DOT 2214087 · MC 771540 · SmartWay carrier

Freight that shows up in the hour it said it would.

140 power units and 420 trailers running the Midwest and Great Lakes. Dry van, reefer and flatbed, dispatched from four terminals, tracked to the minute.

Request capacity

Trailing twelve months

99.4%

On-time delivery, shipper-confirmed

140

Company power units

0.61

DOT recordable rate per million miles

Average driver tenure, months

      Dry van
      Refrigerated
      Flatbed & step deck
      LTL & partials
    

96 units of 53-foot dry van: air-ride, swing and roll doors, e-track throughout, load locks and 24 straps on every trailer. Drop-and-hook at the Chicago, Columbus and Milwaukee terminals with a standing trailer pool — we currently hold 140 spotted trailers for contract customers. Typical full-truckload lane cost runs $2.35 to $2.90 per mile all-in depending on lane balance, quoted firm for the length of the contract.

28 units of 53-foot multi-temp reefer on Carrier Vector units with two-way telematics. Continuous temperature logging every five minutes, downloadable as a PDF or pushed straight into your TMS over the API. Full FSMA Sanitary Transport compliance, washout records retained twelve months, and pre-cool verification photographed at every pickup. Frozen, chilled and produce protocols run separately — we do not co-load them.

16 units split between 48-foot flatbed and 53-foot step deck, all with Conestoga rolling-tarp options. Coil racks, pipe stakes, chains and twelve straps as standard. Drivers are certified on securement to FMCSA 393 subpart I, and every load is photographed after securement before the truck rolls. Oversize permitting is handled in-house for Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Consolidated partials from 6 to 24 linear feet on scheduled lanes, moving overnight between our four terminals. No hub-and-spoke re-handling beyond a single cross-dock, which is why our LTL damage rate sits at 0.08%. Pallet-level scanning at every touch, with a shipper portal showing position and ETA. Best value on Chicago–Columbus and Milwaukee–Indianapolis.

Core lanes and current transit

Chicago, IL → Columbus, OH

Next day

355 miles · solo driver

Two departures nightly, 19:00 and 23:00. Delivery windows from 06:00.

Milwaukee, WI → Indianapolis, IN

Next day

280 miles · solo driver

Nightly departure at 20:30, drop-and-hook at both ends.

Detroit, MI → St. Louis, MO

Next day

530 miles · solo driver

Departs 16:00, delivers next morning. Reefer capacity available on this lane.

Chicago, IL → Dallas, TX

2 day

925 miles · teams available

Solo runs deliver in two days; teams cover it in 22 hours for time-critical freight.

Cleveland, OH → Atlanta, GA

2 day

715 miles · solo driver

Departs 14:00 Mon, Wed and Fri, with flatbed and dry van both scheduled.

Great Lakes regional

Same day

Under 250 miles

Same-day and next-morning inside the five-state footprint, dispatched hourly.

How we got here

1998
Two trucks and a gravel yard

Started hauling steel out of Calumet with a pair of secondhand Freightliners and exactly one customer.
2006
First terminal

Bought the Chicago cross-dock on 88th Street. The fleet reached 30 power units and the first refrigerated trailers arrived.
2013
SmartWay certification

Joined the EPA SmartWay program and specced the whole fleet to 65mph with auxiliary power units, cutting fuel burn 11%.
2018
ELD and full visibility

Deployed electronic logging and two-way trailer telematics ahead of the federal mandate. Shippers got live tracking the same year.
2022
Four terminals

Opened Columbus and Milwaukee, added Detroit through acquisition, and launched scheduled LTL lanes between all four.
2026
Electric drayage pilot

Twelve battery-electric tractors running short-haul drayage out of Chicago, with the terminal on a 2MW charging yard.

Request capacity or submit an RFP

Tell us the lanes and the volume. Pricing comes back within two business days, and bid packets go to a named account team, not a portal.

Freight that shows up in the hour it said it would.

Trailing twelve months

Moving freight for

Core lanes and current transit

How we got here

Two trucks and a gravel yard

First terminal

SmartWay certification

ELD and full visibility

Four terminals

Electric drayage pilot

Request capacity or submit an RFP

Vanguard Freight Lines