Dry van
A dry van is an enclosed, unrefrigerated trailer used for general palletized freight, and it is the most common trailer type in US truckload transportation.
Last reviewed · by the Fleetchart team
Dry van is the default equipment for non-perishable, non-oversized freight. It has the largest load pool and therefore the most competitive rates.
Because the equipment is inexpensive relative to reefer or specialized trailers, dry van operations have lower fixed costs and correspondingly thinner margins per mile.
Because the equipment is cheap and the load pool is enormous, dry van is also the most competitive segment in truckload. Rates respond fastest to capacity swings, and there is little to differentiate one carrier from another except service and price. Carriers who want to escape that pressure generally do it by specializing — reefer, flatbed, hazmat or dedicated freight — rather than by trying to win on dry van rates.
For example, say a dry van load pays $2,200 for 1,000 miles, which is $2.20 a mile, and your cost per mile is $1.90. You keep $2,200 − $1,900 = $300. If the market slips by just 20 cents a mile, the same load pays $2,000 and you keep $100. Thin margins like that are why knowing your own cost per mile matters so much in dry van.