Freight
Expedited & Emergency Freight
A truck assigned now, driven straight there, because the line is down and the arithmetic has changed.
Cargo Taxi Deliveries runs expedited freight from Los Angeles: a truck assigned immediately on booking and driven direct to the destination with no intermediate stops. Expedited service exists for production lines that are down, missed air connections, and deadlines where the cost of being late is larger than the cost of the freight.
Expedited freight is not a faster version of normal freight; it is a different calculation. When a production line is stopped, the hourly cost of the stoppage usually dwarfs the cost of any truck, and the only question worth asking is how soon wheels can be rolling. So an expedited booking skips the optimisation — no waiting for a compatible load, no consolidation, no routing round another pickup — and simply assigns the nearest suitable truck and sends it.
The usual triggers are a part that did not arrive, an air shipment that missed its connection, a quality hold released at the last minute, a trade-show load that has to be on the floor before the hall closes, and a customer who will charge back more for a late delivery than the entire freight bill. In all of those the right answer is a direct truck now.
Sleeper-cab capability matters here more than anywhere else. A single driver on a sleeper can run Los Angeles to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City or Denver without the hours-of-service stop that forces a team-less truck to park for ten hours in the middle of the night. That is often the whole difference between arriving before a shift starts and arriving after it has ended.
Specifications
The numbers.
| Response | Truck assigned on the call, 24/7 |
|---|---|
| Transit | Direct — no stops, no consolidation |
| LA to Las Vegas | Same day |
| LA to Phoenix | Same day / overnight |
| LA to San Francisco | Same day / overnight |
| LA to Denver / Seattle | Overnight to 2 days, sleeper cab |
Equipment used for this work
Standard Sedan
Documents, small parcels, medical samples and legal filings — fast, discreet, expedited courier runs across the basin.
- Limit: No pallets
- Limit: No item longer than about 5 ft
Mercedes Sprinter
Long-wheelbase, high-roof cargo van for medium loads and efficient multi-stop routes — the workhorse of the fleet.
- Limit: No liftgate — needs a dock or forklift for heavy pallets
- Limit: Maximum 4 pallet positions
26ft Box Truck
Enclosed 26ft box with a liftgate and a pallet jack on board as standard — the right truck for palletized freight going anywhere without a dock.
- Limit: Not a 53ft trailer — 12 pallet positions, not 26
- Limit: Restricted on some residential streets and low clearances
26ft Flatbed, Sleeper Cab
Open 26ft deck with a sleeper cab — machinery, steel, building materials, and multi-day long hauls that run without a forced overnight stop.
- Limit: No liftgate — consignee needs a forklift or crane
- Limit: Open deck: weather exposure unless tarped
Questions
Expedited Freight, answered.
How quickly can an expedited truck be dispatched?
A truck is assigned on the call. Physical pickup depends on where the nearest suitable vehicle is and what the traffic is doing, and in the LA basin that is usually under 90 minutes and often much less. Dispatch will give you a real pickup time before you commit rather than an optimistic one.
What does expedited freight cost compared to standard?
Expedited runs materially higher than standard because the truck is committed to one load and often deadheads to reach it. The comparison that matters is not against standard freight but against the cost of the delay — when a line is down, the freight premium is usually the smallest number on the page.
Can you run overnight to Phoenix or Las Vegas?
Yes. Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco are same-day or overnight lanes from Los Angeles, and Denver, Salt Lake City and Seattle are overnight to two days on the sleeper-cab truck. Give dispatch the required arrival time and they will work the departure backwards from it.
Further reading
How this works in practice.
Choosing a carrier
What Does It Cost to Ship Freight From Los Angeles?
How much does it cost to ship freight out of Los Angeles?
Los Angeles
LAX Air Freight Recovery: How It Actually Works
How do I pick up air freight from LAX?
Choosing a carrier
LTL, Truckload or Expedited: Which One Do You Need?
Should I ship LTL, truckload or expedited?
Related services
Often booked together.
Dedicated Truckload
Your freight is the only freight on the truck — loaded once, driven straight through, unloaded at the other end.
Same-Day Courier
Picked up within the hour, delivered the same day, tracked by a dispatcher who answers the phone himself.
Air Freight Recovery
Off the cargo building floor and onto a truck that goes straight to the consignee — no warehouse, no second handling.
Long-Haul Trucking
Eleven states, one driver, one truck — from the LA basin to wherever in the West the load has to be.