Expedited freight for shipments that cannot wait

What makes a shipment expedited

Expedited is about the clock, not the equipment. The vehicle is booked for your freight alone, it leaves once it is loaded, and it drives to the delivery without a terminal, a transfer or another shipper's stop along the way. That removes the handoffs where freight usually loses time.

Shippers call for it when a production line is down waiting on a part, when an order missed its truck, when a retail store or a construction site needs material before a fixed date, or when a shipment that went the slow way has to be recovered. If a late delivery would cost you more than the move itself, it is worth asking about.

Choosing the vehicle

We match the vehicle to the freight, because a smaller one is usually quicker to find on short notice and faster to load:

• A sprinter van for cartons or two or three pallets weighing a few thousand pounds
• A box truck for about 4 to 12 pallets, often with a lift gate
• A hot shot for a machine, a part or material that rides on an open deck
• A full 53 foot dry van or flatbed when the shipment fills a trailer

How the driving rules shape transit time

Under the federal hours of service rules, a truck driver may drive at most 11 hours, all of it inside a 14 hour duty window, and then needs ten consecutive hours off duty before driving again. That puts the reach of one driver at roughly 500 to 600 miles a day. Much of the expedited work in the West fits inside it: from the Los Angeles area, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego and the Bay Area are each within one driving day, and a load to Salt Lake City or Albuquerque arrives the day after.

Longer trips, to Seattle, Denver or the far side of Texas, take more than a day with one driver. We give you a realistic arrival before you book rather than a hopeful one, so you can plan the receiving end.

Who hauls it and how we stay on it

Expedited loads go to outside carriers under our broker authority, after we screen each one through Highway. Our own trucks pull 53 foot dry vans on full truckloads; for expedited work we book whichever vetted carrier has the right vehicle closest to your pickup. From then on one dispatcher tracks the move, calls the driver along the way for updated arrival times and tells you when anything changes.

How expedited freight is quoted

Every expedited move is quoted on its own, because the vehicle runs for you alone and often comes back empty. The price follows the miles, the vehicle, how soon it has to roll, the delivery deadline and extras such as a second stop or waiting time. For the quote, have these ready:

• Pickup address and the exact time the freight will be ready
• Delivery address and the latest time it can arrive
• Piece count, dimensions and total weight
• What the freight is and how it is loaded
• A contact at each end who will answer the phone during the move