Equipment fit, the rules that govern the freight, the dock and site reality, and what belongs on the posting — written per industry, for the people who own the freight.
Truckload rates follow equipment, not industry — a pallet of canned goods and a pallet of hardware price the same in the same van. What changes by industry is everything around the rate: which trailer the freight is legal on, what has to be written down before it moves, how long the receiving end really takes, and which accessorials you are exposed to. Those are the things that decide whether a load covers, and they are what these pages document.
Each page is written as information rather than as a sales claim: the actual equipment fit, the federal or contractual rules that apply, the seasonal capacity pattern, where loads lose money at the dock, and a posting checklist. For the numbers, every page links through to the equipment rate pages and the weekly market reports, where the figures are live rather than copied into prose that would go stale.
Temperature in writing, a pre-cooled trailer, a washout the receiver will accept, and a dock appointment that does not turn into six hours of detention. This is how food and beverage truckload actually moves in the US, and what to put on the posting so it covers.
Usual equipment: Reefer, Dry Van, Box Truck · read the page →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.
Usual equipment: Flatbed, Step Deck, Conestoga, Hotshot · read the page →In retail truckload the delivery window is enforced harder than the rate. MABD dates, OTIF scorecards, ASN and label requirements, appointment portals and chargebacks — how the freight side of a retail programme actually works.
Usual equipment: Dry Van, Power Only, Box Truck, Reefer · read the page →Machinery, components, resins and fabricated metal. How the crate and the skid decide the equipment, why plant receiving is stricter than a DC, and the point at which a machine move stops being truckload and becomes a permit job.
Usual equipment: Dry Van, Step Deck, Flatbed, Conestoga, Power Only · read the page →Pre-cooling method, pulp temperature, ethylene and mixing rules, and the harvest migration that drains reefer capacity out of every other market. How agricultural freight actually books, and why the clock starts before the truck arrives.
Usual equipment: Reefer, Flatbed, Step Deck, Dry Van · read the page →Coils, plate, structural, rebar and tube. The federal coil rule, why a legal gross weight can still be an illegal axle, what a mill queue does to a schedule, and the paperwork that travels with the metal.
Usual equipment: Flatbed, Step Deck, Conestoga, Power Only · read the page →Whatever the freight is, the posting has to answer these before a carrier can price it honestly.
| Is it legal on that trailer? | Weight, dimensions as the freight sits on the deck, and any commodity-specific rule that changes how it must be secured or held. This is what decides dry van versus reefer versus flatbed versus step deck — and whether you are into permit territory. |
| What has to be in writing? | A temperature spec, a securement note, a delivery window, a labelling requirement. The rule differs by industry — federal for food and open deck, contractual for retail — but the failure mode is the same: what was not written down is what gets argued about. |
| How long does each end really take? | Live unload, crane queue, packhouse wait, plant gate procedure. Free time that does not match reality is detention you did not plan to pay. See the detention pay policy. |
| Who does the work at the dock? | Driver assist, lumper, forklift, crane or rigging crew — and who pays. This is the most common thing missing from a posting and the most common reason a delivery stalls. |
Not directly. Rates follow equipment, lane and season — a dry van load prices as a dry van load whether it is canned food or hardware. What industry changes is the requirements attached to the load and the accessorial exposure around it, and those absolutely change the total cost. Current benchmarks by equipment are on the market rates page.
Start with three numbers: weight, dimensions as the freight will sit on the deck, and any temperature requirement. Weight and temperature usually decide between dry van and reefer; height decides between flatbed and step deck, because a flatbed deck sits around 60 inches and a step deck around 38–42, which is roughly the difference between 8 ft 6 in and 10 feet of legal cargo height. Each industry page works through the specifics.
Usually not the rate. A load sits when a carrier cannot tell from the posting whether it is legal on his trailer, how long he will wait, or what he gets paid if something goes wrong. Every industry page here ends with a posting checklist aimed at exactly that.
Yes — posting is free for brokers and shippers, with no subscription and no per-post fee. See why posting is free, or create a shipper account.
Every carrier who can accept your load has had authority, insurance and safety checked first, every load carries live GPS, and the accessorial terms are written down before the truck moves rather than argued about after.