Container pulling tractors

[Stimw]

I have seen hundreds! Driven dozens!
There are different brands that are made for switching around tractor/trailer yards.
They normally have a half cab and a hydraulic lift on the 5th wheel, open on back of cab so you can reach out and connect air line to move trailer.
I have been at a port where they would load/unload 600 trailers in about 4 hours from ocean going barges for the islands!
They were automatic transmission and have seen drivers not even use the brakes!
They would make a swing going forward, shift into reverse and when the tractor stopped bucking they then backed the trailer into a parking place! Dropped the lift, snatched the air line off, push kingpin release and take off for another one.
It was like watching a beehive.

 

[CWB Wyo]

I drove one of them for years. We where called hostlers, all we did ways move trailers from the yard to the dock and back. We called them yard goats. Are also had a modified log splitter on the front of them to move trailer dollys around, it worked off air pressure. One night I keep a count of how many moves I had in a 8 hour shift it was right at 2 hundred. That was one of my favorite job working for YRC.

CWB.