We are regularly asked by customers if they should consider a hookloader for their operations and our answer is always a definitive "It depends!". Depends on what you are probably asking! The answer is, it depends on the nature of your current business, what opportunities you could or will pursue in the near term, the skill level of your drivers and the budget that you have available. If you strictly haul materials from point "A" to point "B" and you have no alternative uses for your chassis during the waiting periods (currently or in the next couple of years) than a dedicated truck package (i.e. dump, deck, water tanker, salter, etc) is probably your best bet as it would be the lower cost option. If however, the opportunity cost of waiting time is high (could use the chassis for other activities that could generate revenue for you) either currently, or in the near term, than a hookloader may be the preferred solution. It is true that a hookloader with dump body is a more upfront cost than a dedicated dump body but that really isn't a fair comparison. As you add bodies the economics lean more and more towards hookloaders. A perfect example is the package shown in the photographs. This company is a landscape contractor that does hardscape/softscape work in the spring/summer, firewood in the fall, snow/ice in the winter and subcontract work whenever opportunities present themselves. The owner of this business has a hookloader equipped chassis complemented by over a dozen different bodies. He may use a dump body to take a skid steer, packer, pavers and machine operator to a jobsite and drop them both so the operator can strip the sod into the bin and prepare the base. While he is doing that the driver will pick up another body, load it with crusher run and return to the job site to swap the bodies taking the sod and earth to be dumped. He is then able to swap to another body to perform revenue generating activities (i.e. move equipment with their flat deck or dust control on a gravel road with the water tanker) until he is needed to return to the original jobsite to pick up the equipment and miscellaneous materials when the job is complete. Compare this scenario to the logistics if all he had was a dedicated dump truck and trailer to move the skid steer and you can see how his equipment/driver utilization have both increased dramatically because of the hookloader which translates into more revenue and/or lower costs. An alternative to a hookloader could be a roll-off which is very similar in cost but it is not nearly as versatile nor safe to operate. The hookloader brand that we distribute is called Swaploader and if you think it may be right for you we would love to talk to you about the possibilities.