There is a point where paying per shipment stops making sense. Most Georgia shippers cross it without noticing, and keep booking LTL for another year or two because the invoices arrive one at a time and never look alarming on their own.
This guide is about recognizing that point. What a dedicated contract carrier actually provides, the signals that you have outgrown LTL, how dedicated pricing works, and the questions worth asking before you sign anything.
What “dedicated” actually means
A dedicated arrangement means a carrier assigns specific equipment and specific drivers to your freight on an agreed schedule. The truck runs your routes whether it is full or not. You are buying capacity and consistency rather than individual movements.
The part shippers underestimate is the driver. On a dedicated route the same person handles your freight every week. They learn which of your customers has the tight driveway, which receiving dock closes at two, and which store manager wants a call rather than a text. That accumulated knowledge is most of the value, and it is precisely what a shared LTL network cannot give you.
Five signals you have outgrown LTL
- You are shipping to the same corridor several times a week. Three or more weekly runs down the same lane is usually the tipping point.
- Your accessorial charges rival your linehaul. Liftgate, residential, appointment and limited-access fees on every shipment are a sign your freight profile does not fit shared-trailer economics.
- Damage claims have become routine. Terminal handling causes most LTL damage. A dedicated truck loaded once and unloaded at the customer removes the handoffs entirely.
- You are managing delivery windows manually. If someone on your team spends part of every day chasing carriers for ETAs, you are already paying for dedicated service — in labor rather than freight spend.
- Your customers have started mentioning it. Complaints about inconsistent delivery times or unfamiliar drivers are the clearest signal of all.
How dedicated pricing works
Dedicated is normally priced as a fixed weekly or monthly rate covering the truck, the driver, insurance and a defined route pattern, with fuel handled separately and a mileage or stop allowance built in. Overages beyond the agreed pattern are billed at a pre-set rate.
That structure is the actual advantage, and it has nothing to do with the headline number. A fixed cost you can forecast is worth more to most operations than a variable cost that is occasionally lower. You can quote your own customers with confidence, because your delivery cost stops moving.
The comparison to run is not “dedicated rate versus LTL base rate.” It is dedicated rate versus your fully loaded LTL cost — base rate plus every accessorial, plus damage claims, plus redelivery fees, plus the hours your team spends coordinating. Shippers who do that arithmetic honestly are usually surprised by how close the two numbers already are.
One concrete example of the gap: a liftgate delivery costs $100 to $200 with most national carriers. Ours is a flat $50. If you are running twenty liftgate deliveries a week, that single line item is the difference between two very different annual freight budgets — before you count anything else.
Dedicated versus buying your own truck
The obvious alternative is to run it yourself. Sometimes that is right. Usually the comparison is less favorable than it looks on a spreadsheet, because the spreadsheet tends to include the truck payment and the driver’s wage and stop there.
The things that get left out: commercial auto and cargo insurance, DOT compliance and drug testing programs, maintenance and tires, IFTA filings, hours-of-service tracking, and a plan for the week your driver is ill. Also the harder one — what happens to that asset when volume drops for a quarter. A dedicated contract moves all of it to the carrier and stays adjustable.
Running your own fleet makes sense when your volume is large, stable, and genuinely year-round, and when logistics is close enough to your core business that you want to own the capability. Otherwise dedicated gives you most of the control without the fixed asset.
What to ask before you sign
- Is the equipment truly assigned, or shared when convenient? Some carriers sell “dedicated” and then pull the truck onto other work in busy weeks. Get it in writing.
- Which driver, and what happens when they are off? Ask specifically about the backup driver and whether they run the route often enough to know it.
- What equipment will actually show up? Straight truck or 53-foot trailer changes what you can deliver and where. Ask about liftgate specifically — it is not universal on trailers at any carrier, ours included.
- How is the route adjusted? Volume changes. Find out how much notice you need to give to add or drop stops, and what it costs.
- What visibility do I get? Real-time tracking and electronic proof of delivery should be standard. If you are being offered a phone number and a promise, keep looking.
- What is the term and the exit? A carrier confident in the service will not need to lock you in for three years.
Where dedicated fits alongside your other freight
It is rarely all or nothing. The common pattern is a dedicated truck covering the predictable core — the weekly replenishment run, the metro Atlanta route, the standing customer deliveries — with LTL still handling the one-off and long-distance shipments.
That split usually beats either extreme. You get consistency where consistency matters and you keep flexibility where it does not.
How Davis Delivery runs dedicated
We have been operating in Georgia since 1985 as a family-owned carrier, working out of a dock-high facility in Buford at I-85 Exit 115. We own our trucks and employ our drivers directly, which is what makes assigning the same person to your route week after week possible in the first place.
Every box truck we run is liftgate-equipped, along with some of our 53-foot trailers, and liftgate service stays at a flat $50 on dedicated work just as it does on LTL. Deliveries come with electronic proof of delivery and real-time tracking, and dispatch is available Monday through Friday, 6am to 6pm. Uline has named us their National Carrier of the Year twice, in 2017 and 2024, and their Georgia Carrier of the Year for ten consecutive years.
If you want to know whether dedicated makes sense for your volume, the useful first step is showing us three months of shipping history. We will tell you honestly if you are better off staying with LTL — that answer is common enough that we would rather give it early than lose the relationship later.
Call (678) 926-3939 or request a quote.
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