Step-deck (or "drop-deck") pays a premium over dry flatbed because it handles the freight that's too tall to legally tarp on a standard flat. We dispatch step-deck for tall machinery, light over-dimensional, drive-on construction equipment, and tall stacked freight. Our dispatchers know the difference between a flat-rate step load and one where height pays — and we make sure you're paid for the latter.
Concrete numbers from our active step-deck dispatch desk.
The step-deck premium isn't automatic. The freight has to actually need step. Tall freight (over 8'6" deck height) forces step. Drive-on equipment chooses step for the ramp angles. Tall stacked palletized freight chooses step for clearance. Those are the loads that pay step rates.
Where it gets interesting: freight under 96" wide and 8'6" tall can ride either deck — and on those loads, step often pays $0.10–$0.25 per mile premium because shippers prefer the lower deck height for forklift loading. We hunt those exact loads. They're step revenue without step difficulty.
Permit-light step (legal-load freight that just happens to be tall) is the biggest opportunity in step-deck dispatch. No permit paperwork, no escort coordination, no superload survey — just regular dispatch with step rates. About 60% of our step-deck book is permit-light freight. The other 40% is over-dimensional, where our heavy-haul desk handles permits.
"I switched to TruckersTool Dispatch last spring. Same lanes, my weekly gross went from $7,400 to $9,100. The difference paid my truck note in two months — even after the higher dispatch cut, the rate-after-cut math wasn't close."
"Dispatcher answers in 3 minutes any time of day. They've never put me on a broker that didn't pay. That alone is worth the percentage."
If we missed yours, call dispatch — we'll talk straight.
Apply now and a US-based dispatcher will call you within the hour to walk through onboarding. No contract. No setup fee. Just better loads.