TLI University: Dry Van 101

Truckload Freight Basics

Full truckload services are the purchase of the trailer exclusively for one shipment. The shipper has access to the entire capacity of the trailer and typically will go from point A to point B.

Unlike LTL freight, the shipper purchases exclusive use of the truck and has access to the entire capacity of the trailer to load the freight. Once the freight is loaded on the trailer at the origin, it is expected that the driver will drive directly to the destination and make the delivery. There is no transloading or offload at terminals for your freight. Trailer seals are also placed on trailers to ensure that freight does not get touched until it arrives at the receiver.

Some examples of truckload carriers are Paschall Truck Lines, Smith Transport, and Twiss Transport.

Dry Van Trailers

Dry Van trailers are the most common method of full truckload transportation. Generally, this is the verbiage for standard box trailers that are seen on the road everyday. Typical dimensions are 48' or 53' long, 102" Wide and 13'6" high. Inside dimensions vary on specific trailer and can be affected by the type of door (Swing or roll-up) that the trailer has.

A loaded dry van is allowed to weight up to 80,000 lbs. Depending on the empty weight of the truck, the maximum weight of freight that may be loaded on a dry van is usually between 43,000 - 45,000 pounds. A standard 53' trailer can hold between 26 - 30 pallets of standard pallets.

Dry Van Pricing

Dry Van Truckload shipments are much simpler to price than LTL shipments – carriers either charge a “flat rate” for a specific zip code to zip code lane, or they will charge a “rate per mile” – For example, a load from Birdsboro, PA 19508 to El Paso, TX 79901 may be rated as a $2,100 “flat rate” or it may be rated as $1.20 per mile – TLI predetermines the mileage with the carrier based on our PC Miler Rating Engine

Truckload rates are based on amount of loads in a certain lane versus available capacity of trucks on that lane – rates are lower when moving out of an area with more trucks than loads than they are moving out of an area with more loads that available trucks – For example, many trucks move into the densely populated Northeast US to deliver merchandise to this population – once they arrive, there are usually less loads moving out of the Northeast than there are available trucks – this makes the market to get these loads very competitive, which drives down the rates

As with LTL, all truckload shipments are also assessed a Fuel Surcharge – for truckload shipments, we generally pay a specific “per mile” Fuel Surcharge based on a negotiated matrix – the amount of Fuel Surcharge paid is in direct correlation to the National Average Price of Diesel Fuel for the previous week.