Sprinter van services for small, urgent shipments

What fits in a sprinter van

A sprinter is a large cargo van with a tall roof, tall enough for the driver to stand up inside. The high roof vans carriers use for freight usually have a cargo floor about 10 to 16 feet long, depending on the wheelbase, close to six and a half feet of height inside, and a little over four feet of width between the wheel wells. Most are rated to carry somewhere around 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, with the exact payload set by the model.

In practice that means two or three standard pallets on the floor, or a load of cartons and loose pieces. It is the right size for replacement parts, lab and medical supplies, electronics, samples, trade show material or a short order a customer is waiting on. When the shipment is heavier or bulkier than that, a box truck is the next size up.

Why a van instead of a parcel or LTL network

A van carries one shipper's freight. It is loaded once and unloaded once, with nothing in between: no sorting hub, no terminal dock, no other boxes stacked on yours. For fragile, valuable or late freight, that direct path is usually worth more than the savings of a shared network, because the handoffs are where shipments get lost, damaged or delayed.

Vans also reach doors a tractor trailer cannot. They fit a city loading zone, a hospital or lab service entrance, an office building with no dock or a residential street, and the driver can often roll cartons in on a hand truck. Mention any tight access in your request, so the carrier sends a van that suits it.

How we cover a sprinter van move

We do not own vans. The trucks we own pull 53 foot dry vans, which means each sprinter move is booked with an independent carrier that hauls under our broker authority, USDOT 3711199 and MC 1302550. Each carrier is screened through Highway for its authority, its insurance and who is really behind it before it gets your freight.

A single dispatcher in Covina owns the move from the booking to the signed delivery. While the van is rolling, that dispatcher calls the driver for arrival updates, a status is one phone call away, and if the van is running late, we tell you.

Lanes that suit a van

Sprinter vans are at their best on trips a driver can finish the same day or overnight: anywhere in the Los Angeles basin, into the Inland Empire, down to San Diego, out to Las Vegas or Phoenix, or up the Central Valley to the Bay Area. Longer runs into the Northwest, Utah or Texas work as well. The van still carries only your freight the whole way, but one driver still has to stop and sleep, so ask us for the transit time before you commit to a delivery date.

How a sprinter van move is quoted

Each van move is priced on its own, for the whole vehicle rather than by the pound. The quote reflects the distance, how soon the van has to be at your door, how quickly the freight has to arrive, and any extra work such as an inside delivery, a second stop or time spent waiting at either end. To price it we need:

• Pickup and delivery addresses, with the hours someone is there to load and receive
• When the freight can be picked up, and the deadline at the other end
• Number of cartons or pallets, their size and the total weight
• What the freight is, and whether it is fragile or high value
• Anything about access: stairs, an elevator, a security desk or a narrow street