Sprinter Van and Cargo Van Load Boards: Compared for 2026

The right load board for a Sprinter van or cargo van depends less on the brand than on one question: do you have your own operating authority? Boards such as DAT, Truckstop and 123Loadboard assume you do, and they are built mostly around full-size truckload freight. A few boards focus on expedited freight for cargo vans, Sprinters and box trucks. Closed expedite networks such as Sylectus are usually reached by leasing on to a carrier. And Amazon Relay, which turns up in many lists, does not accept cargo vans.

This guide compares ten load boards for cargo vans and Sprinters, and the networks around them, on price, van fit and what you need to join, using each company’s own pages where we could read them and named third-party sources where we could not. It also covers the brokers and carriers that hire van drivers, what you need before you can book freight, how to vet a broker, and a calculator that shows whether a load is worth taking. Prices were checked in October 2026 and change often, so confirm them before you pay.

Quick answer: which load board fits your situation?

Load boards and networks compared

Prices are published list prices in October 2026, per user per month unless noted. “Reported” means we could not read the company’s own page and the figure comes from a named third party.

One more name you will see is Boxaloo, which describes itself as a board for box truck, Sprinter and cargo van carriers. We found no pricing and no independent reviews, so it is not in the table.

Sources for the table are listed at the end of this page: DAT, Truckstop, Sylectus, Expedite Load Board and Amazon Relay on the companies’ own sites, plus FreightWaves’ cargo van load board roundup (August 2026) for the boards whose pages we could not read.

How expedite van loads and load boards work

Expedite freight is time-critical: replacement parts, medical supplies and other cargo that has to arrive by a deadline, usually moved direct from pickup to delivery. A Sprinter van carries about one to four standard pallets, and DAT describes expedited Sprinter trips as typically 850 to 1,200 miles or fewer. Cargo vans take smaller loads. Our Sprinter van delivery and cargo van delivery pages show what shippers ask for.

A load board is a searchable database. A broker or shipper posts a load, you search by pickup, destination and vehicle, and you either send an offer or, on some boards, book it instantly. The board does not pay you. The broker pays on its own terms after delivery, and the rate confirmation you sign is the contract. There are three different ways to find expedite work, and they are easy to mix up:

1. Your own authority and a public board. You are the motor carrier. You pay a subscription, search boards such as DAT, Truckstop or a van specialist, and book from brokers.
2. Leasing on. You run under another carrier’s authority. It supplies insurance, dispatch and often invoicing, and keeps a share of each load. This is the usual way a single van reaches closed networks such as Sylectus.
3. One shipper’s marketplace. Amazon Relay is free and books only Amazon’s own freight, and it excludes cargo vans.

What a van load listing tells you, and what to check before you bid

Listings differ by board, but a good one gives you enough to decide in a minute. Here is what a typical expedite posting contains and what to check in each field:

On the specialist board we looked at in October 2026, load pages showed “Best Price” rather than a dollar amount, so the price was something to negotiate by sending an offer. Some listings appeared more than once, and at least one long-haul posting had pickup and delivery windows only two hours apart, which no van could meet. None of that is unusual on open boards, but it means a listing is a starting point and not a quote.

Board by board

DAT One

DAT is the largest open load board and the usual benchmark. Its plans run from Standard at $59 a month, which includes up to 500 load searches and truck posts a month, to Office at $339. DAT labels Standard as for owner-operators hauling partial loads in box trucks and Sprinter vans. The lane rate averages most people mean when they say “DAT rates” start at Enhanced ($149, 15-day averages) and Pro ($169, 7-day averages, preferred and blocked companies and payment support). DAT also publishes dedicated pages for Sprinter van expediting and cargo van expediting.

Watch out: the index is mostly 53-foot truckload, so van freight is a slice you have to filter for. In its August 2026 roundup FreightWaves named DAT the best cargo van board overall, citing volume, rate data and broker credit tools. Best for: operators with their own authority who will actually use the rate and credit data.

Truckstop

Truckstop’s carrier plans are Basic at $42, Advanced at $135 and Pro at $159 per user, with up to three users, plus a $42 non-refundable application fee that is credited to the first month if you are approved. Its Expedited Load Board lists cargo vans, hot shot, Sprinter vans and straight trucks and says Truckstop verifies the brokers who post there. Book It Now, which shows the rate and lets you book in seconds, is included from Advanced. Pro adds rate insights, load comparison and a rate-per-mile heat map. Loads shown match your operating authority.

Watch out: as with DAT, “van” on the main board usually means a dry-van trailer. Best for: carriers who want strong broker ratings and instant booking and can use a national board.

123Loadboard and Direct Freight

These are the budget general boards. 123Loadboard is reported at $39, $59 and $79 a month, billed monthly without contracts, with credit scores and days to pay on paid plans. Direct Freight is reported from about $35 to $39 a month with a limited free tier and a cargo-van search type. Both index general freight rather than expedite work. Independent reviews of Direct Freight are thin, and a dated interface and billing complaints are reported. Best for: a first paid board or a third window beside a national board.

Expedite Load Board

Expedite Load Board is a membership board for cargo vans, Sprinter vans and box trucks in the US and Canada. Basic is $50 a month or $300 a year and covers cargo van and Sprinter loads, email bidding and Book It Now loads. Pro is $100 a month or $600 a year and adds box truck, straight truck and semi loads. The site publishes a 30-day heat map of pickup activity by state (summarized below) and a free cost calculator, and says it received about 56,000 loads in the last 30 days as of late August 2026.

Load Work Hub and Boxaloo

Load Work Hub is a van and box truck board that bundles financing, insurance and fuel programs with the search. Its advertised sale prices in August 2026 were $65, $109 and $249 a month against list prices of $99, $149 and $349. Its press release ranking itself first among cargo van boards is the company’s own marketing, so we did not rely on it. Boxaloo has a one-line description of itself and no independent reviews that we could find.

Sylectus

Sylectus is an expedite network and transportation management system owned by Solera, not a public board you subscribe to with a card. Its page says it averages about 13,000 loads a day and shares credit, payment-terms and safety scores for partner companies. It publishes no prices, and signup is by demo request or contact form. Industry guides say a single van usually gets onto Sylectus freight by leasing on to an expedite carrier already on the network. Sylectus’s own pages give different network sizes in different places, so we do not quote one.

uShip and Uber Freight

Both skip the subscription. uShip lets you name your price on shipments and may charge fees on booked loads, and FreightWaves lists cargo vans and Sprinters among its vehicle types. Uber Freight shows an upfront price per load for instant booking and is aimed at small carriers, but we could not confirm it carries van freight. Competitive bidding can push uShip rates down, and instant-book prices can be lower than a negotiated broker rate, so compare them with your break-even price.

Amazon Relay

Amazon Relay is free and books Amazon’s own freight. Amazon’s equipment page lists tractors, 16 and 26-foot dock-height box trucks with a functional tuck-under liftgate, 48 and 53-foot trailers and certain containers, and says plainly: “Cargo vans cannot be used for loads on Amazon Relay.” It does not mention Sprinters by name. Some third-party guides list Sprinters as eligible, which conflicts with Amazon’s own page, so ask Relay support before buying a van for it. It also requires your own authority, so it is not a way around that requirement.

Brokers, carriers and networks that hire van drivers

No major broker or 3PL we found publishes an open Sprinter van load board. Freight reaches vans through carrier networks and portals instead. These are the ones with public information:

• Landstar runs expedited and emergency freight with dedicated cargo or Sprinter vans, straight trucks and tractor-trailers. Capacity owners join through a Landstar agent; its page lists 877-696-4507 for expedite questions.
• Panther (ArcBest) lists cargo vans, Sprinter vans, straight trucks and tractor-trailers, and owner-operators run under Panther’s authority. A third-party job listing mentions a CDL-A and six months of experience, which we could not confirm; call 800-685-0657 before assuming either way.
• Expedite All is a marketplace for Sprinter vans, cargo vans and straight box trucks. Carriers apply and are vetted manually on safety scores, insurance and business viability. FreightWaves reported its launch in August 2022 with about 1,000 carriers.
• C.H. Robinson (Navisphere Carrier) says it has no minimum fleet size and that onboarding usually takes one to two business days once documents are verified. We found no mention of vans, so ask.
• RXO moved Coyote’s loads onto RXO Connect and the RXO Drive app from May 2025, according to an RXO guide. We found no cargo van category.
• BlueGrace and Priority1 sell Sprinter van and straight truck service to shippers. We found no public carrier signup information for either.

Leasing on is the other common route. Leasing on means operating under someone else’s authority, and FreightWaves has reported the carrier’s share at roughly 15 to 30 percent of the load rate. Run the numbers: a 30 percent share can cost more than insurance plus a board subscription, and it also buys you a dispatcher and freight you might not find alone.

What you need before you can book loads

Brokers and boards ask for much the same things before they tender freight. Get these in order before you pay for any board:

1. Authority. Most boards and brokers ask for an MC or USDOT number. A USDOT number is required for for-hire and private carriers once a vehicle or combination is rated 10,001 lb GVWR or more; many Sprinter 2500s are rated about 9,050 lb, while the 3500XD (11,030 lb) and 4500 (12,125 lb) are above the line. Whether a van under that weight needs MC operating authority is a point where sources disagree, so confirm it with FMCSA (1-800-832-5660) or a compliance specialist before you buy. Check the rating on your own door-jamb sticker.
2. Insurance. Brokers usually ask for more than the federal minimum. Amazon Relay’s published figures, and Coyote’s carrier FAQ from 2019, are typical of the market: $1,000,000 auto liability and $100,000 cargo, with additional-insured wording on the certificate. Expedited loads can ask for more. Get a real quote before you budget.
3. A carrier packet. A W-9, a certificate of insurance, your authority details, and a profile with your van’s cargo size, payload, liftgate (yes or no) and whether you can team. Brokers on every public board will ask for this each time you meet a new one.
4. Authority age. Nothing in federal rules stops a new carrier from hauling, but many brokers want a few months of history. Expedite Load Board suggests three months; Amazon Relay’s onboarding has its own longer clock and does not list cargo vans anyway.
5. A way to get paid. Decide whether you will wait for broker terms or use quick pay or factoring (see below).

Our Sprinter van dimensions guide has payload and weight ratings by model, and a buyer’s tool for checking which van fits your typical load.

Pick a path: your own authority, leasing on or Transportli Drivers

Where expedite freight is right now

Expedite Load Board publishes a public 30-day heat map of pickups by state, counting every load it received in that window, including loads no longer published. As of October 14, 2026 it ranked states in four tiers:

Over the same period the board’s most-needed vehicles were box trucks, Sprinter vans, flatbeds, cargo vans and step decks.

That is one board’s data, not the whole market, and the board itself calls it a planning signal and not a guarantee. A strong pickup state does not guarantee a load back out, so look at both directions before you reposition. Use it as a starting point for where to search, then check the live board for your own lanes.

Load profit calculator: is this load worth taking?

Enter the price a broker offers and your own costs. The calculator shows your rate per loaded mile and per total mile, what is left for you, the lowest price worth accepting and whether the load is within your payload.

Is this load worth taking?

Enter the price a broker offers and your own costs. The calculator shows your rate per mile, what is left for you and the lowest price worth accepting. The starting numbers are examples, not predictions.

Judge every load on total miles, loaded plus empty. A 520-mile load that pays $650 is $1.25 per loaded mile, but with 80 empty miles it is $1.08 per total mile, and that second number is the one to compare with your costs. The same logic is why a short load into a dead-end area can pay less than it looks.

How to judge a load before you accept it

1. Price it per total mile. Include the empty miles to the pickup and out of the delivery area.
2. Check the way back. Expedite freight is lumpy and often one-directional. A great rate into a quiet area can leave you waiting. The state heat map above is one clue; the live board is another.
3. Count the clock. Waiting at the dock, sleeping and slow loading are unpaid days that carry fixed costs. Put the real number of days in the calculator.
4. Check the weight and size. Compare total weight with your payload, and piece size with your floor. Over-payload is a hard no.
5. Read the windows. If you cannot make a timed window with a margin, say so before you accept.
6. Check the broker. Verify authority and bond, and ask for payment terms in writing on the rate confirmation.
7. Know your floor. Work out your break-even price once, and counter any offer below it instead of arguing about the rate per mile.

How to vet a broker and avoid load scams

Fake loads and impersonated brokers are a standing problem on every open board, and a board’s fraud team is a process, not a guarantee. These steps, drawn from dispatch and trucking guides, take a few minutes per new broker:

1. Look up the broker’s MC number on the FMCSA company snapshot and the FMCSA licensing and insurance search. You want active broker authority.
2. Check the bond. Brokers must carry a $75,000 surety bond (BMC-84 or BMC-85). If it is cancelled or missing, do not haul. A bond is your backstop if a broker does not pay.
3. Call the number on the FMCSA record, not the one in the posting or email, to catch impersonators who use a real broker’s MC number.
4. Match the paperwork. The name, MC number, address and phone on the rate confirmation should match the FMCSA record. Never pick up without a signed rate confirmation that states the rate, the pickup and delivery details and the payment terms.
5. Check payment history. Search the broker on carrier-reported credit tools and trucking forums. Be wary of brand-new authority, no office phone, a rate far above market and pressure to book before paperwork.
6. Watch for double brokering, where a load is re-brokered at a lower rate and you only learn it when payment fails.

Getting paid: broker terms, quick pay and factoring

The board does not pay you; the broker does, on its own schedule. Broker payment terms commonly range from about two weeks to two months, and factoring is widely used to smooth cash flow. A factoring company buys your invoice and advances most of it, commonly reported as 90 to 97 percent, for a fee, and with non-recourse factoring it carries the loss if the broker never pays. Some boards sell payment protection: DAT’s Pro plan, for example, includes DAT Assurance payment support. Amazon Relay pays weekly, on the Friday after the week a load is completed. Whatever you choose, put the fee in the calculator’s fee field, because a 3 percent fee on a $650 load is about $20.

Free Sprinter van load boards vs. paid, and how to test one in 30 days

No board is both free and complete. Amazon Relay and Uber Freight have no subscription but do not suit most van owners, Direct Freight is reported to have a limited free tier, and trials are reported at 10 days for 123Loadboard and 15 days for Direct Freight. A paid plan at $39 to $59 a month is covered by one or two ordinary loads, so the cost of a board is rarely the problem. The cost of a board that shows you nothing you can carry is.

1. Pick one national board and one specialist to test, not five.
2. Search your real lanes on a weekday. Count postings you could actually take: right size, right weight, windows you can make.
3. Track what happens: how many loads you offered on, how many brokers answered, what they paid and how long they took to pay.
4. Cancel the one that did not earn its fee before the second month. Monthly plans without contracts make this easy.

What do van loads pay? Third-party benchmarks

There is no published public benchmark for Sprinter or cargo van expedite rates that is comparable to the dry-van reports DAT publishes, and we are not publishing our own earnings figures. These are the named figures we found, with their limits:

• Truxx.AI Freight Intelligence index, Q2 2026: in its own network’s delivered, booked loads, Sprinter vans averaged about $1.20 per loaded mile (1,753 loads, average length 749 miles, about $895 per load) and cargo vans about $1.31 per loaded mile (771 loads). Truxx is itself a dispatch network, its data skews short-haul and expedite, and it says not to compare its figures with DAT’s. Source: Truxx freight market report.
• Load Work (a load board vendor): says a typical expedited cargo van load averages $1.50 to $3.00 per mile, depending on lane, urgency and equipment. That is a marketing range, not a measured average.
• Dry van benchmarks from DAT and others describe 53-foot trailers and do not transfer to vans.

Gross rate per mile is not what you keep. Fuel, maintenance, insurance, fees, empty miles and waiting time come out first, which is why the calculator above works from your own costs.

Sprinter and cargo van load boards: frequently asked questions

Sources and how we researched this

We read each company’s own pages in October 2026 where they were reachable, and used named third-party sources where they were not. Prices and features change; check the vendor before you pay.

• DAT: DAT One plans, expedited load board, Sprinter van expediting.
• Truckstop: Expedited Load Board and plans.
• Sylectus: Sylectus Load Board (Solera).
• Expedite Load Board: carrier plans and public heat map (October 14, 2026).
• Amazon Relay: truck requirements.
• Landstar: expedited and emergency; BlueGrace: expedited.
• FreightWaves Checkpoint: cargo van load boards (August 19, 2026) and its coverage of Expedite All (2022).
• Truxx.AI: Q2 2026 freight market report.
• FMCSA: company snapshot and licensing and insurance search. Some FMCSA pages block automated readers, so the authority points above come from FMCSA excerpts and guides; confirm them with FMCSA.

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