Thanks as well.My husband drives truck, so I asked him why he would be without a trailer -- there are times he will drop a tanker at one location and go to a different location to pick up a tanker to bring back (but it's usually a reasonable distance when this happens), otherwise the only time he drives around without one is if he is transporting the tractor for maintenance to/from the employer's various buildings.
Between your husband and @LibraStarr 's father, it looks like there are many reasons to be with out a trailer as it could vary depending on what is being delivered, where and company practice.
But.... it seems to be likely a fleet truck. It also looks like those many reasons could be broken down into two general types:
A. Arrived at destination, dropped trailer / tanker. Going to another location to pick another one up.
B. Truck is in home area. Going to get serviced, obtain a "start" trailer / load. Being staged at another company facility to receive a load later on etc. etc.
Regarding possibility A....
When I lived in LA, there were yuuuge shipping terminals in the desert outside the LA urban area. I think alot of OTR truckers would deliver to the terminal (maybe drop trailer as @LibraStarr stated). Then, local drivers would deliver the load into the LA area.
I wonder if NYC has those same yuuuuge terminals outside the NYC urban area? If so, it might be possible to educated guess where the delivery was made as perhaps dropping the trailer / leaving with out trailer is common a those gigantic terminals? If so, I bet those terminals have cameras everywhere.
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