How to Sign Up With a Truck Dispatch Service
Send your MC authority, a certificate of insurance and a W-9, take a call within 24 hours, and your dispatcher starts searching loads the same day your packet clears. No setup fee and no lock-in term.
How Signing Up Works
Four steps. Only one of them is really in your hands — getting the carrier packet back to us.
Before You Start, Have These
- Operating authority (MC) reading ACTIVE
- Certificate of insurance from your agent
- IRS Form W-9 matching your authority name
See the full carrier packet below. Don't have your MC yet? Read the new authority checklist or the startup guide.
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(682) 978-8641What You Need to Sign Up: The Complete Carrier Packet
This is the same paperwork a broker will ask you for, so putting it together once gets you set up with us and with every broker after. Each row names the document, who issues it, and the mistake that costs you a day.
- 1
Operating authority (MC number) letter
Issued by FMCSA
It must read ACTIVE in FMCSA SAFER, not PENDING. A pending or revoked authority stops the packet dead — no broker will set you up on it.
- 2
USDOT number
Issued by FMCSA
The legal name attached to the DOT number has to match the name on everything else in the packet.
- 3
IRS Form W-9
Issued by You (IRS form)
The EIN and legal name must match the name on your operating authority exactly. A DBA on the W-9 and an LLC name on the authority is one of the easiest rejections to avoid.
- 4
Certificate of insurance (auto liability + cargo)
Issued by Your insurance agent
Wrong certificate holder. Send us the certificate holder details before your agent issues it — a re-issued COI is the single most common reason onboarding slips a day.
- 5
Signed dispatcher-carrier agreement
Issued by Us
Read it before you sign. It should name you as the party appointing the dispatch service as your agent, and it should state that you can leave.
- 6
Voided check or ACH authorization
Issued by Your bank
A photo of a deposit slip is not a voided check — deposit slips carry different routing numbers.
- 7
Notice of assignment (NOA)
Issued by Your factoring company
Only if you factor. Skipping it sends remittance to the wrong place and delays your money, not your loads.
- 8
Driver roster and CDL copies
Issued by You
An expired CDL or medical card on file. Check the dates before you send them.
- 9
ELD provider name
Issued by Your ELD vendor
Devices get removed from the FMCSA registered ELD list. Confirm yours is still on it.
- 10
Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse query on file
Issued by FMCSA Clearinghouse
Registration lapses. Make sure your Clearinghouse account is current before onboarding, not after.
You can check your own authority status on FMCSA SAFER and your ELD against the FMCSA registered ELD list before you send anything. If you factor, the freight factoring guide explains where the notice of assignment fits.
Insurance: What FMCSA Requires vs What Brokers Require
These are two different numbers, and the gap between them is why carriers who are perfectly legal still get their packet turned down. The federal floor is set by regulation. What a broker asks for is set by that broker's contract.
| Operation | Federal minimum | Source |
|---|---|---|
| For-hire, non-hazardous property, GVWR 10,001 lbs or more | $750,000 | 49 CFR 387.9 |
| Fleet consisting only of vehicles under 10,001 lbs GVWR, non-hazardous property | $300,000 | 49 CFR 387.303(b)(1)(i) |
| Oil and other listed hazardous materials | $1,000,000 | 49 CFR 387.9 |
| Specified bulk and high-hazard materials | $5,000,000 | 49 CFR 387.9 |
Cargo insurance is not a federal mandate for general freight
This one surprises people. The federal cargo minimums of $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence live in 49 CFR 387.303(c), and that paragraph applies to household goods carriers. If you haul general freight, your cargo coverage is required by the broker's contract, not by FMCSA.
So carry what your brokers actually ask for, not the federal floor. Every broker sets its own limits in its carrier packet — read them before you ask your agent for a certificate. Our owner-operator insurance guide goes through the coverages line by line.
Primary sources: 49 CFR 387.9, 49 CFR 387.303.
Signing Up With a New MC Authority
If your authority is a few weeks old and brokers keep saying no, nothing is wrong with you — you have run into the new entrant rules and the broker and insurer policies that sit on top of them.
Under 49 CFR 385.307, once a new entrant satisfies the pre-operational requirements it is subject to new entrant safety monitoring for 18 months. A safety audit is conducted once the carrier has been operating long enough to have sufficient records for FMCSA to evaluate its basic safety management controls — a period the regulation says will generally be at least three months.
That federal timeline is not a ban on hauling. What actually stops new carriers is that individual brokers and insurers set their own minimum authority age on top of it, and those thresholds vary from one broker to the next. Send us your MC and we will tell you where you stand rather than guessing at it.
Worth reading first: the new authority dispatch guide, the new authority cost calculator, and the DOT compliance checklist.
Is a Truck Dispatcher a Broker? How to Check
You are about to hand someone your MC number, so this is a fair question to ask us and every other dispatch service you talk to. 49 CFR 371.2(a) defines a broker as a person who, for compensation, arranges or offers to arrange the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier. Paragraph (b) defines bona fide agents as persons who are part of the normal organization of a motor carrier, performing duties under the carrier's directions under a preexisting agreement providing for a continuing relationship, precluding the exercise of discretion in allocating traffic between the carrier and others.
A broker needs authority from FMCSA and must hold a $75,000 surety bond or trust fund under 49 CFR 387.307(a). A bona fide agent does not. Getting that wrong is expensive: under 49 U.S.C. 14916 unauthorised brokering carries a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 for each violation plus liability to the injured party for all valid claims, applying jointly and severally to the entity and to its individual officers, directors and principals.
In June 2023 FMCSA published final regulatory guidance, Definitions of Broker and Bona Fide Agents (88 FR 39368, Docket FMCSA-2022-0134), issued under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It sets out factors for deciding which side of the line a dispatch service falls on, and it defines allocation of traffic as any exercise of discretion, choice or decision-making on the agent's part about which motor carrier to assign a load.
Points away from needing broker authority
- A written contract in which the carrier appoints the dispatch service as its agent
- Goes through a broker to arrange shipments and does not seek or solicit shippers
- Does not bill, or accept compensation from, the broker, 3PL or factoring company
- Is not an intermediary in the money between broker and carrier
- Is a 1099 recipient of the carrier, or a W-2 employee
- Discloses it is a dispatch service operating under an agreement with that specific carrier
- Does not then assign or arrange the load to be carried by another carrier
Points toward needing broker authority
- Interacts with or negotiates a shipment directly with the shipper or a shipper's representative
- Takes compensation for a load from the broker or factoring company, or is part of the money movement
- Arranges freight for a carrier with no written contract in place
- Accepts a shipment without a carrier, then goes looking for one
- Accepts a shipment that could be moved by more than one carrier — allocating traffic
- Is a named party on the shipping contract
- Solicits the open market of carriers to move a shipment
Use that as a checklist on anyone you are considering, including us. Our fee is billed to you, the carrier — see pricing — and you approve every load before it is booked. If you want the wider picture of who does what, read load boards vs dispatch vs brokers and how to protect yourself from double brokering.
What Is Actually in the Dispatcher-Carrier Agreement
There is a written agreement, and you should want there to be. FMCSA's guidance treats a written contract appointing the dispatch service as your agent as a factor pointing away from broker authority — a dispatch service arranging your freight with no written contract is a warning sign, not a convenience.
What we mean by “no contract” is more precisely no lock-in term: no setup fee, no minimum number of months, no cancellation penalty, and you can leave at the end of any week. Here is what the agreement itself covers, so nothing in it is a surprise when it lands in your inbox.
- The fee and exactly how it is calculated — percentage of linehaul or flat weekly, and which one you picked.
- Who pays whom: you pay us. We are not paid by the broker and we are not in the payment between you and the broker.
- That you appoint us as your agent, and that we dispatch under your authority for your trucks only.
- Load acceptance: you approve every load before it is booked. We never bind you to a rate confirmation you have not seen.
- Insurance and liability responsibilities on each side.
- Termination: notice, and the fact that there is no penalty for giving it.
Ask for a copy before you sign anything. Any dispatch service that will not send you the agreement in advance has told you something useful.
Flat $250/Week vs 6% Per Load: Which Costs You Less
Both numbers are published, so you can do this arithmetic yourself rather than taking our word for it. The crossover is wherever the percentage equals the flat fee.
| Equipment | Percentage | Flat | They cost the same at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semi truck | 6% | $250/week | about $4,167/week gross |
| Box truck & hotshot | 8% | $350/week | $4,375/week gross |
Above the crossover the flat rate is cheaper; below it the percentage is. A semi grossing $6,000 in a week pays $360 on percentage against $250 flat. The same truck grossing $3,000 pays $180 on percentage against $250 flat. That is the whole calculation, and it is why you can switch between the two at any time rather than being locked to whichever you picked at signup.
Run your own numbers with the dispatch ROI calculator, the weekly revenue calculator and the cost per mile calculator, or read how truck dispatch rates work. Full tiers are on the pricing page.
First Week Satisfaction Guarantee
Not satisfied after your first week? We'll waive the fee — no questions asked. We believe in earning your business through results, not lock-in terms.
What Would Get Your Application Rejected
Most carriers who get turned down are turned down for something fixable, and usually for something on this list. Worth checking before you send anything, to us or to a broker.
- Operating authority reads PENDING, INACTIVE or REVOKED in SAFER rather than ACTIVE.
- The certificate of insurance names the wrong certificate holder, or has already expired.
- Liability limits fall below the federal floor for your operation, or below what a specific broker requires by contract.
- The legal name or EIN on the W-9 does not match the name on the operating authority.
- Cargo coverage carries an exclusion that matters for your trailer — reefer breakdown is the classic one.
- An unsatisfactory safety rating, or CSA scores a broker has set its own threshold against.
- A prior double-brokering association attached to the MC number.
If this keeps happening to you, the pattern is usually diagnosable — read why your truck keeps getting rejected by brokers and how to build relationships with freight brokers.
Signing Up by Equipment Type
The packet is the same for all eight. What changes is the coverage question your agent needs to answer and the permits that come up on the call.
Questions About Getting Started
The paperwork, the timeline, the legal side and the fee — answered before you sign up.
What documents do I need to sign up with a truck dispatch service?
Your operating authority (MC) letter showing ACTIVE status, USDOT number, IRS Form W-9, a certificate of insurance naming the correct certificate holder, a signed dispatcher-carrier agreement, a voided check or ACH form, your driver roster and CDL copies, your ELD provider, and a notice of assignment if you factor.
How long does it take to get set up with a dispatcher?
We call you back within 24 hours of your form. After that the clock is mostly yours: your dispatcher can start searching loads the same day your carrier packet is complete and your authority reads ACTIVE. The step that usually adds a day is a certificate of insurance that has to be re-issued.
Can I sign up with a brand-new MC authority?
Send it to us and we will tell you straight. Under 49 CFR 385.307 a new entrant is subject to an 18-month safety monitoring period, with a safety audit generally conducted after at least three months of operation. Separately, many brokers and insurers set their own minimum authority age, and that is usually the real gate.
Is a truck dispatcher a broker?
Not if it is set up correctly. 49 CFR 371.2(a) defines a broker as someone who arranges transportation for compensation; 371.2(b) defines a bona fide agent as working under a preexisting written agreement with a continuing relationship, without discretion in allocating traffic between carriers. FMCSA published factors for telling the two apart at 88 FR 39368.
What does allocating traffic mean?
FMCSA defines it as any exercise of discretion, choice or decision-making on the agent's part about which motor carrier to assign a load to. It is the line between an agent and a broker: an agent works loads for the carrier that appointed it, rather than choosing between carriers for a load.
Does my dispatcher get paid by me or by the broker?
You pay us. Our fee is billed to you, the carrier — 6% per load or $250/week flat for semi trucks, 8% or $350/week for box truck and hotshot. Under FMCSA's guidance, a dispatch service taking compensation from the broker or sitting inside the broker-carrier money flow points toward needing broker authority.
How much insurance do I need to sign up?
The federal floor for a for-hire interstate carrier of non-hazardous property at 10,001 lbs GVWR or more is $750,000 public liability under 49 CFR 387.9. A fleet made up only of vehicles under 10,001 lbs GVWR is $300,000 under 49 CFR 387.303(b)(1)(i). Individual brokers can and do require more by contract.
Is cargo insurance required by FMCSA?
Not for general freight. The federal cargo minimums of $5,000 per vehicle and $10,000 per occurrence in 49 CFR 387.303(c) apply to household goods carriers. For everything else, cargo coverage is a requirement of the broker's contract rather than a federal mandate — which is why you can meet the legal floor and still be turned down.
Who should be listed as the certificate holder on my COI?
Whoever the packet is for. For a broker setup it is that broker, at the exact address on their packet. Ask before your agent issues it — a certificate holder typo means a re-issued certificate, and that is the most common one-day delay in onboarding.
Can you work with my factoring company?
Yes. Send your notice of assignment with your packet so the correct remit-to details land on every rate confirmation. Your factoring agreement stays between you and your factor — your dispatch fee is billed to you directly, not deducted from the broker or the factor.
Do I have to sign a contract with a truck dispatcher?
There is a written dispatcher-carrier agreement — there has to be, because FMCSA's guidance treats a written agreement appointing the dispatch service as your agent as a factor pointing away from broker authority. What there is not is a lock-in term. No setup fee, no minimum months, no cancellation penalty.
Is a flat weekly dispatch fee better than a percentage?
It depends on your weekly gross. At 6%, $250/week is the same cost as a gross of about $4,167 — above that the flat rate is cheaper, below it the percentage is. For box truck and hotshot at 8%, $350/week matches a gross of $4,375. You can switch between the two at any time.
What would get my application rejected?
Authority that is not ACTIVE, an expired certificate of insurance or one naming the wrong certificate holder, limits below the federal floor or below a broker's contractual requirement, a W-9 whose name or EIN does not match the authority, an unsatisfactory safety rating, or a prior double-brokering flag on the MC number.
Can I keep my existing broker relationships?
Yes, and you should. If you already have brokers you trust or a lane you run regularly, tell your dispatcher on the onboarding call and they will keep booking with them. The relationships you built stay yours — a dispatch service is there to widen your load search, not to replace them.
What equipment types do you dispatch?
Dry van, reefer, flatbed, step deck, power only, hotshot, box truck, and heavy haul/RGN. Each equipment type has a dispatcher who specialises in that trailer rather than a generalist covering all eight, because the brokers, the lanes and the securement questions are different for each.
What if I am not satisfied with the service?
You can cancel at any time — no penalties, no fees. Not satisfied after your first week and we waive the fee. We do not use lock-in terms because a dispatcher who has to earn the next week is a dispatcher who answers the phone.
Ready to Sign Up?
Send us your equipment type and MC number and we will call you back within 24 hours. No setup fee, no lock-in term, and nothing owed until we book you a load.
Still deciding? Compare us on the pricing page, browse all FAQs, or contact us.