This is what I actually run. Not a marketing map with the whole country shaded in. These are the lanes where I know the receivers, the scale-house quirks, the reload markets, and roughly what a fair rate looks like by month.
Rough map. Lanes aren't bus routes — these are the corridors where I've got enough broker contacts and reload options that I can usually keep a truck moving without a long sit.
Paper out of Longview, apples and pears down from Wenatchee in the fall, ice cream and frozen potatoes southbound year-round. Northbound reloads off the Central Valley in produce season (May to October) are usually the better half of the round trip. Watch Siskiyou in winter — chain law closes the pass more than the forecasts suggest.
Strong southbound most of the year out of the Wasatch warehouses. Northbound has a soft spot mid-week — I'd rather deadhead 90 miles to Barstow and catch a Vegas backhaul than sit on a cheap reload out of Mira Loma for a day and a half.
Long, empty, and honest. Good fuel stops, predictable pay lanes, and Denver reloads almost always exist if you're willing to drop down to Commerce City. December through February, Donner and the I-80 pass into Wyoming can both eat a day — I build that into the ETA, I don't promise around it.
Beef out of Greeley, beer westbound, building materials either way in construction season. Eisenhower and Vail are what they are. I try to stage loads that get a driver over the passes before noon.
Ag equipment, building products, onions in late summer. A lane most dispatchers won't chase because the reload options are thin. I have three brokers I trust on it, and a standing reload pattern through Winnemucca that beats the alternative.
The Texas triangle pays if you're already in it. I'll book into DFW or Laredo for a reefer with a factor that can handle TX brokers, then work the lane back to Phoenix or out to Albuquerque. Not a default, but it's on the table when a truck needs miles.
You're not paying for a load; you're paying for the right to sit at a receiver in Maspeth. Not my kind of fight.
Gets in easy, struggles to get out. Unless you've got a factor that likes Florida produce brokers.
I don't set up cross-border. Find a dispatcher who specializes.
Same. Respect the people who know that paperwork cold. I don't.
Jan–Feb. Soft everywhere except grocery reefer. I tell carriers to plan for a slower four weeks after New Year's and not to panic-book cheap freight to fill it. Use the time for maintenance and annual inspections.
Mar–May. Produce starts off the desert, then moves up through the Central Valley. Reefer rates climb. Flatbed picks up with construction season in the Rockies once the passes clear.
Jun–Aug. Peak for most things. Also peak for heat — reefers burn more fuel, watch reefer breakdowns, and plan ice cream loads with a buffer.
Sep–Oct. Apples and pears south, hay east, onions out of Idaho. The last strong window before the holidays.
Nov–Dec. Retail peak front-loads early, then flattens hard after Thanksgiving. December gets weird. Plan home-time now.