Truck Dispatch Service FAQ

Ours is 6% of the gross revenue of each load we book for semi truck equipment — dry van, reefer, flatbed, step deck, power only and heavy haul — or $250 per week flat for unlimited loads. Box truck, sprinter van and hotshot are 8% per load or $350 per week flat. There is no setup fee, no monthly platform fee and no cancellation fee. Fleets of three or more trucks get custom volume pricing.

Full pricing breakdown →

Ours is calculated on the gross revenue of each load we book — the total the broker pays, fuel surcharge included — not on linehaul alone. The difference is real money. On a load paying $6,800 linehaul plus a $1,200 fuel surcharge, 6% of the linehaul alone is $408 while 6% of the $8,000 gross is $480. This is the single most consequential question in dispatch pricing and a lot of providers leave it vague. Get the basis in writing before you send anyone your first load.

How dispatch rates are structured →

If the fee is charged on gross revenue then yes, by definition — the fuel surcharge is part of the gross the percentage is applied to. Ours is. That is not a hidden charge, it is what a percentage of gross means. It is also exactly why comparing headline percentages between providers is useless until you know what each one applies its percentage to.

Divide the flat rate by the percentage and you get the weekly gross where the two cost the same. $250 divided by 6% is $4,166.67, so a semi grossing more than about $4,167 a week pays less on the flat plan. $350 divided by 8% is $4,375 for box truck, sprinter van and hotshot. Below that line the percentage is cheaper; above it the flat rate is cheaper and the gap widens every week you run harder. A semi grossing $12,000 a week pays $720 at 6% but still only $250 flat, an effective 2.1%.

Work out your weekly gross →

Not here. No setup or onboarding fee, no carrier packet fee, no per-invoice charge, no monthly technology or platform fee, no load board access fee, no after-hours surcharge, no monthly minimum and no cancellation fee. Elsewhere, ask specifically about invoicing — some dispatch services bill it separately, either per invoice or as its own percentage, and it does not show up in the number they advertise.

Ask, and get the answer in writing. Providers genuinely differ here: some apply the percentage to everything the broker pays, some exclude reimbursements like lumper fees on the grounds that the money is only paying you back what you already fronted. It is a small number on one load and a real number across a year. Ask us for our answer in writing before your first load rather than assuming it.

How lumper fees work →

You never pay before anything has been booked. On the percentage plan the fee is charged per load on loads we book, collected after the load delivers and you have been paid, or bundled into a weekly billing cycle — a week we book nothing costs you nothing. The flat plan is billed weekly. And no, you should never pay a dispatch service upfront: activation fees, deposits and setup fees collected before any dispatch work has been performed are the most common way carriers lose money in this industry.

Yes. We coordinate directly with your factoring company at no extra charge, we do not take a cut of your factoring proceeds, and we do not require you to use a particular factor. We prepare factoring-ready paperwork so an invoice does not sit unpaid over a missing proof of delivery. If you are still choosing a factor, compare the discount rate and the recourse terms, not just the advance percentage.

Freight factoring guide →

Not a term contract with us — there is no lock-in, no minimum load count and no cancellation fee. But separate two different documents in your head. A term contract locks you in for a period. A dispatch agreement sets out the terms of the relationship: what the fee is, what it is charged on, who does what. You want the second one even where there is no lock-in, and not only for your own protection: a written agreement appointing the dispatch service as the carrier's agent is the first factor FMCSA lists when deciding whether a dispatch service needed broker authority.

Pricing, billing and cancellation terms →

With us, tell your dispatcher to stop booking. There is no contract to terminate, no notice period and no cancellation fee. You can also move between the percentage and flat plans instead of leaving — a fair number of carriers who think they want to cancel actually want the other plan.

Ask this of any dispatch service in writing before you start, because it is where the disputes happen. Two things need answering: does the fee still apply to loads booked before you cancelled that deliver afterwards, and who follows those loads through delivery, paperwork and payment. The normal arrangement is that a load booked under the agreement stays under it through delivery and billing, so that somebody is still chasing the paperwork. Confirm it rather than assume it.

Yes, and this is not really the dispatch service's to give. Broker carrier packets are set up in your motor carrier's name, against your MC number, your operating authority, your insurance and your W-9. They belong to your company. A dispatch service can build them for you but it cannot take them with it when you part ways.

Yes, at any time, with no penalty. Most carriers start on the percentage because it costs nothing in a week they do not run, then move to the flat plan once their weekly gross settles above the break-even.

It depends entirely on what the dispatch service actually does. FMCSA's final guidance states that dispatch services may be classified as either brokers or bona fide agents, depending on the nature and scope of their activities. A dispatch service working under a written agreement as the appointed agent of a specific motor carrier, compensated by that carrier, is generally a bona fide agent and does not need broker authority. One that arranges transportation for multiple carriers and allocates traffic among them does.

Operating as the bona fide agent of a motor carrier is legal and is expressly contemplated in FMCSA guidance. What is not legal is performing brokerage without registration. Under 49 U.S.C. 14916, a person may provide interstate brokerage services only if they are registered under section 13904 and have satisfied the financial security requirements of section 13906. Doing it without that exposes them to a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation, plus liability to the injured party for all valid claims without regard to amount — and the statute reaches officers, directors and principals who knowingly permit it, jointly and severally.

It is the line FMCSA draws. The guidance says that if a dispatch service arranges transportation on behalf of multiple motor carriers and engages in the allocation of traffic, pursuant to 49 CFR 371.2, it is not a bona fide agent and must obtain broker operating authority registration. In plain terms: representing one carrier as its appointed agent is agency. Taking a load that more than one of your carriers could haul and deciding which of them gets it is brokerage, and it needs a licence.

Yes. A dispatch service acting as your bona fide agent works under your operating authority, not its own — that is the entire basis of the arrangement. You need active motor carrier operating authority, a USDOT number, and insurance meeting the federal minimums before loads can be booked in your name. If someone offers to run you under their authority instead, that is a different arrangement entirely and you should understand exactly what it is before agreeing to it.

Read the agreement and apply FMCSA's own factors, listed in full above. The short version: is there a written contract appointing them as your agent; are they paid by you rather than by a broker or your factoring company; do they represent your carrier specifically rather than allocating loads across a stable of carriers; are they a 1099 recipient from your company. Ask to see the agreement before you sign anything. A service that will not show it to you has already answered the question.

How to choose a dispatch company →

A freight broker is a licensed intermediary that arranges transportation between shippers and carriers on its own authority. It must register with FMCSA and, under 49 U.S.C. 13906(b)(3), provide financial security of $75,000 regardless of the number of branch offices or sales agents of the broker. A dispatcher acting as a bona fide agent has no authority of its own and posts no bond; it represents your motor carrier and works under your authority. The cleanest way to keep them straight is to ask whose customer is whose: the broker's customer is the shipper, the dispatcher's customer is you.

Load boards vs dispatchers vs brokers →

You, if the arrangement is set up correctly. Being compensated by the motor carrier rather than by the broker is one of FMCSA's listed factors indicating broker authority is not required. Taking compensation from a broker or a factoring company is one of the factors indicating it is. It is also plain common sense: whoever pays the dispatcher is who the dispatcher is negotiating for, so find out before you hand over your MC number.

A load board is a listing venue, not a representative. It shows you what has been posted and leaves the calling, negotiating, credit-checking and paperwork to you. Self-dispatching costs a subscription plus your hours; a dispatch service costs a percentage or a weekly fee and gives those hours back. The honest test is arithmetic rather than argument: at 6%, a $4,200 load costs $252 in fee, so the dispatcher has to add at least $252 of negotiated rate, avoided deadhead or recovered detention to that load before you are ahead.

Dispatch service vs self-dispatching →

It depends on the gap between what you book on your own and what someone working the phones full time would book, and on what your own hours behind the wheel are worth. Run your own numbers rather than trusting anyone's marketing. We have deliberately not published an average revenue uplift figure, because we cannot substantiate one — and you should be sceptical of any dispatch service that publishes a headline percentage gain without showing you the data behind it.

Dispatch ROI calculator →

Only if you have given them written authority to do it, which normally takes the form of a limited power of attorney clause inside the dispatch agreement. Whoever physically signs, the party bound by that rate confirmation is your motor carrier — it is your authority, your insurance and your MC number on the load. Before you let anyone sign for you, read the clause that says they can, and understand that you carry the liability for what they agree to. Ask us to show you ours.

How to read a rate confirmation →

Yes. Building carrier packets with brokers is part of onboarding and part of the ongoing service — it is one of the reasons most carriers are running loads within 24 hours of their documents landing. Each packet goes out under your motor carrier's name with your authority, insurance and W-9 attached.

Your certificate of insurance goes out with each broker setup packet we complete for you, so you are not emailing your agent every time a new broker asks. Keep a current copy yourself, and check the certificate holder details before it goes out — an incorrect certificate holder is one of the most common reasons a broker setup stalls for days.

We handle rate confirmations, broker setup packets, load detail verification and delivery coordination, and we can assist with invoicing. What stays with you: your operating authority and its renewals, your insurance policy and premiums, your IFTA and fuel tax filings, your ELD and hours of service compliance, your maintenance records and your driver qualification files. A dispatch service is not a compliance service, and any provider blurring that line is worth a second look.

Regulations and compliance guides →

Under a bona fide agent arrangement, yours. The load moves under your authority, so the invoice goes from your motor carrier to the broker — or to your factoring company under a Notice of Assignment if you factor. The dispatch fee is a separate transaction between you and the dispatch service. If a dispatch service is invoicing the broker itself and paying you the remainder, that is one of the FMCSA factors pointing at brokerage, not agency.

Fuel advances come from the broker or from your factoring company, not from the dispatch service, and whether a given dispatch service will chase one on your behalf varies. If you are running thin on cash between settlements, settle that question before you start rather than on the morning you need it.

Active MC operating authority and a USDOT number, a certificate of insurance that meets your brokers' requirements, a signed W-9, a signed dispatch agreement, your factoring company's Notice of Assignment or a voided check if you do not factor, and a clear statement of your equipment and lane preferences. The full checklist is above. Everything on it is a document you already have or can get in a day.

Start onboarding →

Once your documents are in, most carriers are set up and receiving load offers within 24 hours. The hold-up is almost never dispatch — it is waiting on a certificate of insurance from an agent who has not replied, or an authority that has not gone active yet. Send the documents in one batch and the 24 hours is realistic.

We will. Be clear-eyed about what you are up against, though: many brokers will not set up a carrier whose authority is only a few months old, and some set a threshold at six months or a year. That means a new authority has a smaller pool of brokers available and usually sees weaker rates until the clock runs out. Any dispatch service promising a new authority the same rates as an established one is not being straight with you.

New authority dispatch guide →

No. We work with authorities that went active last month and with operators who have been running twenty years. Newer carriers get more of their dispatcher's time on lane selection and rate expectations, because misjudging those two things is what sinks new authorities fastest — not a shortage of loads.

Owner-operator dispatch guide →

We can walk you through what the process involves, but getting authority is FMCSA registration, a designated process agent, insurance filings and the New Entrant safety assurance programme — it is regulatory work, not dispatch work. Come to us with authority in hand or in progress and we will have the broker packets ready for the day it goes active.

We verify the broker's MC number and authority status against FMCSA records, check payment history and Carrier411 reports, and cross-reference the load details before booking. A rate well above market from a broker nobody has worked with is the classic double-brokering setup, and it gets checked before your wheels roll rather than after your invoice goes unpaid.

Double brokering protection guide →

Apply the warning signs listed above. The single most reliable filter is money: a legitimate dispatch service does not ask you to pay before it has performed any dispatch work. After that it is documentation — a written agreement you are allowed to read before signing, a straight answer on what the percentage is charged on, an email trail rather than a messaging app only, and no objection whatsoever to you verifying a booked load directly with the broker.

Dispatch scams and red flags →

Always, and a dispatch service that discourages it is telling you something important. Call the broker on a number you looked up yourself rather than one you were handed, and confirm the load, the rate and that they have your carrier set up under your MC number. This takes four minutes and is the cheapest fraud insurance in trucking.

Broker vetting checklist →

Six of them. What exactly is the percentage charged on. Are detention, lumper reimbursement and TONU inside or outside the fee. Is there any charge before you book my first load. Will you send me the dispatch agreement to read before I sign. Are you paid by me, or do you take anything from brokers or my factoring company. Who signs my rate confirmations, and under what written authority. A provider that answers all six in writing has told you more than any review page will.

Dry van, reefer, flatbed, step deck, power only, hotshot, box truck and heavy haul including RGN. Each equipment type has dispatchers who work that freight specifically, because the brokers, the lanes and the rate conversations are genuinely different between a reefer and a step deck.

All dispatch services by equipment →

All 48 contiguous states, whether you run OTR, regional or dedicated lanes. Tell your dispatcher the region you want to live in and the loads get planned around it rather than around whatever pays best that hour.

Service areas →

A combination of the major load boards, DAT and Truckstop.com, plus direct broker relationships built over years and shipper contacts. Load boards are one input, not the whole method — the loads worth having often move on a phone call before they are ever posted.

There is nothing to turn down after the fact, because you approve every load before it is booked. Rate, lane, pickup window, commodity: you see it and you say yes or no. No forced dispatch, ever.

Yes. Every carrier is assigned a dedicated dispatcher who works their equipment type and learns their preferences, lanes and home-time pattern. You are not calling a rotating queue and re-explaining your operation every week.

Yes. If you are held at a shipper or receiver beyond the free time on the rate confirmation, your dispatcher documents the delay and files for detention pay. We also bill for lumper fees, TONU and layover where they apply. This is money a lot of owner-operators simply never claim, and over a year it is not a small number.

When detention is not paid →

By planning the next load before the current one delivers, rather than after. Your dispatcher works backhauls, avoids repositioning you into markets with thin outbound freight, and treats empty miles as a cost against the load rather than as somebody else's problem.

Deadhead cost calculator →

Yes, and you should. If you have brokers who pay on time and shippers who call you directly, your dispatcher coordinates with them alongside our own network. More sources of freight is the point; nobody benefits from you dropping a good broker because a dispatch service preferred its own list.

Yes. Active carriers have dispatch support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and holidays. A detention clock at 11pm on a Saturday is exactly when you need someone answering.

Yes. Tell your dispatcher when you need to be home and where, and the load plan is built toward that rather than requiring a deadhead run at the end of the week to get there.

Nobody can answer that honestly as a single figure — rate per mile moves weekly by equipment, lane, season and how tight capacity is. For a dated reference point rather than a promise: DAT's national dry van spot average was around $3.00 per mile as of July 2026. Treat that as a market observation with an expiry date on it. What actually determines whether a load is worth taking is the gap between the rate offered and your own cost per mile.

Rate per mile calculator →

Because a rate per mile means nothing until you know what a mile costs you, and fuel is the input that moves most. EIA's weekly U.S. on-highway diesel average was $5.257 a gallon for the week ending August 10, 2026. At an assumed 6.5 miles per gallon that is roughly 81 cents per mile in fuel alone, before tyres, maintenance, insurance, the truck payment, tolls or your own pay. Work out your real number once and you can tell a good load from a busy one in about five seconds.

Cost per mile calculator →

Arithmetic, not faith. At 6%, a $4,200 load costs $252 in fee — so the dispatcher has to add at least $252 to that load in negotiated rate, avoided deadhead or recovered detention before you are ahead. Across a week grossing $6,000 the fee is $360 on the percentage plan or $250 on the flat plan. Judge any dispatch service against those figures rather than against a promised percentage uplift.

Profit per load calculator →

Freight is cyclical and January into early February is reliably soft. In a weak market your dispatcher shifts toward contract and dedicated freight, repositions you into stronger lanes rather than chasing whatever is posted where you sit, and negotiates harder on fewer loads. Planning around produce season and the autumn holiday build is part of the same job.

Seasonal freight calendar →

Say so, early and specifically — the vague version of this complaint cannot be acted on. Tell your dispatcher which loads were wrong and why: rate, lane, commodity, appointment times. They adjust the search criteria, target different lanes or work different brokers. Because there is no contract, you always have the option of leaving, but most of the time this is a briefing problem rather than a dispatch problem.

When dispatch is not working →

Yes. Three or more trucks get custom volume pricing below the standard rates, because consistent multi-truck volume lets a dispatcher work more efficiently. Fleet dispatchers also coordinate your trucks as a unit rather than as separate accounts, which is where the deadhead savings actually come from.

Fleet pricing →

We cap every dispatcher at five active trucks. Past that a dispatcher stops negotiating and starts processing — taking the first acceptable rate because there are four other trucks waiting. If a dispatch service will not tell you its ratio, that is worth asking twice.

At one truck dispatch is load-finding. At three it becomes scheduling: keeping trucks from bunching into the same market and planning the next load before the current one delivers. At five you are running a business with payroll, driver turnover and maintenance windows, and the dispatch question shifts from individual load rates to fleet utilisation. Past that, most carriers need someone in-house on operations regardless of who books the freight.

Small fleet dispatch guide →

Yes. Send the unit details and the updated insurance and we assign dispatch capacity for it. A lot of our carriers started with one truck and added from there, and adding a truck mid-week does not require re-onboarding the company.

Yes. Fleet dispatchers plan holistically — if one truck drops in Dallas and another needs a pickup near Houston, the plan looks for the relay or the redistribution that keeps both loaded instead of solving each truck in isolation and deadheading one of them.

Either a percentage of each load's gross revenue or a flat weekly fee, paid by the motor carrier. Which of those two the money comes from matters legally as well as commercially: FMCSA lists compensation from the motor carrier as a factor indicating broker authority is not required, and compensation taken from a broker or factoring company as a factor indicating it is required. If a dispatch service is being paid by anyone other than you, find out why.

That is set by the broker and by whether you factor, not by the dispatch service. Broker terms are commonly quoted at 30 days from receipt of a clean invoice and proof of delivery, but the actual terms are the broker's and they are stated on the rate confirmation — read it rather than assume. Factoring companies advance against the invoice far faster in exchange for a discount rate.

How factoring advances work →

Your dispatcher chases it first with the broker directly, with the signed rate confirmation, bill of lading and proof of delivery attached — most non-payments are a missing document rather than a refusal. Where it is a genuine refusal, a broker's $75,000 financial security under 49 U.S.C. 13906(b)(3) exists precisely for claims like yours, and there is a process for filing against it. This is also why the credit check happens before the load, not after.

When a broker will not pay →

By phone, text and email, whichever you prefer, and you set the preference. Most carriers settle on a text for load offers and a phone call for the rate conversation. Everything material ends up in email so there is a written trail.

No, and that is deliberate — you deal with your dispatcher directly rather than through software. The trade-off is real and worth stating plainly: there is no self-serve dashboard to check a load status at 2am without calling someone, and no automated document archive you can log into. If a portal is what you want, we are honestly not the right fit.

Your dispatcher contacts you directly with options matched to your equipment, lanes, rate floor and schedule. You review and approve before anything is booked, and you get the rate confirmation to read yourself rather than a summary of it.

DAT and Truckstop.com, alongside direct broker networks and shipper relationships. The boards show what everyone can see; the relationships are what produce the loads that never get posted.