Lumber, drywall, steel, roofing, block, pipe and equipment. What legally holds it down, which deck height keeps you out of permit territory, and why a job-site delivery is not a dock delivery.
Building materials cover a much wider spread of handling problems than most freight categories. The same posting screen has to cope with banded lumber that needs tarping, drywall that is heavy and fragile at once, steel coils that have their own federal securement rule, roof trusses that are long before they are heavy, and excavators that are neither. What they share is that almost none of it fits in a van, most of it is loaded and unloaded by machine rather than by dock, and a meaningful share of it delivers to a site rather than a building.
That changes what a good posting looks like. On dry freight the questions are weight, pallet count and appointment. Here they are dimensions, deck height, tarping, who has the forklift or the crane, and whether the truck can physically reach the delivery point. A load that is priced right and specified badly still fails — usually at the site, with the material on the trailer and nothing to unload it.
These profiles need different equipment, different paperwork and different rate expectations. Treating them as one category is the most common reason this freight sits on a board.
| Profile | What it is | Usual equipment |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensional lumber & panels | Banded units of framing lumber, plywood, OSB, engineered joists. Almost always tarped; length drives the tiedown count. | Flatbed |
| Drywall & board | Gypsum board, cement board, sheathing. Heavy for its cube, easily damaged by weather and by strap pressure without edge protection. | Flatbed / Conestoga |
| Steel & metals | Coils, plate, structural beams, rebar, tube and pipe. Coils have their own securement rule; beams and rebar are length-driven. | Flatbed / Step deck |
| Roofing & insulation | Shingle pallets, membrane rolls, batt and rigid insulation. Shingles weigh out fast; insulation cubes out fast. | Flatbed / Dry van |
| Masonry & aggregate | Block, brick, pavers, bagged cement, cultured stone. Dense, palletised, and usually a forklift delivery. | Flatbed |
| Concrete pipe & precast | Pipe, vaults, barriers, precast panels. Covered by commodity-specific securement rules and frequently over-dimension. | Step deck / Flatbed |
| Trusses, joists & long stock | Roof and floor trusses, long-span steel, poles. Length and height rather than weight decide the equipment and the permits. | Step deck / Conestoga |
| Construction equipment | Excavators, skid steers, lifts, compactors. Ramps or a ramped deck, and securement under the heavy-equipment rule. | Step deck / Power only |
The default. Roughly a 60-inch deck height, 48 or 53 feet long, loaded from either side or overhead by forklift or crane. Because the deck sits high, legal cargo height is only about 8 feet 6 inches before permits — which is why tall freight moves to a step deck rather than paying for a permit. Nearly all flatbed building material is tarped.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: flatbed freight rates →A drop in the deck behind the tractor lowers the main deck to roughly 38–42 inches, buying back about 20 inches of legal cargo height — enough for around 10 feet of freight without a permit. Step decks also usually carry their own ramps, which is what makes them the standard for wheeled and tracked equipment.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: step deck freight rates →A rolling tarp system on a flatbed or step-deck frame. It gives weather protection without manual tarping, which matters for drywall, finished metal, insulation and anything a tarp can scuff. It costs more per mile and cuts usable width and height slightly — the trade is load and unload time and a much lower damage rate.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: conestoga freight rates →A pickup or medium-duty truck with a gooseneck trailer, generally under about 16,500 lb of payload. Its place in construction is the short-notice shortfall — the missing bundle, the replacement part, the piece the job needs tomorrow morning. Priced by urgency far more than by lane.
Current national benchmarks, and what carriers, brokers and shippers each pay: hotshot freight rates →Rates on this freight follow the equipment, not the industry — a pallet of canned goods and a pallet of hardware price the same in the same van. See all market rates per mile or the weekly market reports.
These are federal rules, not carrier preferences, and they are enforced at roadside. Knowing them changes how you post the load, because the securement requirement is what sets the loading time and part of the rate.
| The general rule | Under 49 CFR 393.100–393.114, the aggregate working load limit of the tiedowns must be at least half the weight of the cargo secured, and cargo must be immobilised or secured against shifting in any direction. |
| Tiedown counts by length | One tiedown for an article up to 5 ft and 1,100 lb; two if it is up to 5 ft but heavier, or between 5 and 10 ft at any weight; and for anything over 10 ft, two plus one more for every additional 10 ft or part of it. |
| Commodity-specific rules | Federal securement is written out separately for logs, dressed lumber, metal coils, paper rolls, concrete pipe, intermodal containers, vehicles, heavy equipment, flattened vehicles, roll-on containers and large boulders — 49 CFR 393.116 through 393.136. Steel coils and concrete pipe are the two that most often surprise a shipper. |
| Edge protection | Required wherever a strap would be cut or the load crushed. Drywall, finished metal, banded panel goods and painted product all need it, and a shipper who does not supply it should say so. |
| Tarping | Lumber, drywall, insulation and most finished goods are tarped. It is physical work, it takes 30–60 minutes and it is an accessorial — state whether the load is tarped, how many tarps, and whether the shipper's crew helps. |
| Legal dimensions | Standard limits are 8 ft 6 in wide and, in most states, 13 ft 6 in high overall — higher in parts of the West. Length limits vary by state and configuration. Anything beyond needs a permit, and often escorts. |
| Permits and escorts | Oversize permits are issued per state, per route, and take time. Escort requirements, curfews and travel-hour restrictions vary widely. A load that is one inch over is a different product with a different lead time. See oversize load rates. |
| Weight distribution | Dense material — block, brick, coils, bagged cement — can be legal in gross weight and illegal on an axle. Where the load sits on the deck is a shipper decision as much as a driver one. |
Capacity on this freight is close to constant through the year. Demand is not, and that gap is what moves the rate.
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| Jan–Feb | The annual low. Northern construction is largely frozen out, and flatbed capacity is abundant and cheap. This is the cheapest stretch of the year to reposition material into a Northern yard for spring. |
| Mar–May | The turn. Construction restarts in the North, spring residential building begins, and flatbed capacity tightens quickly. Rates move faster in this window than at any other point in the year. |
| Jun–Aug | Peak season for both flatbed and step deck. Construction, infrastructure and roofing all run at once, and it is also the peak of open-deck agricultural and equipment movement. Expect the least give on rate and the least available capacity. |
| Sep–Nov | Still strong, with a hard push to close out projects before winter. Hurricane and storm activity along the Gulf and Southeast can pull large volumes of roofing, plywood and generators into a region within days. |
| Dec | Falls off quickly after the first two weeks as job sites shut down for the holidays and the Northern building season ends. |
| There may be no dock at all | Site deliveries are unloaded by forklift, telehandler, boom truck or crane. Say what is on site and who operates it. A truck arriving where nothing can lift the material off is a wasted day for everyone. |
| Ground conditions decide access | Mud, soft fill, grade, overhead lines and turning radius all decide whether a 53-foot trailer physically reaches the drop point. This is worth a sentence on the posting and, on a difficult site, a phone number. |
| Site hours are not business hours | Many sites take deliveries only in a morning window, and many close entirely in bad weather. A load that misses the window usually waits until the next day — a layover, not detention. See the layover policy. |
| Driver assist is a real question here | Whether the driver helps unstrap, untarp or hand-unload is not a courtesy detail on this freight — it is labour, and it should be priced. See the driver assist policy. |
| Tarping time is unloading time | Untarping and re-folding tarps on a windy site is 30 to 60 minutes at each end. If your free time does not account for it, you are budgeting detention you did not intend to pay. See the detention pay policy. |
| Cancelled sites happen | Weather, an inspection failure or a crane that did not show can cancel a site delivery after the truck has already loaded. Agree in advance what that costs. See the TONU policy. |
Every one of these is an accessorial with a written LoadBoot standard, agreed before the truck moves rather than argued about after: detention, layover, TONU, lumper fees, driver assist and FCFS versus appointment.
Cargo securement, 49 CFR 393.100–393.136. This is the governing body of rules for open-deck freight. The general requirements cover working load limit, tiedown counts and immobilisation; the commodity-specific sections cover logs, dressed lumber, metal coils, paper rolls, concrete pipe, intermodal containers, automobiles and light vehicles, heavy vehicles and equipment, flattened vehicles, roll-on/roll-off containers and large boulders. A securement violation is an out-of-service condition, which means your material stops moving at the roadside.
Size and weight. The federal gross vehicle weight limit on the Interstate system is 80,000 lb, with 34,000 lb on a tandem axle and bridge-formula limits on spacing. Width is generally 8 ft 6 in; height and length limits are set by the states, commonly 13 ft 6 in high in the East and 14 ft in much of the West. Exceeding any of these moves the load into the permit process.
Oversize and overweight permits. Permits are issued state by state, are route-specific, and can carry curfews, daylight-only restrictions, escort or pilot-car requirements and holiday blackouts. Lead time is real — from same-day in some states to several days in others for a superload. Build it into the schedule rather than the rate negotiation.
Damage and the tarp question. Most building-material claims are weather and abrasion, not accident. Whether the load was required to be tarped, and whether edge protection was supplied, is usually the deciding fact in the claim — so it should be written on the load, not agreed verbally at pickup.
This is general operating information, not legal advice. Regulations are amended and state rules vary — confirm current requirements for your commodity and route before relying on them.
Rate is rarely why this freight sits. It sits because a carrier cannot tell from the posting whether the load is legal on his trailer, how long he will wait, or what he gets paid if it goes wrong. Six things fix most of that.
| Dimensions, not just weight | Length, width and height of the material as it will sit on the deck, plus total weight. Height is what decides flatbed versus step deck, and therefore whether you are in permit territory. |
| Equipment and deck height required | Say flatbed, step deck or Conestoga and why. If the material is 9 or 10 feet tall, a step deck is not an upgrade — it is the only legal option without a permit. |
| Tarping requirement and tarp count | Tarped or open, how many tarps, and whether the shipper supplies edge protection. This is a priced accessorial and a common source of dispute. |
| How it loads and how it unloads | Forklift, crane, overhead, side-load, or driven on and off by ramp. Name the equipment available at each end and who operates it. |
| Site access details | Address plus the practical reality: ground conditions, turning space, overhead clearance, delivery window, and a site contact number that will actually be answered. |
| Permit status if over-dimension | Whether permits are already in hand, who is pulling them, and whether escorts are required. Do not leave this to be discovered after booking. |
Post a building materials load → · Why posting is free for brokers and shippers →
Measure the material's height. A flatbed deck sits about 60 inches off the ground, so against a common 13 ft 6 in overall height limit you have roughly 8 ft 6 in of legal cargo height. A step deck's main deck sits around 38–42 inches, which gives you about 10 feet. If your material is taller than roughly 8 ft 6 in, a step deck is not a preference — it is what keeps the load legal without a permit. Step decks also generally carry ramps, which is why equipment moves on them.
When the material is damage-sensitive and the tarping is what damages it. Drywall, finished and coated metal, insulation, and anything with a painted or milled surface are the usual candidates. A Conestoga costs more per mile and gives up a little usable width and height, but it removes an hour of manual tarping at each end and a large share of the abrasion claims.
The driver and the carrier carry the regulatory responsibility — they are the ones cited and placed out of service under 49 CFR 393. But the shipper controls a great deal of the outcome by how the material is presented: banding quality, whether edge protection is supplied, how the material is blocked on the deck, and whether the commodity-specific rule was flagged at all. On coils and pipe in particular, saying what the freight is changes how it must legally be tied down.
Generally anything over 8 ft 6 in wide, over the state height limit — commonly 13 ft 6 in, 14 ft in much of the West — or beyond the state length limit for the configuration. Permits are issued per state and per route, so a multi-state move needs several. Turnaround ranges from same-day in some states to several days for a genuinely large load, and escorts, curfews and daylight-only restrictions are common. Rates for this work are on the oversize load rate page.
Because the demand is seasonal and the supply is not. Open-deck capacity is roughly constant, but construction activity collapses in the North in January and February and runs flat out from May through October. The spring turn is the sharpest move of the year, and a regional storm can pull hundreds of trucks' worth of roofing and plywood into one market within a week. Current national benchmarks are on the flatbed rate page and the step deck rate page.
Some of it. Palletised shingles, insulation, fasteners, fixtures and boxed finished goods all move in vans, and a van removes the tarping problem entirely. What rules a van out is anything that has to be loaded or unloaded from the side or overhead, anything longer than the door opening allows, and any site delivery with no dock — which is most job sites. See the dry van rate page.
Posting is free for brokers and shippers — no subscription and no per-post fee. Every carrier who can accept your load has had authority, insurance and safety checked first, every load carries live GPS, and the accessorial terms above are written down before the truck moves.