Dry van dispatch service built around your miles and your PM

Dry van dispatch: what we find for you

• Retail and consumer goods. Store distribution, e-commerce and general merchandise moving between warehouses.
• Grocery dry. Shelf-stable food and beverage, often with appointments and lumper unloading.
• Paper and packaging. Heavy but steady freight that can fill weekday lanes.
• Drop and hook. Pre-loaded trailers that save hours at the dock when the trailer pool works for you.

The dry van market is big enough that the best week usually comes from planning, not luck: choosing the outbound load because of where it lands, and having the next one ready before you deliver.

Dry van dispatcher rates and your floor

Dry van rates move with the market every week, and they vary a lot by lane and direction. A headhaul out of a busy market can pay well; the backhaul from a quiet one may barely cover fuel. That is why we judge the round trip, not the single load.

Before your first load we work out your floor rate per mile with you, counting fuel, tires, maintenance reserve, insurance, the payment and your pay. Anything under that floor, deadhead included, never reaches you. Above it, we negotiate for more. The PM schedule generator helps you put a real number on the maintenance line.

Docks, appointments and detention

Dry van loads live and die by dock time. A two-hour appointment that turns into six hours wrecks the next pickup and burns your hours of service. We check detention terms before we pitch a load, and when you arrive we want your check-in time. If the wait runs past the free time on the rate confirmation, we file the claim and chase it.

Some receivers are known for long waits. When we know, we tell you before you decide, and we price the load accordingly.

Lumper fees without the headache

Grocery and retail receivers often use lumpers to unload. The cost usually ends up with the shipper or receiver, but the carrier may have to pay at the dock and get reimbursed. Before a load reaches you, we confirm that the rate confirmation covers lumper reimbursement. Your job is the receipt: get one every time and send it with your paperwork.

High miles, real maintenance

Dry van owners often run the most miles of any equipment type, and miles are what drive maintenance intervals. Oil and filters, tires, brakes and the annual inspection come around faster at 120,000 miles a year than at 70,000. A dispatcher who ignores that is setting up a breakdown on someone else's trailer.

Tell us your intervals and next due dates and we plan around them. If a run would take you past a due service, you decide with that fact in front of you, not after the warning light comes on.

Your trailer or theirs

If you pull your own van, we keep its upkeep on the calendar too: tires, brakes, lights, doors and floor. If you pull pool trailers on drop and hook loads, inspect each one before you hook. A trailer you did not maintain still becomes your problem at a roadside inspection. Our power only dispatch page covers that pre-trip in detail.

A dry van week, start to finish

An EXAMPLE week for a single dry van, not a real result. Monday morning we send three outbound options from the owner's home market. The best-paying one delivers into a slow market, so we show the trip math beside a slightly cheaper load that lands where reloads are strong. The owner takes the second, and the rate confirmation arrives in their inbox to sign.

Tuesday we line up the reload, a drop and hook that saves two hours at the dock. Wednesday the receiver holds the truck four hours, so we start the detention claim. Thursday a short load brings the truck home. Friday is the oil change, on the calendar since the week started. The weekly report shows three loads, the fees, and the detention still being chased.

Dry van on a new authority

Dry van is a common first equipment type for new carriers, which means brokers see a lot of new MCs on van freight. Some are cautious; many will work with you once insurance and documents check out. While your MC is under six months old, the fee is 7%. Read our page on dispatch for new authorities for what the first months usually look like.

If the truck breaks down with a van loaded

Get safe, then call the desk. We make the broker calls, explain what happened and what the shop is telling you, and work through the options for the load. What is possible depends on the broker, the freight and the repair time, so you get straight answers rather than promises. Planned maintenance is still the best way to keep that call from happening at all.

Home time on a dry van schedule

Dry van freight runs everywhere, which makes it easy to end up far from home. Tell us how many nights you want at home and when, and we plan loads that point the truck back in time. When a long run pays better, we bring it with the trip home attached so you can weigh the money against the nights away.

The same plan carries the shop days. A week that ends at home with a PM on Friday and a load out on Monday is a better week than one that pays a little more and ends 900 miles away with the service overdue.

When you may not need us

If you run a dedicated dry van lane for one shipper and it fills your week at a good rate, keep it. If you enjoy working the board and already know which brokers pay, a dispatcher may not add enough. We are most useful when the board and the phone are taking time you would rather spend driving, resting or keeping the truck in shape.