2025 Peak Season Freight: Everything Carriers Need to Know

As the holidays draws closer, retailers build up their inventories across the country, preparing for their busiest freight shipping season.

UPS moves a large portion of that peak season freight; beginning in early November, the UPS network experiences a huge uptick in load volume from holiday shippers.

RXO works directly with UPS (and other large shippers) and we are uniquely positioned to offer you exclusive access to dedicated loads from UPS during retail’s busiest season.

Ready to bid on peak season freight now?

Already feel well informed about peak season? You can fill out the registration form now.

Otherwise, keep reading to find everything you need to know about bidding on, winning and hauling peak season freight with RXO in 2025.

Carrier’s Guide to 2025 Peak Season with RXO

What is Peak Season?
Who can participate?
When is it? (Important dates)
Where are there Peak opportunities?
What types of freight can I access?
Why should I do it? What are the benefits?
How can I access Peak Season freight?
How do I prepare for Peak Season?
Where do I go if I have questions?

What Is Peak Season?

Every November, retailers gear up for the holiday shopping season and bring in more imports, primarily into the West Coast ports — this is when peak season begins.

Due to the surge in order volume, shippers get a surge of freight during this time, making it their busiest shipping season of the year, a.k.a. “peak season.”

While many different modes and carriers move this freight, one of the most impacted carriers is UPS.

For most of the year, UPS relies on its own network of trucks and drivers to handle their freight, but during peak season, they supplement their network with third-party carrier capacity to help move all those time-sensitive shipments.

And RXO helps them to find that carrier capacity — which means exclusive opportunities for trucking companies like yours.

Who Can Participate in Peak Season?

Peak season opportunities are open to all carriers in RXO’s network.

To access peak season freight, you first have to join RXO’s carrier network.

Then you will need to register to participate in a peak season bid.

When Is Peak Season? Important Dates for 2025

Peak season freight genernally starts shipping in September and runs through early January — exact dates will depend on the type of peak season freight (you can learn more about each type of freight below).

But before the freight starts moving, you first have to participate in a bid.

Here are the key dates to remember:

July 30, 2025: Registration opens for Peak Bids (Local, Expedited, and Pre-Peak Trailer Repositioning)
August 6 – 22, 2025: Pre-Peak Trailer Repositioning bid (2 rounds)
September 3 – September 23, 2025: Local & Expedited bids (2 rounds each)

Need help using the bid platform? Learn more about using Coupa in this guide.

Where Are Peak Season Opportunities? What Regions Are Available?

You can access peak season freight with RXO in a wide variety of regions.

No matter where you are, or where you want to haul, there is a good chance you can find something that fits your network.

There will be Local, Expedited, and Trailer Repo opportunities available in the 48 contiguous states.

What Kind of Freight Is Available? 4 Types of Peak Season Opportunities

There are four different ways carriers can participate in peak season: pre-peak trailer positioning, local, expedited and post-peak trailer repositioning.

Review the details of each type below so you can decide what’s right for your business.

1. Pre-Peak Trailer Repositioning

In preparation for the upcoming peak season, we help position over 40,000 leased trailers across the country, getting them where shippers need them to be.

Drivers will move these empty trailers to designated locations, beginning in September and finishing the week before Thanksgiving.

Pre-Peak Trailer Repositioning snapshot:

Timing: September – November (week before Thanksgiving)

Schedule: flexible

Work type: mostly local hauls, shuttling empty trailers

Requirements: for most repo shipments, you will need a pintle hook on your tractor

2. Local Peak Season Freight

There are two types of “Local” peak season freight — Local and Local-Regional — but all Local drivers need to be prepared to run both.

These schedules are set daily and vary between the two based on real-time needs.

Details for all local opportunities:

Timing: November – December
All opportunities require solo, power only drivers.
Drivers must arrive with fresh Hours of Service (HOS) and be prepared to run straight through.
Drivers must be enabled for real-time digital shipment tracking.
Drivers will end their HOS back at their origin point, regardless of work type.
Though not required for all loads, T Endorsements, HUT Stickers (NY state only) & UIIA Certifications are all beneficial.
75% of this work is in the late afternoon or evening.
RXO reimburses all tolls after carrier invoices receipt.

Local-specific (LCD) details:

Schedule: Daily, 10-hour shift
Pay Type: Flat rate per day (per driver)
Work Type: Multiple local shuttle runs between shipping hubs, customer facilities and railroad ramps

Local-Regional-specific (LCL) details:

Schedule: Daily, typically 400+ miles (all drivers will return to origin within HOS)
Pay Type: Daily flat rate or per mile — whichever is greater per shift
Work Type: Multi-stop, regional runs between shipping hubs, customer facilities and railroad ramps

3. Expedited Peak Season Freight

Expedited peak season freight involves longer-haul transfers and has slightly different requirements than Local freight.

Due to carefully planned shipping schedules, there is very little flexibility in transit.

There are expedited opportunities for both single drivers and driver teams, with driver teams typically running ~5,000 miles a week, and single drivers running ~2,500.

Drivers must be enabled for real-time digital shipment tracking.

Expedited Details:

Timing: November – December
Schedule: Carriers must have 24/7 dispatch
Pay Type: Per mile rate, based on total miles moved per route
Work Type: Drop-and-hook, multi-leg runs between shipping hubs and customer facilities

4. Post-Peak Trailer Repositioning

After peak season winds down, shippers needs to return the over 40,000 trailers they leased to support their surge in freight.

Drivers will move these empty trailers from shipping locations back to trailer leasing vendors, beginning in January and finishing in March.

Details for Post-Peak Trailer Repositioning:

Timing: January – March
Schedule: flexible
Work type: mostly local hauls, shuttling empty trailers
Requirements: for most repo shipments, you will need a pintle hook on your tractor

Why Carriers Love Participating in Peak Season

RXO helps large parcel carriers and shippers source carrier capacity throughout their peak season.

This gives carriers in the RXO network unique access to dedicated daily loads.

Carriers love participating in peak season — here are a few reasons why:

More available freight
Consistent revenue
Virtually no wait times at facilities
24/7 specialized RXO support
Digital load management
Single and team driver opportunities

How Can I Participate in Peak?

The best way to access Peak freight is to participate in a Peak bid.

To register for the bid, fill out the peak season bid registration form.

You will need the following information:

Name
Email address
Phone number
Company name
DOT number
Which bid(s) you want to participate in (Local, Expedited or Post-Peak Trailer Repositioning)

Note that to participate in a peak season bid, you will need to:

Be a registered transportation provider in the RXO network
Be registered to do business in one of 50 U.S. states (or D.C)
Authorized to price/rate freight on behalf of the carrier you work for

Once you have registered for the bid, you’ll receive an email with further instructions.

Need help submitting a bid? See our step-by-step tutorial for how to use the Coupa bid platform.

How Can I Prepare for 2025 Peak Season? 7 Steps

The hectic holidays mean there are some specific requirements for carriers and drivers who want to participate in peak season with RXO.

Before you or your driver teams begin hauling for peak season 2025, here are some guidelines to follow that will make booking smoother, payment quick and simple, and the freight coming your way.

1. Join the RXO network

Carriers who want to haul Peak freight will need to join RXO’s carrier network in order to be assigned freight.

Not in our network yet? Join here.

2. Set Up Automated Shipment Tracking

Shippers during peak season are more attentive than ever to transit times and on-time deliveries. To improve visibility for everyone during this complex time, we require all carriers participating in Peak shipping to utilize an approved, real-time digital tracking method.

One of the best ways carriers can provide automated tracking updates is by downloading the RXO Drive app or using the RXO Connect platform on desktop. In addition, you can also use RXO Connect to browse and book freight on our digital load board any time of day.

3. Set Up Automated Payments

We use TriumphPay to pay carriers. We highly recommended that you get set up with TriumphPay and connect to RXO as a broker so you can manage your payment method, remit information, quick pay options, ACH information, etc.

4. Provide Excellent Service

Participating carriers are expected to maintain a 99.5% on-time pickup performance throughout the duration of the season and to meet expected transit times consistently.

Participating drivers are evaluated on a weekly basis for their performance on these service metrics.

Please drive safely. All carriers who haul in the RXO network must comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including, without limitation, hours of service laws and regulations.

5. Make Sure Your Drivers Are Ready

Your drivers must be fueled up and fresh on hours of service at the start of each day. RXO also needs to have your team driver information for each load at the time of sale.

Make sure all load information is correct before your drivers start hauling. You can confirm and update truck numbers assigned to a load by logging into RXO Connect.

6. Get Certified

Must-haves:

Participating drivers must be licensed to transport freight in all 48 contiguous states in the United States.
All participating carriers must also have at least $25,000 in trailer or non-owned interchange insurance and a validly executed Non-Owned Equipment Services Amendment with RXO.

Nice-to-haves:

There are two common certifications that are necessary to haul many peak season loads: UIIA Participation and T Endorsements.

While neither are required to participate in Peak, having one or both will give you access to more opportunities.

UIIA Participation
Many peak season loads go in and out of intermodal rail facilities. To be eligible for these opportunities, carriers will need to have Uniform Intermodal Interchange and Facilities Access Agreement (UIIA) participation, which allows drivers to access rail facilities. For more information about UIIA participation, access the UIIA reference guide.
T Endorsement
Many peak season loads also consist of multiple smaller trailers (pup trailers). To be eligible for these opportunities, drivers will need to have a T Endorsement on their commercial driver’s license (CDL), which allows them to haul multiple trailers simultaneously. For more information about T Endorsements, visit the CDL issuing state’s DMV website.

7. Be Aware That Routes May Change

Given the dynamic nature of the holiday shipping season, please understand that planned routes are subject to change and per mile rates may be adjusted.

Any changes will be communicated in the load notes, which you will need to accept as part of hauling that load. Detention and layovers are also not granted for Peak freight.

8. Communicate

We know unexpected circumstances may come up, and we rely on you to keep an open line of communication with RXO.

If your drivers do run into any issues in transit, please report those immediately (we’ll tell you the appropriate communication channels if you are awarded freight).