Trucking and dispatch terms, in plain English

The broker's written agreement for one load: the rate, stops, times and the terms for detention, TONU, lumpers and payment. Read it before you sign, because a charge that is not on it is hard to collect.

Also called: Load confirmation

Go deeper: How to vet a freight broker

The shipping document handed over at pickup that lists the freight, the shipper and where it is going. It is signed at pickup and again at delivery, and in and out times written on it back up a detention claim.

Also called: BOL document

Go deeper: How to actually collect detention

The signed bill of lading or delivery receipt that shows the freight arrived. Brokers and factoring companies usually ask for it before they pay the invoice.

Go deeper: Trucking, logistics and the supply chain

The documents a broker asks for before it books a carrier the first time: authority details, a certificate of insurance, a W-9, payment details and a signed agreement. Having it ready speeds up the first load with every new broker.

Also called: Carrier setup packet

Go deeper: Finding your first loads on a new authority

A letter that tells a broker to pay a carrier's factoring company instead of the carrier. It goes into the carrier packet when a carrier factors its invoices.

Go deeper: Finding your first loads on a new authority

Selling your load invoices to a factoring company, which pays you most of their value soon after delivery and collects from the broker, for a fee. Read the contract for recourse, minimums and how you can leave it.

Also called: Freight factoring

Go deeper: Trucking, logistics and the supply chain

The number FMCSA gives a motor carrier when it registers, which identifies the company's safety record and filings. Who must register depends on the vehicles and the kind of operation, so check the rule.

Go deeper: How to set up your trucking company

The docket number that comes with operating authority from FMCSA, which for-hire carriers moving regulated freight across state lines generally need on top of a USDOT number.

Also called: Operating authority, MC authority

Go deeper: How to set up your trucking company

The form that names process agents: people in each required state who can accept court papers on the carrier's behalf. It is filed when the carrier applies for authority.

Also called: Process agent filing

Go deeper: The compliance dates a small carrier cannot miss

The report that keeps a carrier's USDOT record current. It is due every two years, in a month set by the last digits of the USDOT number, and missing it can lead to the number being deactivated.

Also called: Biennial update

Go deeper: The compliance dates a small carrier cannot miss

A registration with a fee for each registration year, paid by carriers, brokers and some others in interstate business. The carrier's fee depends on how many commercial vehicles it owns or operates.

Go deeper: The compliance dates a small carrier cannot miss

The agreement under which a carrier reports and pays fuel use tax to one base state, which then shares it among the states where the truck ran.

Go deeper: The compliance dates a small carrier cannot miss

The plan for registering a truck that runs in more than one state. A truck registered in a member state may run in the others without registering in each one.

Go deeper: The compliance dates a small carrier cannot miss

The federal limits on how long a truck driver may drive and stay on duty before resting. Every pickup time, delivery time and call has to fit inside them.

Go deeper: How truck dispatching works, step by step

The device that records a driver's duty status for hours of service. Carriers whose drivers must log their hours generally have to use one, with the exceptions set out in the rule.

The IRS return for the heavy highway vehicle use tax on heavy trucks. The stamped Schedule 1 that comes back is the proof of payment a state asks for when you register the truck.

Also called: Heavy vehicle use tax, HVUT

Go deeper: The compliance dates a small carrier cannot miss

A company licensed by FMCSA that arranges, for pay, for an authorized carrier to move a shipper's freight, without hauling it itself. Its authority and its bond can be checked in FMCSA's own records before you haul.

Also called: Property broker

Go deeper: How to vet a freight broker

The surety bond a broker files with FMCSA as its financial security; a trust fund filed on Form BMC-85 is the other way to meet the rule. FMCSA will not register a broker without one, so check that it is on file before you haul.

Also called: BMC-85, Broker bond

Go deeper: How to vet a freight broker

When the company that took a load passes it on to another carrier without the shipper or broker agreeing, often leaving the carrier that hauled it unpaid. Checking who you are really dealing with on every load is the main defense.

Also called: Double-brokered load

Go deeper: My load was stolen: what do I tell the broker?

How reliably and how quickly a broker pays its carriers. Check it before you book, in a broker credit tool or by asking your factoring company whether it will buy that broker's invoices.

Also called: Days to pay

Go deeper: How to vet a freight broker

An enclosed trailer without temperature control, for freight that only needs to stay dry and secure.

Also called: Van trailer

Go deeper: Dispatch by equipment

A refrigerated trailer with its own cooling unit, for food and other freight that must stay at a set temperature. The temperature setting and how it is recorded belong on the rate confirmation.

Also called: Refrigerated trailer

Go deeper: Dispatch by equipment

A load where the carrier supplies the truck and driver and pulls a trailer that belongs to someone else, such as the shipper or the broker.

Also called: Power only

Go deeper: Dispatch by equipment

Pickup or delivery where the driver leaves one trailer and hooks up another that is already waiting, instead of waiting at the dock to be loaded or unloaded.

Also called: Drop trailer

Go deeper: How to actually collect detention

Pickup where the truck waits at the dock while the freight is loaded; at delivery it is a live unload. The waiting is where detention terms matter.

Also called: Live unload

Go deeper: Detention claim email builder