d unit box verse a c unit box ? which is better? i think comfort in a bigger sleeper area is key, but do you lose frieght with smaller box? can anyone help me with this? thanks much, dennis
Diane and I drove D and DR-units for three years before buying a CR-unit of our own. The D and DR-units had 72" sleepers and boxes that were 22' or 24' long. The CR-unit has a 132" sleeper and a 16' box (
truck specs here).
We cannot say about recession years because we only drove the CR-unit during the Great Recession. But comparing normal years, the CR-unit has outperformed the D and DR-units in terms of gross revenue.
Even then it is hard to say for sure. The D and DR-units belonged to fleet owners. Some of the decisions they made were not decisions that we would have made and our D and DR-unit revenue was lower as a result.
There are many variables but in general I feel it is safe to say that we suffered no gross-revenue harm by opting for a big sleeper and C-size box. Indeed, if you rule out the recession years, we have grossed more money per year in the CR-unit than we did in any year in a D or DR truck.
Notice that lucrative TVAL loads were just beginning to exist when we made the change. Our CR-unit has been a TVAL truck from the day it went on the road. None of the DR-units we drove were TVAL qualified.
Even so, if there are any TVAL DR-units out there that can consistently outperform a well managed CR-unit over a meaningful period of time, I have yet to learn of them. TVAL freight being what it is, the boxes are seldom filled.
Also notice that Diane and I are qualified to haul nearly every kind of freight that our carrier can book. In many cases, it is not the size of the box that gets you a good load but driver qualifications.