A Conestoga is an open-deck trailer with a rolling tarp system built onto a frame. It carries the highest rate in the open-deck family because the trailer costs far more and the pool of them is small — but it removes an hour of manual tarping and protects freight from weather without enclosing it in a van.
A single "rate per mile" hides four different things. Brokers and shippers argue about the wrong one all the time, so here is the whole stack, using the live numbers above.
| Component | Per mile | Who it belongs to |
|---|---|---|
| Line haul | — | The truck’s core revenue — driver pay, tractor, trailer, maintenance, insurance. |
| Fuel surcharge | — | Moves with the DOE average. Quoted separately in contract freight, buried inside the number in spot freight. How fuel surcharge works → |
| Carrier total | — | What actually lands on the carrier’s rate confirmation. |
| Broker margin | — | Covers coverage work, credit risk, claims exposure and the brokerage’s own cost of doing business. |
| Shipper pays | — | The all-in number, before any accessorial actually incurred on the load. |
The line haul and fuel split shown is an industry-typical approximation — roughly 78/22 at current diesel levels. On a real load it moves with the lane and the week, which is exactly why fuel is normally quoted as its own line.
Most failed bookings are not arguments about money — they are a load that physically does not fit the trailer that showed up. These are the numbers to put in a posting.
| Trailer types | Built on flatbed or step deck chassis; 48 ft and 53 ft |
| Covering | Rolling tarp on a rigid frame, opens from the side or the rear |
| Usable height | ~8′ under the frame on a flatbed Conestoga; less than an open deck |
| Max payload | 44,000–48,000 lb — the tarp system has real weight |
| Loading | Side, top or rear — the main advantage over a van |
Commonly shipped on conestoga: Finished machinery that cannot be tarped by hand, steel that must stay dry, aerospace and defence components, sensitive crated freight, building products with finished surfaces.
Benchmark rate per mile multiplied by real lane distance. Useful as a starting point for a conversation, not as a quote — direction, season and appointment requirements all move the true number.
| Lane | Distance | Carrier gets | Shipper pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland, OH → Atlanta, GA | 720 mi | — | — |
| Wichita, KS → Phoenix, AZ | 1,050 mi | — | — |
| Greenville, SC → Dallas, TX | 1,050 mi | — | — |
Distances are practical truck miles and will differ slightly from a car routing. Work out your own cost per mile →
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| Year-round | Less seasonal than plain flatbed, because the freight that needs a Conestoga needs it in every month. |
| Winter | Demand firms in wet and snowy months when open-deck freight cannot be safely tarped by hand. |
| Spring–Summer | Tracks flatbed upward with construction and machinery volume. |
A flatbed plus tarps costs less and there are far more of them. Choose a Conestoga when the freight genuinely cannot be hand-tarped, cannot be loaded from the rear, or when a wet-damage claim would cost more than the rate difference — which for finished machinery is usually.
Conestoga is a small pool and posting it at flatbed money simply will not cover — you will lose a day discovering that. Price it as its own equipment class from the first posting, and confirm the load fits under the frame before you commit, because "it fits on a flatbed" does not mean it fits in a Conestoga.
If your freight cannot get wet and cannot be forklifted from the rear, a Conestoga is almost always cheaper than the damage claim from a badly tarped flatbed load. Check your load height against the frame clearance before you book, not after.
Line haul is the number everyone negotiates. Accessorials are the number that decides whether the lane was actually profitable. LoadBoot publishes its terms rather than renegotiating them load by load, so both sides know before the truck moves.
| Accessorial | LoadBoot standard | When it bites |
|---|---|---|
| Detention | $60/hr after 2 free hours | Four hours at a dock can exceed the whole margin on a short lane. |
| Layover | $250/day | A missed appointment that pushes delivery to the next day. |
| TONU | $250 | Truck ordered, then the load is not there or does not fit. |
| Lumper | Reimbursed with receipt | Grocery and food distribution, almost every time. |
Worth knowing whichever side of the load you are on. A broker who understands the carrier’s floor covers freight faster; a shipper who understands it stops wondering why the cheapest quote keeps falling through. Against a typical all-in operating cost of $1.90 per mile for a small carrier, the current conestoga benchmark leaves:
$1.90 is a working average for a one-truck operation. Fleets with newer equipment and better fuel programmes run below it; an older truck with high maintenance can sit well above. Calculate your actual number →
Rate is rarely the reason a conestoga load 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. Five things fix most of that.
| Check your load height against the frame, not the deck | The rolling frame eats vertical space. Freight that fits on an open flatbed may not fit under a Conestoga, and this is the most common failed booking in the class. |
| Say which side or end it loads from | Side, top and rear loading are all possible, and the answer changes which trailers work and how long loading takes. |
| Confirm the freight still needs securement | The tarp protects from weather; it secures nothing. Full securement rules still apply and the driver still needs the gear. |
| Post it as its own equipment class | Posting a Conestoga load at flatbed money does not cover it. You will lose a day proving that. |
| Give as much lead time as you can | This is a small pool. Same-day Conestoga on a thin lane is expensive when it is available at all. |
A national benchmark is an average of very different markets. Direction matters as much as distance — the same lane run the other way can price completely differently.
| Versus national | Markets |
|---|---|
| Above national | Anywhere outside the manufacturing corridors, where Conestogas are genuinely rare. |
| Around national | The Midwest and Southeast manufacturing belt, where most Conestogas are based. |
| Below national | Rarely below — scarcity keeps a floor under this equipment almost everywhere. |
A flatbed or step deck fitted with a rolling tarp on a rigid frame, so freight can be loaded from the side or top and then fully enclosed without manual tarping.
The trailers cost far more to buy and there are far fewer of them. You are paying for scarcity plus the elimination of tarping labour.
They are closely related — both enclose open-deck freight with a moving cover. Conestoga refers to the specific rolling-frame system and is the term used across most of the US market.
Usually around 8 feet under the frame on a flatbed chassis, less than you would get on an open deck. Always check clearance against your actual load height.
Yes — that is one of its main advantages. The tarp rolls back to allow crane or overhead loading, which a dry van cannot do at all.
Yes. The tarp protects from weather; it does not secure anything. Full securement rules still apply.
When the freight cannot be loaded through rear doors. A crane-loaded or side-loaded piece would need to be disassembled to fit a van, and that labour usually exceeds the rate difference.
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 rather than argued about after.