Dry van trucking on 53 foot trailers
Dry van trucking is the core of Lifetime Logistics Services LLC, a freight broker and trucking company in Covina, California. We haul palletized and boxed freight in 53 foot dry vans across California, Arizona, Nevada and the rest of the western United States, on our own trucks and with vetted partner carriers. For a price, send the quote form with your pickup, delivery, date and weight, or call (562) 566-8953.
From our dispatch records, January through September 2026
- How often we run it
- Twenty or more loads a week
- Who hauls it
- Mostly partner carriers, with our own trucks on some loads
- Drop trailers
- On some loads
Most of what we haul goes in a dry van
About three out of every four loads we moved from January through September 2026 were dry van loads. That works out to more than twenty dry van loads in a normal week. It is also the only kind of trailer our own fleet owns, so this is the freight we know best.
A dry van is an enclosed trailer with no temperature control. It suits freight that needs to stay clean, dry and out of sight but does not need to be kept cold: packaged goods, paper and packaging, consumer products, building products that load from a dock, and general palletized freight.
What fits in a 53 foot dry van
A 53 foot van holds 26 standard pallets loaded straight in, two across, or more if the pallets can be turned or stacked. Legal gross weight for the truck, trailer and cargo together is 80,000 pounds on interstate highways, which usually leaves room for roughly 42,000 to 45,000 pounds of freight depending on the tractor and trailer.
If your load is close to those limits, tell us the pallet count, pallet size and total weight when you ask for a quote. Our pallet calculator gives you a quick check on how many pallets will fit on the floor.
Where our dry vans run
The busiest dry van lanes in our records are inside California. We move several loads a week from the Central Valley into Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, and several more from the Salinas Valley down to Southern California. Arizona is next, with steady vans from Phoenix into California and Las Vegas.
Longer dry van trips usually start in Southern California and are often on our own trucks. Those include weekly runs to St. George in southern Utah and to northern Arizona, regular loads to Boise and El Paso, and return loads from southern Idaho into Los Angeles.
Live load or drop trailer
Most dry van loads are live loaded and live unloaded, meaning the driver waits while your dock works the trailer. On some lanes we leave a trailer instead. In 2026 that was common on vans delivering into the Inland Empire, where we drop the loaded trailer at the receiver and hook an empty one. If a dropped trailer would help your dock, see drop trailer service.
When a dry van is not the right trailer
If the freight must be loaded by crane or from the side, or it is too tall or wide to go through trailer doors, it belongs on a flatbed. We cover that through partner carriers, as described on the flatbed trucking page. We do not currently list refrigerated service, so freight that needs a set temperature is not something we quote from this site.
Questions shippers ask
- How many pallets fit in a 53 foot dry van?
- Twenty six standard 48 by 40 inch pallets fit on the floor when loaded straight in. Turning some pallets sideways can raise that to 28 or 30, and stackable freight can double it if the weight allows.
- What is the most weight a dry van can carry?
- Plan on about 42,000 to 45,000 pounds of cargo. The legal limit is 80,000 pounds for the truck, trailer and freight together on interstate highways, and the exact cargo figure depends on how heavy the tractor and trailer are.
- Do you run dry vans on your own trucks?
- Yes. Our own fleet pulls 53 foot dry vans, and roughly three dry van loads in ten moved on our own trucks in 2026. The rest went to partner carriers that we vet through Highway before each load.
- How do I get a dry van rate?
- Rates depend on the lane, the date, the weight and how tight capacity is that week, so we quote each load. Fill in the quote form on this page or call (562) 566-8953.
Ready to price a load?
Send the quote form or call us. A person on our team replies with a price.