Freight transportation in the United States doesn’t run at the same pace all year round. It goes through ups and downs depending on the season, which directly affects how trucking companies operate. These fluctuations create both challenges and opportunities for everyone involved—especially for dispatchers who need to keep things running smoothly and profitably.
Why Seasonality Matters in Trucking
Throughout the year, shipping volumes rise and fall. Some months are quiet with little cargo to move, while others are packed with high demand. For trucking companies and independent drivers, adapting to these changes is essential. Dispatchers play a key role here—planning routes, managing loads, and helping drivers stay productive and profitable, even when the demand shifts.
Let’s break down what each season typically looks like for the American trucking industry.
Winter: The Quiet Season (January – March)
Winter is usually the slowest time for freight. After the holiday rush, consumer demand drops, and so does the number of shipments. Freight rates are generally lower, and many trucks sit idle waiting for loads.
But this slow season has its advantages. Carriers can use this downtime to maintain their trucks and gear up for busier months. For example, winter is the best time for novice dispatchers to gain new knowledge and skills. Many choose training programs (including online courses, like at Trucking42 school) to improve their skills, because in the middle of the season there will be no time for studying.
Spring to Summer: The Produce Season (April – July)
Things pick up quickly starting in April. This is the beginning of the produce season, when fruits and vegetables are harvested and shipped from farms—first in the South, then across the country. Refrigerated trucks become especially important as they transport perishable goods to distribution centers and grocery stores.
There’s also a boost in other industries. Restaurants and retailers start preparing for summer, stocking up for the holiday season, outdoor activities, and tourism. This surge means more loads and higher demand for drivers, creating busy months for dispatchers to coordinate shipments and keep trucks moving efficiently.
Fall Peak: Back-to-School and Holiday Prep (August – October)
The next wave of activity hits in late summer. From mid-August through October, freight demand spikes again. This is driven by back-to-school shopping and the early stages of holiday preparation. Stores stock up on school supplies, clothes, electronics, and even the first round of holiday goods.
Dispatchers and drivers are extremely busy during this time. There’s often a shortage of available trucks and drivers, and everyone works long hours to meet demand. Since freight rates are high, drivers try to make as many trips as possible. In fact, a driver’s annual income in the USA can vary a lot depending on how active they are during these peak months.
Pre-holiday (holiday) Season
The last major peak of the year is the holiday season in late November and December. In the US, this period covers the period from Thanksgiving (the last Thursday in November) to New Year. During these weeks, Americans buy gifts en masse, and retail experiences a peak in online and offline sales (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas sales). For logisticians, this means an emergency: e-commerce warehouses and retail chains ship colossal volumes of parcels and goods every day. Freight traffic increases not only within the country, but also for import/export – many cargoes are trying to arrive by the holidays. There are the maximum number of trucks on the roads, and trucking company after trucking company mobilizes all resources to deliver goods on time.
The December peak is comparable in intensity to the autumn peak, and in some segments even exceeds it. The peculiarity of the pre-holiday period is extremely tight deadlines and intolerance to disruptions: if the cargo is late for Christmas, it may lose its value altogether. Therefore, dispatchers work practically 24/7 in December. Additional shifts, night shifts and weekend shifts are often introduced. Large trucking companies in the US hire temporary employees or involve contractor dispatchers to cope with volumes. Now it is not uncommon for a remote truck dispatcher in the US without experience, connected for the season to help monitor cargo and maintain documentation, while experienced colleagues are engaged in complex negotiations. Of course, a newbie without training will not be assigned to the most important tasks, so a truck dispatcher in the US must undergo training in advance – many dispatcher schools graduate students just in time for the start of high seasons so that they can do an internship when there is work.
Main Challenges for a Dispatcher During Peak Times
Seasonal peaks are a good time to earn money, but also a serious test of strength for logisticians. A truck dispatcher faces many challenges during periods of high demand:
- Transport shortages: When freight traffic increases sharply, every available truck counts. If a company has a limited fleet, the dispatcher is forced to maneuver between clients, trying to distribute vehicles to the most priority and profitable requests. Sometimes they have to refuse regular customers due to the lack of available trucks – such a choice is not easy, because it is important not to spoil relations with clients.
- Strict deadlines and fines: During peak season, loading/unloading windows are tightly scheduled, delays are unacceptable. One failure in the chain – and the schedule is broken: for example, a delay in the warehouse can disrupt the next load. The dispatcher must control the timing under great pressure: constantly in touch with the driver, ETA specifies, reassigning slots if necessary. The fear of getting a (fine) for downtime or late arrival forces many dispatchers to literally live on the phone.
- High competition for cargo: Loadboards are actively updated during peak seasons – the best cargo is snapped up instantly. The dispatcher has to compete with hundreds of the same agents for each profitable application. This is a race of speed and negotiation skills: whoever gets through to the broker first and offers a car gets the deal. Sometimes every second counts, so professionals use multiple monitors, instant notifications, automatic filtering scripts – everything to see the cargo first.
How Dispatchers Adapt to Peaks: Strategies and Tips
Despite the listed difficulties, experienced dispatchers successfully overcome peak seasons, and sometimes even use them to their advantage. Here are 5 key strategies that help adapt to peak loads:
1. Work with trusted partners:
The key to successful activity during peak times is a reliable team around you. We are talking about professional drivers, brokers and other participants. If a company has a pool of proven truck drivers who are disciplined in keeping to the schedule, this is already half the success. The dispatcher, for his part, builds long-term relationships with brokers and cargo owners. During rush periods, such relationships allow you to receive cargo directly from reliable brokers and quickly negotiate without lengthy negotiations. Large trucking companies in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and other hubs form a network of partners in advance so that they can be contacted first during peak times. The motto is simple: work only with those you trust. This reduces the risk of disruption to transportation, increases transparency and speed of work. A good dispatcher always knows which broker can be called directly to quickly find cargo, and which driver can be woken up at night for an urgent trip.
2. Anticipating customer needs:
An excellent specialist thinks not only about current requests, but also ahead. Even before the season, the dispatcher analyzes what cargo and when key customers will need. For example, knowing that a large customer will be sending larger batches of goods in the fall, you can reserve vehicles for them in advance. Understanding the specifics of your customers’ business (what exactly they are transporting, what deadlines are critical) allows you to plan the load and build a transportation schedule, minimizing costs. This proactive position is beneficial to everyone: the customer gets confidence that their needs are known in advance, the carrier gets a uniform load, and the dispatcher gets fewer rush jobs and force majeures. In the US, this practice is the norm among leading 3PL operators and dispatch firms: they actively communicate with customers before the peaks, convincing them to place orders earlier, deliver goods in advance, and not at the last minute. If it is possible to shift part of the cargo flow from a peak month to a slightly earlier one, everyone wins.
The Impact of Seasons on Drivers and Trucking Companies
It is worth mentioning that seasonality affects not only dispatchers, but also other industry participants – primarily truck drivers and owners of transport companies.
For drivers (truck drivers), peak periods are an opportunity to earn good money, but also a physically more difficult time. Many truckers agree to go on trips more often, spending weeks on the road without days off, in order to take advantage of high pay. How much a truck driver earns in the US is largely determined by how actively the driver works during times of high per-mile rates. For example, in the mid-2020s, the average rate for a long-haul truck could be $2 per mile in the summer and $3+ per mile in December; the difference is direct – having driven 2,500 miles per week, a driver earns either $5,000 or $7,500 gross, respectively. It is therefore not surprising that many truck driver jobs in the US are structured with an emphasis on the seasonal cycle: some work intensively from spring to autumn, and take a long vacation in the winter. However, transportation to wear and tear is fraught with fatigue and safety risks. When planning schedules, the dispatcher must ensure compliance with the rules of work and rest (HOS – Hours of Service). In the US, strict standards limit daily and weekly travel time, and although in the hot season the temptation to exceed these standards is great, professionals do not allow this. A truck driver is also a person, and if he is overtired, no load is worth an accident. Therefore, a competent dispatcher will sometimes even refuse an extra trip to give his trucker a break, preserving his health and trust.
For trucking companies (carriers), seasonality is also a challenge of a strategic level. Management has to decide what capacity to maintain a fleet. Having a lot of trucks is profitable during peak periods – you can transport the maximum amount of cargo – but these trucks need to be loaded with something during idle months. Standing idle for several months means incurring losses (leasing payments, insurance, taxes will not go away). Therefore, every trucking company in the USA strives to balance: optimize the fleet size and the number of employees for the average annual demand, plus have the ability to expand or contract if necessary. Many small companies follow the path of cooperation: during peak periods, not having sufficient resources of their own, they attract independent drivers – owners of one truck (owner-operators), concluding temporary contracts with them. For the truck owner, this is a chance to join a larger flow of orders and earn money, and for the company, it is a way to increase capacity without long-term commitments. By the way, Russian trucking companies in the USA (founded by immigrants from the CIS countries, of whom there are especially many in Chicago and other large transport hubs) often use exactly this model of partnership with owner-operators from their diaspora. This is beneficial for both parties: there is no language barrier, and there is more trust when fellow countrymen work. It is no coincidence that statistics show that out of ~3.5 million American truck drivers, about 700 thousand are Russian-speaking. A huge diaspora in this area allows companies from the post-Soviet space to effectively interact and support each other in seasonal fluctuations.
Conclusion
The seasonality of freight transportation in the US is an objective and inevitable phenomenon. Freight flow peaks test the strength of all industry participants. For a truck dispatcher, the ability to adapt to seasonal demand surges is not just a useful skill, but a necessary condition for professional competence. A competent dispatcher prepares for the influx of work in advance: studies the market, builds connections, plans resources. In the midst of peaks, he acts clearly and calmly, relying on experience and team support. And then, in a quiet period, he does not relax, but analyzes mistakes and improves processes.
The American freight market is dynamic: English for a truck driver and dispatcher (the ability to communicate with partners), technical literacy, and strategic thinking are all important here. But even a newbie without much experience has a chance – provided that he is ready to learn and work. Today, many resources (for example, dispatch42 school- an educational platform for logisticians) allow you to get the necessary knowledge in Russian, practice your skills and enter the profession. The work of a dispatcher is attractive because, despite all the difficulties, it is open to goal-oriented people from different countries: you can work as a truck dispatcher in the USA remotely without past experience, if you undergo good training and have the courage. Yes, the first peaks will be stressful, yes, not everything will work out perfectly – but confidence will come with time.
Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.