Live Unload vs. Drop Trailer: What Is the Difference?

What is a live unload?

The FHWA freight glossary describes a live load as one where the equipment operator "stays with the trailer or boxcar while being loaded or unloaded."^[1] For a receiver, that means labor, a door and a forklift ready when the truck arrives, because every minute the trailer is at the door the driver and tractor are waiting too.

What is a drop trailer?

A drop is a situation in which the operator "deposits a trailer or boxcar at a facility at which it is to be loaded or unloaded."^[1] The same glossary calls trailers staged at a facility for preloading pool or drop trailers.^[1]

Carrier tariffs describe the same practice. In FedEx Freight's rules tariff, when the consignee elects to unload, the carrier spots the trailer at the consignee's dock or trailer parking area; the consignee moves it as needed, unloads it and tells the carrier when it is ready for removal. A customer may move a spotted trailer with its own tractor, at its own expense and risk.^[2]

What does drop and hook mean?

Drop and hook is a drop paired with a pickup: the driver drops the loaded trailer and attaches a different one, usually an empty or a preloaded outbound. The DOT Inspector General calls it one of the fastest possible ways to unload cargo and notes that, according to industry experts, a drop-and-hook unload and load can be done safely in 15 to 20 minutes.^[3]

Live unload vs. drop trailer, side by side

Detention for a live unload

Detention is what a carrier charges when its truck is held past the agreed free time. The DOT Inspector General found most of the industry measures detention only as time beyond the limit in shipping contracts, often 2 hours, and that 11 of 12 stakeholders it interviewed saw 2 hours as a generally reasonable loading or unloading time.^[3] FMCSA notes there is no standard definition, and that dwell time over 2 hours is the usual yardstick.^[4]

LTL tariffs can be tighter. FedEx Freight's rules tariff times detention with power from the driver's arrival to departure and gives free time by weight per stop:^[2]

• Under 1,000 lb: 15 minutes
• 1,000 to 4,999 lb: 30 minutes
• 5,000 to 9,999 lb: 40 minutes
• 10,000 lb or more: 60 minutes

After that it charges $82.00 per 15 minutes, with a $97.00 minimum. A dropped trailer is detention without power instead: 24 hours free, excluding non-business days, then $273.00 per 24-hour period until the customer tells the carrier the trailer is available.^[2] Who ends up paying is covered in who pays when a truck driver waits.

Waiting is not only a cost question. The Inspector General estimated that a 15-minute increase in average dwell time raises the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent.^[3]

With ocean containers

Dropping an import container means leaving it on its chassis at the receiver. That frees the driver, but per diem, the steamship line's fee for late return of equipment,^[5] and chassis charges keep running until the box is emptied and returned, as explained in chassis split, pre-pull and street turn fees. Floor-loaded containers take the longest to unload, which is why receivers often ask for them as drops; see floor-loaded vs. palletized.

RapidShips takes both at its East Brunswick, NJ dock: live unloads and drops, across 3 doors, 24/7 by appointment. It runs no trucks, so the drayage or trucking company decides whether its equipment can be dropped and on what terms.

Example

Illustrative only: a distribution center receives palletized trailers live, because a forklift empties each one well inside the carrier's free time. It asks for floor-loaded 40-ft containers as drops, so its crew can hand-unload them over a shift without a driver waiting. It tells the drayage company as soon as each container is empty, so the empty is picked up and returned inside the line's free days.

Limitations

Whether drops are available, and what they cost, depends on the carrier's equipment and terms. The FedEx Freight free times and charges shown are one LTL carrier's published tariff, not an industry standard; truckload and drayage contracts set their own.

The Inspector General's crash and detention figures are estimates from 2013 data and limited datasets, as the report itself notes.