Yesterday Ryan sent me some photos of a former Hostess plant near Sacramento, CA. Everything onsite is how it looked the day the company declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Among the rows of parked trucks (most of which were cabovers) something caught my eye. The drom box.
The drom box (dromedary) was a popular setup for truckers out west for a number of years in what would be considered the golden age of trucking, think late 40’s through the 60’s. The theory behind the drom box was the ability to haul more cargo while remaining within the established length limits of the time. As the age of cabovers ended and length restrictions changed the drom slowly faded away. Outside of specialized rigs you probably won’t see one on the highway anytime soon…unless you live in Canada. Recently Wal-Mart started a pilot program dubbed the Supercube. This unique setup uses a Freightliner Argosy glider kit and call haul up to 30% more cargo than a conventional tractor trailer. Wal-Mart argues that this truck is good for the environment as it can move more product with less fuel. Driver associations are wary of the supercube as it could enable trucking firms to move more freight with less drivers. Check out the two articles below for more info and photos.
Walmart’s 60-foot supercube draws a double take – Landlinemag.com
Super-cube rig for Walmart Canada might raise some issues – Truckinginfo.com
Same great product with new packaging!
I used to drive one in the 70’s. Not only can they haul more, they are sharp looking when set up right and just plain fun to drive.
I’m a retired Hostess Transport Driver. While these drom rigs ended up in California, a lot of them were originally assigned to bakeries in Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and Spokane which Hostess closed years before the bankruptcy closing. As Hostess hadn’t bought a new tractor since the first bankruptcy in 2004, these drom rigs were sent to the surviving bakeries in the western states to replace even older tractors that were beyond repair. Old Google street view also showed a Freightliner cabover truck and full trailer parked at the Sacramento bakery, but it doesn’t appear in any of the auction catalogs so it was probably retired before the shutdown.
Thanks for the info! Appreciate you stopping by.
My Dad drove an International 2 axle with a dorm box for Larraburu Bakery in the 50s and 60s. Then I was a fleet mechanic for Oroweat in the 70s and 80s and they had two Droms that went to Reno. They had the same capacity as a set of doubles, but with only one joint to make driving in the snow easier.