Dry van is the default trailer type in North American truckload freight. It protects the load from weather and theft, loads and unloads through rear doors at a standard dock, and carries most consumer goods, packaged food, paper, and general merchandise.
Usable capacity is roughly 26 standard pallets on the floor and around 42,000 to 45,000 pounds of payload, depending on the tractor, fuel, and the trailer’s own weight. Freight that “cubes out” (fills the space) before it “weighs out” (hits the weight limit) is common with light, bulky goods.
Because dry van is the largest and most fungible segment, its spot rates are the ones most often quoted as the market benchmark, and capacity moves in and out of it as rates in reefer and flatbed rise or fall.
Example
A retailer ships 24 pallets of packaged household goods from a distribution center to a store-replenishment hub. The load is about 38,000 pounds and fills most of the trailer floor — a routine dry van truckload, tendered at the lane’s going rate plus fuel.
Why it matters
Dry van capacity is the market’s shock absorber. When reefer or flatbed rates spike, trucks convert to those segments, tightening dry van; when they fall, capacity floods back. Watching that flow helps a carrier time which segment to run.