Unattached trailer parking for moving (ABF)

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Please excuse yet another moving post: Has anyone ever used ABF U-pack to move to/from Somerville? Not the pod or "relocube" option, but the you-pack we-drive trailer space? When we called 311, they told us parking the trailer would be okay. But when we went in person to get the spaces reserved, they told us that: parking a moving container (or pod) is okay, parking an entire trailer truck is okay, but parking the trailer and driving the cab away (which ABF does) is not okay. They wouldn't park overnight, just during the day with the spaces reserved. Has anyone successfully done this trailer move with or without being ticketed? The parking office says it could be $40/hr fine until we move the unattached trailer. Does anyone understand why a pod is okay, but an almost equally-sized unattached trailer is not ok? If they can't drive the cab away, ABF will charge us $80/hr after the first hour for their driver to sit in his cab and watch us move. Hmm...

Comments

[thesoxgap]

If you get a nice driver he won't tell ABF to charge you more--and the driver's are the nicest people I've worked with in my two ABF moves (first one was from Brighton to Colorado using this UPack method, second was Colorado to Somerville with the ABF pods).

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Good to know! That would be awesome. Do you remember how long it took you to load the trailer?

[thesoxgap]

It took somewhere in the hour to hour-and-a-half range--definitely over an hour. We brought everything we owned down and outside before the truck was to arrive so that we were ready.

[tober.livejournal.com]

I do not believe that what the parking office told you was correct, unless perhaps it's actually not legal to park a moving container in a reserved spot either (but they tend to turn a blind eye on that for whatever reason). I think there are some restrictions on occupying a spot with something that isn't a motor vehicle - but a moving container is clearly not a vehicle either (the trailer is closer to being a motor vehicle, as it is at least registered to travel over the road on its own wheels). It doesn't sound like a size restriction either, as supposedly you can park the tractor-trailer combination but not the trailer. Would they allow an intermodal shipping container (which is a lot like a very sturdy trailer without wheels, they're designed to ride on top of a special flatbed trailer, railroad car, or inside the hold of a ship)? I now feel the need to research the actual regulations on this.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

It is their policy - it is also in the list of parking violations here with no explanation of why it is unsafe: http://www.somervillema.gov/Section.cfm?org=TRAFFIC&page=1047
"Unattached Trailer/Semi Trailer: $40"

[arinamay.livejournal.com]

I was intrigued too - looks like Somerville parking regs say

"No person shall park or stand a trailer or semi-trailer as defined in G.L. ch. 90 sec.1, or a so called dolly device which is used to move a tandem semi-trailer, on any public way, unless such trailer or semi-trailer or dolly device is properly attached to a motor vehicle which can lawfully move said trailer, semi-trailer, or dolly device."

From Section 7-27 Operation of Heavy Commercial Vehicles, http://www.somervillema.gov/CoS_Content/documents/TrafficRegAug09.pdf

The G.L. ch 90 sec 1 defines a semi-trailer as

"a trailer so designed and used in combination with a tractor that some part of the weight of such trailer and that of its load rests upon and is carried by, the tractor."

From here: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/90-1.htm

So it sounds like they do make a distinction between a trailer that's hooked to a cab and one that is not hooked to a cab. I don't really understand way (somehow maybe a safety concern?) but it looks like they do make that distinction.

[arinamay.livejournal.com]

Does anyone understand why a pod is okay, but an almost equally-sized unattached trailer is not ok?

I looked into this a little bit when I was moving. I ended up using a Relocube since I was only moving a one bedroom apartment's worth of stuff. I also needed to keep it overnight and I live in a neighborhood with very tight parking, so didn't want to take up more than one parking spot.

To get back to your question - I think that there is actually a pretty significant size difference between the ABF trailers and Pods. If I recall correctly, an ABF trailer is 28 feet long while the largest Pod container is only 16 feet long. Pods also come in 12 feet and 7 feet, I believe. The Relocube was only around 6 feet long. Perhaps that is why they treat them differently?

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Those lengths are correct, but you pay extra for however many signs you need (for how many parking spots you need to take). Also, I WOULD be allowed to leave it there with the cab attached, which is 35 feet long.

[arinamay.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's really weird. I can't imagine why 16 feet is ok, 35 feet is ok, but 28 feet is not ok.

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

it may be a safety thing -- if the cab is attached, the trailer can theoretically be instantly moved in an emergency. W/o the cab, the trailer would just sit there until a motive source could be attached.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Understood. But I do not see how this is less safe than a Pod or "moving container", which has no wheels and cannot be moved without a separate means of transport. These are expressly allowed by the parking office.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

This is larger.

I don't agree with the distinction, but I think that is the basis for it.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Except if you get two pods (like some guys up the street from me), that takes up even more space than the one trailer, and nobody minds. I'm not entirely convinced that it's anything other than an outdated thing on the books that was there before the new-style pods even existed.

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

i suspect that the real reason goes something like this:

"there are people living in somerville who drive tractor-trailers for a living. if we don't put something in the parking regs specifically forbidding parking the trailer and driving away with the cab, they will do that to store trailers on the street, thereby taking up legal parking spaces that we could otherwise ticket when needed." (sure, i'm being snarky with that last bit...)

those U-pack options you're talking about probably weren't even a gleam in someone's eye when those regs went into effect. invention moves faster than government, pretty much universally.

[steeks99.livejournal.com]

Maybe to prevent the trailer from sinking and getting stuck in the pavement? John McPhee's book "Uncommon Carriers" had a section that described this happening if there wasn't proper support.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

There's *no* justification for the distinction -- it's just bureaucracy at work.

You should contact your aldermen so they can change the rules to allow detached trailer parking in this situation.

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

Someone in my building just did this this week and didn't get any tickets. He did get the signs to reserve the space for the ABF container, and someone from the city wrote on them on the last day it was there "Unenforceable!" for some unknown reason.

I know a lot of people have had good experiences with ABF. I heard glowing reviews, and used them to move from TX to Somerville 10 yrs ago, only to have pretty much everything broken, including a sofabed that broke IN HALF. I'm pretty certain they must have rolled the truck at some point--I can't think of anything else that would have done that much damage.