Dry van shipping is crucial to most modern businesses. Your company likely relies on dry van freight transportation to intake products and ship things to your customers or clients.
However, it would help if you kept dry van freight rates in mind to maximize your budget and minimize costs. Today, let's explore seven key factors impacting dry van shipping costs.
Seven Factors that Impact Dry Van Freight Rates: Overview
- Pick-Up and Delivery
- Your Shipment's Urgency
- Fuel Costs
- Overall Time of Shipment
- Supply and Demand
- Natural Disasters
- Requirements of Your Freight
Pick-Up and Delivery
Many factors can impact dry van trucking rates, the first of which is your pick-up and delivery specifications.
Location
Of course, where and when your shipment must be picked up or delivered can heavily affect the overall cost to transport it.
For example, if your shipment only needs to be transported 100 miles with no stops, you won't pay that much compared to a load that you must transport 500 miles with three or four stops.
Stops usually decrease the cost of your freight, as well. Rather than relying on more expensive LTL carriers, if you allow a dry van shipper to take multiple stops to drop off and load shipments from others, you'll pay less since the company can get more work done with a single vehicle and driver.
The Rigidity of Your Window
Furthermore, how rigid your delivery and pick-up windows will impact your shipping rates.
Shipping companies and carriers have many moving parts to consider and lots of loads to balance against each other if you can only have a load picked up and delivered at a particular time and date.
That limitation will narrow down who can transport that load, the equipment the company can use, and whether they'll have to ignore the needs of other customers and clients to satisfy your requirements.
Try to be flexible with your delivery and pick-up windows to cut costs. In this way, you give the shipping company extra flexibility to keep costs down without compromising their other contracts.
Your Shipment’s Urgency
On top of pick-up and delivery specifics, how urgently or quickly you need a shipment delivered can impact how much you'll pay for dry van freight transportation. The more urgent a load is, the more money you can expect to pay.
Why? If shipping companies and carriers have more time to map out the perfect route and find the ideal driver or truck for your needs, odds are they'll be able to find a better deal. In other words, the more "lead time" you give a transportation company, the more cost-effective solution they will likely be able to find.
If, in contrast, you contact a transportation company and tell them you need something shipped quickly, with very little time to plan, you can expect to pay a premium as a result.
So, how can you save money on dry van freight rates? Ideally, you'll want to:
- Give your chosen shipping company between 48 and 72 hours a head start. That gives them enough time to plan the perfect route for their needs.
- Be flexible in terms of who and what type of equipment ships your stuff. Suppose you don't give a shipping company enough time. In that case, they might stick you with the cheapest truck or driver on their payroll simply because that's what's available.
Fuel Costs
Naturally, fuel costs will impact your overall dry van shipping rates. Fuel costs can vary heavily due to economic factors, national politics, and the oil supply chain. But you might see cost fluctuations depending on where your freight needs to go.
For example, gas might be more expensive in one state than in another. If your shipment has to go through a more expensive state, you can expect to foot the bill for the increased gas the driver must pay to keep the engine running.
Overall Time of Shipment
Dry van freight rates can significantly affect how much time a company has to dedicate to your shipment. In other words, the longer your shipment needs to be in transit, the more money you can expect to pay.
There's always more freight that needs to move and more clients that carriers and shipping companies need to consider. If you need to move cargo from one end of the country to the other over a week or more, you'll pay more than if you need to move freight from one city to the other in the same state over a day or two.
However, the pure transportation difference isn't the only thing that impacts dry van freight rates. Whether or not you can combine your equipment or shipment with similar shipments can also affect the overall cost.
That's because the more specific or isolated your shipment is or needs to be, the more time a shipping company has to dedicate to ensuring it gets to the right place at the right time.
For example, if you have cargo that can't be mixed with any other load but doesn't take up a truck's total capacity, you can expect to pay more since the company essentially "wastes" that space to take care of your needs.
Supply and Demand
As in any capitalist system, supply and demand impact the overall price you can expect to pay for a product or service. The more in demand a carrier or transportation company is, the higher they can charge their rates.
The same is true for specific routes, drivers, or shipping equipment. If the equipment, truck, driver, or road you want to take for your shipment is in demand, you'll pay more compared to routes or equipment that aren't as in demand.
Natural Disasters
Natural disasters can impact shipping routes, road safety, and the time it takes for a shipment to get from one place to another. Suppose you're unlucky and a natural disaster has damaged a local freeway, for instance. In that case, you might pay more for a shipment that cost less than a week ago just because the shipping company has to divert and take a slower, longer route to get your goods where they need to go.
Requirements of Your Freight
As mentioned above, the more specific your freight requirements are, the more money you'll need to pay in the long run. If your freight is simple enough for a company to pick up, load in a truck, and then drop off at a destination, you'll pay less.
But if your freight has particular storage requirements, or if it has to be stored only with certain other items, you'll pay more because:
- Drivers have to spend more time accounting for their freight's specific needs.
- Drivers will likely not be able to ship as many things with your freight as they can with more generic or less specialized loads.
What Is Dry Van Shipping?
Dry van shipping is any shipping process that involves using a semi-trailer that moves material or cargo with a fully enclosed — and therefore "dry" or protective against the elements. Dry vans or semi-trailers are designed to carry loose, boxed, or palletized freight, depending on the needs of shippers and clients.
However, note that dry van shipping does not involve temperature-controlled semi-trailers. Thus, it's slightly different from refrigerated units (reefers) or oversized/flatbed trailers. Most dry van trailers come in a few sizes, like:
- 53-foot trailers, which are the most common type. These can typically accommodate up to 45,000 pounds of freight or 26 standard pallet positions.
- 28-foot trailers are also called pup trailers. Pup trailers see use in transporting LTL (less than truckload) shipments. These can typically move 22,500 pounds of freight or 14 standard pallet positions.
- Straight trucks are also called box trucks. These are used for short-distance or city deliveries and may include lift gates. These frequently measure 24' x 8' x 8' 6"
Why Is Dry Van Shipping Important?
Dry van shipping is essential because it's the most flexible, affordable, and reasonable shipping solution for most transportation needs. For example, most shipped goods don't require refrigeration — they just require protection from inclement weather like rain, dust, or snow.
Drive van shipping can transport practically any packaged goods or other shipments, so long as they don't require temperature control. Furthermore, dry van shipping is flexible enough that you can easily transport many different sizes of cargo containers or pallets from place to place.
Overall, dry van shipping is crucial since it's the type of shipping America relies on for most of its commercial freight transportation.
Advantages of Dry Van Shipping
Dry van shipping has several advantages, making it a staple for America's freight industry.
- Firstly, dry van freight shipping is typically more affordable than other shipping methods. That's because dry van freight vehicles are available and don't include extra service charges due to their simplicity and flexibility. Essentially, rely on basic transportation. You won't have to pay as much as if you rely on more
- specialized transportation equipment.
- Next, dry van shipping is also very versatile, as described above. You can transport many goods with dry van shipping vehicles, including nonperishable food items.
- Dry van freight transportation is efficient because you can consolidate many different goods and materials into one shipment and trip. This avoids redundancy and saves money on both sides (for transportation companies and businesses)
- Dry van freight vehicles are fully enclosed, so you can secure your goods and products and protect them from outside elements or theft.
Disadvantages of Dry Van Shipping
While dry van shipping is the go-to free transportation solution for most needs, there are some downsides to keep in mind when choosing between dry van shipping and other shipping methods.
- Many dry vans don't have the capacity businesses or individuals need, particularly during peak shipping seasons. For instance, maybe you need to ship more volume during the holiday season. Still, there aren't enough dry van vehicles available.
- Dry van freight also has limited or no environmental control. Therefore, you won't be able to use this shipping method for things like perishable food items or other products and materials that require temperature control.
However, these downsides are generally not as severe or affecting as the upsides. There's a reason most businesses still rely on dry van shipping more often than not.
Bottom Line
All in all, dry van freight rates are relatively stable. However, you can maximize your business's productivity and cut down on extraneous costs by considering the above factors and taking steps to choose the right carrier resource or freight transportation company.
RPM might be just what you're looking for. We work with qualified dry van freight drivers all around the country and can connect you to them no matter what you need to move and where you need it transported. Contact RPM today.
Sources: Things You Need to Know About Dry Van Trailers | LinkedIn
Supply-chain pressures—which drove inflation during the pandemic—are once again trying to tell us something | Fortune.com
Pallet 101: Types, Standard Pallet Size, and More | DIY Projects
