Freight Movement

A big part of the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan is freight movement.

Last Friday we decided to spend most of the day following freight. Don't tell me you never thought about doing this! The purpose was to document routes, light timing problems, congestion, interstate access, speed, travel time from point A to point B and anything else that may be an obstacle for the hauler.

We first tracked a truck going southbound from Lucas St. at 10:00am. We tried to determine what his destination may be by the type of truck but were proven wrong. He passed Pet Dairy, McCall Farms and W.Lee Flowers before stopping at Carolina Eastern in Scranton at 10:30am.

You could tell that the driver was wondering why someone in a Florence County vehicle was following him so we explained the situation. He was willing to answer several questions pertaining to transportation and was glad that this was the only reason he was being followed!

We followed a flatbed truck at 11:05 from Scranton that appeared to be hauling a piece of heavy equipment. This truck continued until the destination of Nucor was reached at 11:53am.

Was his travel time reasonable from A to B? We did notice that there may be some signal timing issues going through Lake City. It's hard to stop in time at a light when you have just accelerated your speed from the previous light.

The next truck we followed was hauling lumber. We tracked him at 1:06pm from Williston to a lumber company off Francis Marion Rd. You could tell that the driver had made this trip many times before and did not seem to have any issues.

Our last hauler left Smurfit Stone at 1:45pm and continued past the Florence County line approaching Marion County at which point we turned around and returned to the office. We were trying to determine where his load had originated.

We came to the conclusion that milk and lumber are two commodities that seem to dominate the freight world in Florence on Fridays and perhaps Mondays may be a busier day for freight movement.

Beware of the vehicle following you! We want your feedback.