U.S. Cellular hired a farmer's draft horses to deliver antennas to 200 Wisconsin towers

U.S. Cellular was upgrading equipment on about 200 cell towers in Wisconsin on a tight timetable for delivering gear and scheduling technicians. Some towers are served by access roads that its regional planning manager described as "more of a path"; deep snow and heavy rain can make them all but impassable for trucks. One delivery driver for CH Coakley, the logistics company hired to coordinate the upgrades, recalled a trip where the snow was so deep it blew the transmission on an ATV.

The fix was to hire Jason Julian of Medford, Wisconsin, who uses draft horses on his organic dairy farm and in a winter horse-logging business. For the tower job he trailers two or three Belgian Brabants to a site a couple of times a week and has a wagon ready on the roadside. When the delivery truck arrives, the crew moves the cargo, typically around 2,000 pounds such as boxes each holding an 8-foot antenna, onto the wagon. The team then hauls it about 300 yards to the tower base, past the mud that would have mired the truck.

Most sites are on fairly flat ground, so the loads are easy by logging standards. One hill site in West Salem was harder: about 90 minutes up steep switchbacks, with the wheels blocked with firewood every 40 or 50 yards so the horses could rest.

Skip the last 300 yards with a vehicle that does not need a road: horses used to dragging 1,500 lb logs through thigh-deep snow and mud.

The horses already work in thigh-deep snow and mud pulling 1,500 lb logs, so a 2,000 lb wagon on flat ground is routine.

The wagon is hitched and waiting before the truck arrives, so the freight handoff takes minimal downtime.

The distance from road to tower is short (about 300 yards), so a slow vehicle that ignores road conditions is enough.

Weather no longer decides whether a delivery gets through, which protects the tight schedule.

When the last stretch of a modern supply chain fails, look for an older technology that was built for exactly that terrain, and hire the person who still has it.

As of NPR's May 2017 report, Julian had been making the tower runs for a few months. CH Coakley said it would not hesitate to use horses again the next time modern vehicles fail to get the job done. The report gives no figures on time or money saved.