Dry Van

A dry van is the standard enclosed box trailer you see on every highway – 53 feet long in the U.S., fully enclosed with a rear swing door or roll-up door, and no climate control system. It's the default equipment type for general freight: packaged goods, consumer products, non-perishable food, paper products, building materials, electronics – essentially anything that doesn't require temperature control, oversized dimensions, or top/side loading access.

Dry van is the most liquid equipment type in trucking. Because it's the most common, capacity is generally the most available and rates are the most competitive compared to refrigerated, flatbed, or specialized trailers. Shippers benefit from a massive carrier pool, extensive spot market coverage, and well-established lane pricing. That said, dry van rates still fluctuate significantly with seasonal demand (produce season tightens capacity as reefer carriers command premium rates), fuel prices, and macroeconomic freight cycles.

From a load planning perspective, dry van trailers have a standard internal dimension of roughly 630 cubic feet of usable space and a legal weight limit of approximately 45,000 lbs. Maximizing trailer utilization – getting as close to full cube or full weight as possible – is one of the most impactful cost-reduction levers in FTL shipping. This requires accurate product dimensions, weight, and stackability data at the SKU or pallet level to build optimal loads consistently.

For shippers managing both dry and temperature-controlled freight – common in food and CPG – having dry van and reefer options visible in the same quoting and load-building workflow prevents the common mistake of over-specifying equipment. Shipping dry-eligible freight on reefer trailers because the quoting process was siloed wastes money on every load.