Deck freight is won with straps; van freight is won with the clock. Nothing about a dry van load is physically hard — the money is decided by how much of your day the dock keeps, and by what you check before you ever back in.
Live load versus drop-and-hook
A live load means you sit while they work: back in, wait, get loaded or unloaded, get your paperwork, leave. Drop-and-hook means you drop the trailer you brought, hook a preloaded one, and go — often in under thirty minutes. Same lane, same rate, wildly different days.
That difference is worth pricing. A live load at a slow receiver can eat four hours of a 14-hour window; two drop-and-hooks can fill the same day with revenue. When you're comparing loads, 'what's the rate?' and 'is it drop or live?' are the same question wearing two hats.
Inspect the trailer before you own the problem
The trailer might not be yours, but the load inside it becomes your responsibility the moment you sign. Before you take a preloaded box or back under an empty: look inside. Holes in the roof, a wet floor, a smell that will transfer to food-grade freight, protruding nails, a floor that won't take a pallet jack — these are the shipper's problem right up until you accept them, and then they're a claim with your name on it.
Outside, pre-trip it like you own it: tires, lights, brakes, landing gear, mud flaps. An inspector doesn't care whose name is on the trailer. The violation goes on your record.
Seals, appointments, and the paperwork that pays you
Write the seal number on the bill of lading and confirm it matches at delivery. An intact, documented seal is what turns 'the count was short' from your problem into a question for the shipper. Never break a seal because a receiver asked you to over the phone — get it in writing, from whoever's paying the freight.
Appointments are contracts with a clock. Some receivers run first-come-first-served regardless of what your rate confirmation says; some will refuse you five minutes late and reschedule for tomorrow. Know which one you're driving to, and start your detention documentation on arrival — the timestamps you take at the gate are the whole case later. The Academy has a full lesson on detention, lumpers, and getting paid what you're owed.
Grocery and retail distribution centers frequently charge a lumper fee to unload. Confirm who's covering it before you pay anything out of pocket, and photograph the receipt the same hour.
The rhythm is the skill
Van freight rewards a different craft than open deck. Nobody's grading your tarp job; they're grading whether you're where you said you'd be, whether your paperwork is clean, and whether you handled a bad dock without making it a story. That reputation is what gets you the drop-and-hook lanes instead of the four-hour ones.
Track your dock time the way you track your fuel. Two or three weeks of honest numbers will name the receivers that quietly cost you a day a month — and once you can name them, you can price them, avoid them, or plan around them. Your clock, your numbers, your call.