Truck Alaska! Alaska's trucking companies can help small- to medium-sized businesses ship their goods, saving time and money.

• Author: Campbell, Melissa

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on Alaska's trucking industry. Join us next month when we talk to the drivers, those who thrive on the long hours and dark roads to bring us the things we need.

You could say they work hand in hand with Santa and his elves. This is the time of year, after all, when semi-trucks cruising along Alaska's highways are full of all things Christmas: Toys for little Timmy, candy canes for little Susie and that nice fully loaded computer so grandma can e-mail the grandkids who live in Texas.

So don't be a Scrooge as you creep up that steep hill, stuck behind a 53-foot-long semi-truck and late for the big half-off sale at the toy store. It's likely carrying the things you need for that special holiday morning.

Instead, look around you. Virtually everything you see-from the holiday eggnog to the lights on the tree, even the tree itself-has been on a truck on an Alaska road at some point. Alaska's reliance on its trucking industry doesn't peak just for the holidays. It's a year-round need.

"Just about everything there is in Alaska has to do with trucking," said Frank Dillon, executive vice president of the Alaska Trucking Association. "It is only part of the transportation system, but it is probably the linchpin of that system."

Little of what is in Alaska originated here. Cargo can be shipped or flown in, but it takes a truck to get items to the places where you can get your hands on them.

That semi heading down the highway could contain computers for a school in Fairbanks, furniture for a new house in Seward, or it could be hauling a 30-ton oil processing module up to the North Slope.

Trucks carry produce up the Alaska Highway, allowing you to savor those plump California strawberries. That fresh bread you used for your midnight snack was probably trucked to the store the morning you bought it.

Alaska's trucking companies move everything-from Game Boys to guava, and from the Lower 48 to the top of the 49th.

Trucking Trivia

Nearly 37,400 commercial trucks were registered in Alaska in 2000, according to the state Division of Motor Vehicles. Trucking companies in the state range from one-man, one-truck operations to huge worldwide conglomerates.

So where does the average small business person go for freight help? Flip through the phone book to find freight consolidators, fowarders, agents, transporters, ... the list goes on. Who are these people and what do they do? And which is right for your needs?

...