Drop trailer service for dry van freight
With drop trailer service, Lifetime Logistics Services LLC leaves a 53 foot dry van at your dock so you can load or unload it on your own schedule, then a driver swaps it for the next one. We are a freight broker and trucking company in Covina, California, and we run several drop trailer loads a week, mainly into the Inland Empire from the Central Valley, Phoenix and Salinas. Ask for it on the quote form or call (562) 566-8953.
From our dispatch records, January through September 2026
- How often we run it
- Several loads a week
- Trailer types
- Dry Van, Power Only
- Who hauls it
- Mostly partner carriers, with our own trucks on some loads
What a drop trailer changes for your dock
On a normal live load, a driver arrives at an appointment time and waits while your crew loads or unloads. If the dock falls behind, the driver waits longer and detention charges can start. With a drop trailer, the trailer is already sitting at your door. Your crew works it when it suits the shift, and the driver spends a few minutes hooking and unhooking instead of hours waiting.
It helps most when you ship or receive the same lane again and again, when your dock hours do not line up well with driver hours, or when you want freight staged before a busy day.
How often we do it, and where
This is a real part of our week, not a line on a brochure. About one load in nine that we moved from January through September 2026 involved a dropped trailer at one end or the other. Nearly all of them were dry van freight delivering into the Inland Empire.
The lane where we drop trailers most is from the Central Valley into the Inland Empire, where roughly three loads in four are dropped instead of live unloaded. Drops are also common on vans coming from Phoenix and from the Salinas Valley into the same area.
Whose trailers and whose trucks
Our own 53 foot dry vans are part of this. We keep some of them at customer facilities so there is always a trailer to load. About a quarter of our drop trailer loads in 2026 were pulled by our own trucks, and the rest by partner carriers who hook to trailers already in place.
If you have your own trailers and only need them pulled, that is a different service. See power only trucking.
Is a drop trailer available for your lane?
Not always, and we would rather say so up front. A drop works when the volume on the lane is steady enough to keep trailers cycling, when your yard has room for a trailer to sit, and when the facility at the other end accepts drops. It is most realistic today for dry van freight moving within California or between Arizona and Southern California.
Tell us how many loads a week you ship on the lane, how long a trailer would sit at your dock, and whether the receiver takes dropped trailers. With that we can tell you quickly whether we can set it up.
Questions shippers ask
- What is the difference between drop trailer and drop and hook?
- They describe the same idea from different sides. A drop trailer is left at a facility to be loaded or unloaded later. Drop and hook is what the driver does: drop one trailer and hook to another that is ready to go.
- Do you leave trailers at customer sites?
- Yes, where the lane volume supports it. We keep some of our own 53 foot dry vans at customer facilities, mostly on lanes that deliver into the Inland Empire in Southern California.
- Is there a charge for how long the trailer sits?
- That depends on the arrangement for your lane, so we do not publish a figure here. Tell us how long you expect a trailer to sit when you request the quote.
- Can I get drop trailers for flatbed freight?
- Not from us today. Our drop trailer work is dry van. Flatbed loads are covered by partner carriers and are live loaded.
Ready to price a load?
Send the quote form or call us. A person on our team replies with a price.