What is it like to be an overnight freight pilot flying small GA cargo airplanes?

Between Fed Ex and UPS there are probably 400 to 500 planes flying sub contracts for them to the smaller cities. Every night. Caravans, Twin Cessnas, Lears, Falcons, Shorts, Navajos etc.
 
MD11Pilot said:
Between Fed Ex and UPS there are probably 400 to 500 planes flying sub contracts for them to the smaller cities. Every night. Caravans, Twin Cessnas, Lears, Falcons, Shorts, Navajos etc.
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Not so many Lears and Falcons these days. Lots of Beech 99's, 1900's, Metroliners, E-120's. ATR's at FedEx even.
 
My introduction to GA in the early 2000s was working for a regional ground courier service with a Part 135 sister operation. Our largest customer at the time was a very large national bank, which in our state alone paid for approximately a dozen weekday flights hauling bank mail in the AM, cancelled checks ("proof") in the evenings, and occasionally Fed work and interhub mail and freight.

This cargo was often somewhat bulky, but seldom anywhere close to the maximum dimensional or weight capacity of a Cessna twin. Any additional cargo we could put on the plane - lab specimens, small commodities packages, and mail/proof for smaller, regional banks - was essentially pure profit, with the charter rate for these customers basically subsidized by the bank.

The Check 21 Act was expected to spell the end of these flights soon after it was passed in 2003. This bank initially planned to convert its proof operations to imaging (eliminating the need to transport actual checks) within two years, spelling the end of the Part 135 operation by 2005; fortunately for my former company, it wound up taking this bank more than a decade to implement it across their operations. Today, the air operation is a shell of its former self, with a handful of flights remaining (having left the company before imaging took hold, I don't know what they're carrying now) and the rest of their routes converted to ground. Other companies in the area have the UPS and FedEx feeder contracts.
 
Back in the late 80's I would fly a cancelled check run about once a week. Fly down to Teterboro go to the north ramp and load up. There would be about 15 planes loading up ranging from 210's, barons, 310's, navajos, aztecs, etc. This would be about 9pm. Then a drag race to get started and out to the runway we called it our LeMans start. I usually flew the navajo and would have 3 stops then back to TEB. Usually finish up about 5am back home. There were some nights I would rather forget but everyone made it...
 
172andyou said:
Do you know the song of that name? One of the few aviation related songs that stands on it's own as legitimately good music.
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Of course. That's why I said that. Mr. Stills wrote a good song. :)

Personally like "Big Daddy O's" rendition a little better than the original, but they're both good.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media...flight-training-magazine/diary-of-a-freighter

they also had an article about a dentist who decided to take up
hauling freight in something smaller too, but can no find now
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Interesting to read the article, and then read what happened to Airborne Express....

  • August 14, 2003: Airborne shareholders approved the acquisition of Airborne, Inc. by DHL of Brussels, Belgium. DHL is 100% owned by Deutsche Post World Net. The acquisition became effective the next day. DHL retained ownership of Airborne's ground operations and spun off its air operations as ABX Air, Inc.

  • November 10, 2008: Global delivery company DHL announced that it is cutting 9,500 jobs as it discontinues air and ground operations within the United States. DHL said its DHL Express will continue to operate between the United States and other nations. But the company said it was dropping "domestic-only" air and ground services within the United States by Jan. 30 "to minimize future uncertainties". DHL's 9,500 job cuts are on top of 5,400 job reductions announced earlier this year. After these job losses, between 3,000 and 4,000 employees will remain at DHL's U.S. operations, the company said. The company also said it was shutting down all ground hubs and reducing its number of stations to 103 from 412.
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On November 10, 2008, ABX Air's largest customer, DHL, announced a plan to exit the United States domestic market.[10] Previous plans by DHL had been to keep its U.S. operations by contracting them out to United Parcel Service.[10] On 30 March 2010, ABX Air's parent company, ATSG, entered into new long-term agreements with DHL, under which ABX Air would continue providing airlift for the U.S. portion of DHL’s international network.[11]

On March 9, 2016, parent company ATSG announced agreements with Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc., an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. Among these was a five-year agreement under which ATSG's airlines, including ABX Air, would operate 20 aircraft for Amazon.[12]
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Looks like still flying, in some manner, under the ABX name.

From the guy in the article's LinkedIn profile....


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