Up the 5 Is the Easy Part of This Move
Nearly every San Francisco job we book is a work move: a transfer, a new offer, a partner starting at a company in the city. The driving barely rates a mention. Emilio Chacon takes the 5 over the Grapevine and up the Central Valley, and only uses the 101 when a smaller load is stopping on the Peninsula anyway.
The address is where this lane gets hard. A good share of the flats we deliver to sit above a garage in a Victorian or an Edwardian, with a tight turn at the landing and no elevator anywhere in the building. Isabela Duarte asks for photos of the stairwell, the landing and the front door during the estimate, so a sofa problem gets solved before load day rather than on the sidewalk.
Parking is the other half of it. Towers in SoMa and Mission Bay want the freight elevator booked and a certificate of insurance on file days ahead. On a residential block in Noe Valley or the Mission we file for temporary no-parking signs, so the truck is not parked three doors down and uphill from your door. Selena Aguirre handles that with the city and the building.
| Detail | Los Angeles to San Francisco |
|---|---|
| Corridor | The 5 over the Grapevine and up the valley; the 101 for smaller Peninsula loads |
| Pace | Usually loaded one day and delivered the next, set by when the building lets us in |
| Crew | Same driver and loaders, Los Angeles sidewalk to the top-floor flat |
No second company touches it
There is no handoff on this route and no local outfit meeting the truck to finish the job. The crew that walks your things down from a Los Angeles walk-up is the crew that walks them up in San Francisco. Diego Franco can go over elevator bookings, insurance certificates and how much lead time your street needs for signs.
Three more long-haul lanes leave the LA basin every week: Las Vegas out the 15, Seattle straight up the interstate, and Denver across the mountains.
