Resources / Truckload Equipment
Dry van, flatbed, or reefer isn't a preference — it's determined by what you ship, how it loads, and what it can't survive. Here's what each trailer does best, how to choose, and where partial and rail fit when a full truckload isn't the answer.
The 53-foot enclosed dry van is the workhorse of American truckload — if your freight is palletized, dock-loaded, and doesn't care about temperature, this is your trailer. It protects freight from weather and road grime, loads and unloads through standard dock doors, and has the deepest capacity pool of any equipment type, which generally makes it the most competitively priced. Capacity typically tops out around 26 standard pallets of floor space and roughly 42,000–45,000 pounds of freight, depending on the tractor, trailer, and route — heavy commodities usually hit the weight limit before the walls, and light, bulky freight cubes out first.
When freight can't go through a dock door, it goes on a flatbed. Steel, lumber, machinery, building materials, and anything oversized, odd-shaped, or crane-loaded rides on an open deck that can be loaded from above or the side. The trade-off is exposure: tarping protects weather-sensitive loads, securement (straps, chains, dunnage) is a serious discipline with real regulations behind it, and loads beyond standard legal dimensions can require permits and route planning that vary by state and load. Flatbed quoting rewards good information — exact dimensions, weight, and how the load gets on and off the trailer.
A reefer is an insulated trailer with a refrigeration unit — the equipment for food, beverage, pharmaceuticals, and temperature-sensitive chemicals. The details matter more here than anywhere else: continuous operation holds a steady setpoint for sensitive freight, while cycle mode runs intermittently to save fuel where the commodity tolerates swings; temperature monitoring documents the trip; and a proper pre-cool before loading keeps the first hour from cooking or freezing the product. Get the required temperature and mode on the order explicitly — "keep it cold" is not a setpoint.
If your freight is bigger than LTL but smaller than 53 feet of trailer, don't pay for air. Volume and partial service prices the space you actually use, and our LTL vs volume vs truckload guide walks through exactly where each mode wins. And for dry freight on long lanes where a day or two of transit flexibility is acceptable, rail and intermodal is the cost play — same box, steel wheels for the long middle mile.
Equipment choice shouldn't mean shopping three providers. Our truckload team quotes dry van, flatbed, and temperature-controlled from one desk — same process, same accountability, and the same discipline our LTL practice is built on. Tell us what the freight is and how it loads; we'll put the right trailer under it.