Yankee thanks for starting this a a thread of its own.
Tec will chime in here as he has experience moving hives on the commercial scale by the semi loads.
I have mover a lot of hives but as double deeps in to orchards for pollination and back out again. With the pollination sets the hives or pollination units are made up with at least 5 good frames of brood and a bee population that will cover at least 8 frames. Due to the intensity of the flow a lot of space need to be available for the queen to lay and the bees to store nectar. So the top super is pretty much empty going in. The hive weighs 60 lbs. and due to watering taking place it is nice to have the hives up on a upside down apple bin to keep the water from spraying in the hive. Orchardest like to have the hives placed through out the orchard part way down rows so carrying the hive by hand from the truck deck to the bins is necessary. The hives coming out of the orchard cam weigh from 150 to 175 lbs so the weight can becomes an issue also. I am still fairly young and fit so I still grab and carry the hives the short distance from the truck to the hive location. to keep the bees contained in the hive I use a #8 mesh the length of the entrance and about 4" wide and fold it over the side of the hive to get a straight 90 deg. fold then bend it the fest of the way so i have a 180 deg round screen to tuck in the entrance. the inner cover is placed on the hive with the winter entrance up and the hive cover pulled back closing of any space the bees could us as an escape. The most important is having the hives secured so all the components of the hive stay in place. For this I use 1/2" plastic strapping with a tensioner and clips. When lifting and carrying a hive by yourself the last thing you want is for the hive to twist and allow spaces for the bees to escape.
I have also moved hives into the mountains in search of fireweed honey. Moving of hives is stressful on bees and the smother the ride the calmer the bees will stay. 50 miles of rough dusty extremely bumpy roads makes for cranky bees when they are released. You still have to put up an electric fence with annoyed bees coming out of the hives and then cutting the straps so honey supers can be added to the hives before leaving them to do what they do best, collect nectar. Hauling bees on a trailer is much rougher than an s truck due to the fact that trucks have shocks to dampen the rough ride where a trailer with the leaf springs give a more jostled ride. A tandem axled trailer is better than a trailer with a single axle but the smother the road the better the tire for the bees. I have seen hives jostled so bad that the comb has broken out of the frames and the top bar tabs have been broken. Go slow and easy on rough roads and across fields and the bees can handle it.
due to the fact that most of my hive movement is pollination and hand placement of the hives. I have always just carried them the short distance from truck to pallets. I have always just placed the hives on pallets it keeps the hives 6" off the ground and doesn't require making permanent stands. If you can make the bee yard large enough so you can park your truck or trailer in the middle then the hives can be offloaded and loaded with less carrying distance. This not only assets when moving hives but also when supering the hives and pulling full honey supers. Keep enough room between hives or pallets of hives to allow for easy movement and that you have clear walk ways and not having to clime over or trip on things while working the bees.
I will stop this post here. stay tuned for chapter 2