of that let us book the vehicle once and quote a price that won't change.

Hot shot earns its cost on late, heavy or oddly shaped freight that fills only a corner of a 53 ft trailer, say one pallet of fab spares due in Hillsboro before the next shift. It rides dock to dock with no terminal transfer. LTL is cheaper for small palletized freight that isn't in a hurry, and a full truckload starts making sense when your freight could fill the trailer by itself. Each of the three has its place in a typical Portland shipping week.

The list follows what the region makes and maintains: semiconductor tools and spares, machinery and machine parts, truck and auto parts, steel and building materials, and parts for marine terminals or plants that are down. Electronics, medical supplies and distribution center pallets go hot shot too when LTL would be too slow.

Yes. For loads starting farther south, see hot shot trucking from Eugene, and our Oregon hot shot page covers the rest of the state. North and east of Portland we also book from Seattle, Tacoma and Boise. Wherever a load starts, the delivery can be anywhere in the lower 48.

We wrote this page with shippers in mind, yet Portland owner-operators read it too. Hot shot hauling starts with paperwork: your own operating authority or, failing that, a lease to a carrier holding it, and insurance on top. Your equipment also has to suit the work, such as a gooseneck rated for a steel bundle out of Rivergate. Ads boasting of giant weekly checks deserve a hard look; net pay rides on your lanes, your empty miles and your truck's running costs. Look the company up on FMCSA's site before you sign. If you run a carrier and want our loads, call (503) 573-8000.