Capacity you can actually count on.

Send us the pickup and delivery locations, city and state or ZIP code, the pickup date, the equipment type, the total weight, the pallet or piece count with dimensions, the commodity, and any accessorials such as liftgate or appointment delivery. You can use the quote form on this site, email operations@vervefreight.com, or call (713) 814-3977. Most quotes come back the same business day, and urgent lanes are usually quoted within the hour.

Six things set the price: origin and destination, pickup and delivery dates, equipment type, total weight, dimensions and piece or pallet count, and the commodity. Accessorials matter too, so tell us up front about liftgate, residential delivery, inside delivery, limited access locations, appointment requirements and any temperature setpoint.

Distance, equipment type, weight and dimensions, commodity, fuel prices, lane balance, seasonality, and how much notice you give. Lane balance is the one shippers underestimate. A lane running out of a market with more freight than trucks costs more than the same miles in the opposite direction, and that gap can be substantial.

Truckload pricing is a live market. Rates move with fuel, with seasonal produce and retail peaks, with weather events that strand equipment, and with how many trucks happen to be sitting near your origin that week. For shippers with steady volume we can hold contract pricing on specific lanes, which removes most of that variability.

Yes. If you ship consistent volume on repeatable lanes, we can put committed pricing in place for a defined term so you can budget. Contract pricing works best when the volume forecast is honest, because a lane that runs at half of the tendered volume does not hold its rate.

Truckload pricing is quoted per lane, not per mile off a chart. It is built from three parts: the linehaul rate, a fuel surcharge tied to the current diesel index, and any accessorials such as detention, liftgate or a second stop. The linehaul moves with distance, equipment type, weight, how balanced the lane is, the season, and how much notice you give. That is why the same 900 mile run can price differently in March and in October. Send the lane and the freight details and you get a real, lane specific number instead of a per mile chart rate.

Freight class is an NMFC code from 50 to 500 that LTL carriers use to price a shipment. It is set by four factors: density, stowability, handling and liability. Density does most of the work. Calculate it by multiplying length by width by height in inches, dividing by 1,728 to get cubic feet, then dividing the total weight in pounds by that number. Higher density means a lower class and a lower rate. If you are not sure, give us the dimensions and weight and we will confirm the class before the bill of lading goes out, which is what prevents a reclass invoice later.

A spot rate is a one time price for a single shipment, quoted against the market on the day you book. A contract rate is a price locked for a defined term on a defined lane at a defined volume. Spot pricing is flexible and can be cheaper in a soft market, but it moves with capacity. Contract pricing is predictable and protects you when the market tightens. Shippers with steady, repeatable volume usually put their core lanes on contract and run everything else on the spot market.

Count your pallets. One to six pallets is normally LTL. Seven to eighteen pallets is where volume LTL or partial truckload usually wins on both price and transit time. Above about eighteen pallets, or any time the freight is fragile, high value, or on a tight delivery window, full truckload is the right call because the trailer is never opened between your dock and the consignee. Tell us the pallet count, dimensions and weight and we will price the options side by side.

You get check calls at pickup, in transit and at delivery, plus location tracking on equipped trucks. If something changes, you get a phone call from the person handling your load. We would rather tell you about a two hour delay early than let you find out from your customer.

We call you as soon as we know, with the reason, the revised delivery time and the options. Sometimes that means rescheduling the appointment, sometimes it means recovering the freight onto a different truck. What it never means is silence until the delivery window has already passed.

Detention is the charge that begins after a driver has waited past the free time at a shipper or receiver, commonly two hours. It is billed to the party that caused the delay and it is documented by arrival and departure times. Keeping loading and unloading inside the free window is one of the most effective ways to keep your freight costs down.