Like ALL other 'reality' TV shows , a LOT of what you see IS 'made for TV'.

One notable exception are the wrecks on 'Highway thru Hell'. Filmed in BC,99.44% of the wrecks were real, the recoveries are staged though.

99.9% of things shipped in the USA are just like you described. The rest is done by specialty shipping companies (like moving companies) that package and move items (at a price).

But after 36 years in the trucking industry, I'm used to having to work amongst business owners that failed math in grade school.

"Reality TV" is the most oxymoronic garbage out there.

There ARE certain circumstances when shipping companies will contract much MORE than just basic transport, but when that happens, it's not referred to as 'shipping', it is 'logistical solution service'... basically, a company is outsourcing the tail-end of it's manufacturing-to-distribution-transportation process.

Here's an excellent example of it:

A company makes a row-crop planter machine, which the sell through dealers in a domestic market, and also overseas exports.  They call upon a third party logistics (or as they're frequently referred: "3PL") service to get those products to their dealers, and set up a contract where the 3PL company designs transport crates, frames, enclosures, etc, as necessary for the transportation through the appropriate pathways, then they have those crates, frames, enclosures made and delivered to the machinery assembly line, where they're fitted, packaged, and labeled for transport, then the 3PL company schedules pickup by truck or rail, and hauled either to a domestic dealer, or to a shipyard or air freight terminal, then sent overseas.

The reason why this concept WORKS, is because the 3PL company already has expertise in all the shipping variables makes for considerably less load on a manufacturer... and as a result, they can apply their experience to have the product transported in most economical, expedient, and dependable way.  There's plenty of things that can go wrong, so having the 3PL logistics experience can save a manufacturer of lots of headaches.

One example, is as simple as a stamp on the wood used in a crate...  When shipping overseas, any wood used as shipping materials must be prepared using the receiving country's specified treatments, like high temperature/pressure kiln firing, application of insect-killing chemicals, etc.  Just the process of getting the stamp certification for a crate or pallet, can take a significant amount of time, and putting a NON-compliant element on a ship to go to say... NZ from the USA, could result in that ship's entire cargo being denied entry into NZ.

Usually, a 3PL arrangement centers around a large volume of similar products going out over regular intervals.  Half a dozen years ago, I was faced with need to distribute 211,000lbs of reinforcement kits to 122 service company offices across the US and Canada...  and one of my co-workers developed the modular crate, I set up a deal with a national company to handle the logistics.  I had my manufacturing group do all the fabrication and kit assembly, place them in crates I had manufactured (and delivered to them) by another outfit, my 3PL  company picked up the loaded crates, and I simply sent them Emails with addresses and crate quantities.

But for most everything else, it's NOT this way.

The show is based on the website uship.com, where anyone can list freight they need shipped and anyone interested in transporting the item(s) can "bid" on the load. In reality, sometimes people find shipping at a better price or quicker and truckers can sometimes make a few dollars hauling something when they would otherwise be empty or have a partial load.

Yes, it's reality BS but it's still kinda entertaining.

It made me miss one of my old businesses. Back in 2009? I got out of trucking and sold my class 8 truck and I got a couple one tons and brokered out to an RV logistics company, delivering brand new travel trailers from the factories to all over Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. 

I really enjoyed that job. Got to see all the latest RV's, met really nice people at the dealerships. Was pretty stress free. Just drive a pickup and get paid.

But I only stayed at it for a brief time. Just like trucking, the rates suck. Pretty much whatever my gross revenue for the month was, half was fuel. Then with the mileage you put on, you were doing oil and filter changes EVERY WEEK.

Then if you finance a new pickup, by year 5 it has a million miles on it and it is wore right out. So then you replace and you would never be out of a payment.

The haulers in the USA made out better than us Canadian companies though. Insurance, trucks and fuel in the US is SO much cheaper than in Canada.

I had a few friends that went to work for US companies and they got paid in US dollars and got to run US insurance and they ended up making a lot more than me.

But a few years ago a lot of them lost their jobs with those companies because they quit insuring Canadian carriers.

I'm not sure what the state of that industry is now? I've been out of all forms of trucking for just over 3 years now.