How truck dispatching works in the U.S., step by step

Truck dispatching is the work of keeping a truck loaded and paid. A dispatcher finds a load that fits the truck, checks the broker, agrees the rate, books it, follows it from pickup to delivery and sends the paperwork that gets it paid. Every load has to fit the driver's hours of service and the truck's real costs, and the carrier decides which loads its trucks take. Here is how it works in the U.S., one step at a time, the way an owner-operator or a small fleet runs it.

What a truck dispatcher does

A truck dispatcher plans the truck's week and does the phone and email work around every load. It can be the owner doing it from the cab, a dispatcher on the carrier's staff, or someone the carrier hires. Whoever does it works for the carrier: the truck's costs and the driver's hours come first.

Step 1: Know the truck, lanes and costs

Before looking at a single load, a dispatcher writes down the facts about the truck and the business behind it. These facts decide which loads are worth a call and which are not.

• The equipment and its limits: dry van, reefer or power-only, the trailer length, how much weight it can legally carry, and any freight the carrier's insurance or authority does not cover.
• The lanes and home time: where the carrier wants to run, where freight is steady, and when the driver has to be home.
• The driver's hours: how many hours of driving and duty the driver has left this week, because every pickup and delivery has to fit inside them.
• The cost per mile: fixed costs and running costs together. It is the floor under every rate, and a dispatcher who does not know it cannot tell a busy week from a profitable one.
• The carrier packet, ready: authority details, a certificate of insurance, a W-9 and payment details, so the first load with a new broker is not held up.

• Dry van, reefer and power-onlyWhat changes in dispatch for each kind of equipment.
• The compliance dates a small carrier cannot missThe filings that keep the truck's papers current.

Step 2: Find the load

Loads come from load boards, from brokers the carrier already works with, and sometimes from shippers who book carriers directly. A good dispatcher looks past the load itself to where it leaves the truck: a high rate into an area with little freight going out can cost the next day in empty miles.

• Count the empty miles to reach the pickup, and divide the rate by all the miles, loaded and empty.
• Check the times: can the driver reach the pickup and the delivery within the hours left, with the breaks the rules require?
• Check the freight: the equipment, the weight and what it is, against the truck's limits and the carrier's insurance.
• Look one load ahead: what freight leaves the delivery area, and in which direction.

Step 3: Vet the broker

Before booking with a broker the carrier has not worked with, check it. Some freight fraud starts with someone posing as a real broker, so a few minutes here can save a whole trip.

• Look it up in FMCSA's public records by its MC or USDOT number, and check that its broker authority is active.
• Check the bond or trust fund: a property broker must have one on file with FMCSA (49 CFR 387.307).
• Confirm the contact details: call the phone number on FMCSA's record, not only the one in the email, and check that the email address belongs to the broker's own domain.
• Ask how and when it pays, and check what other carriers report about its payment before you rely on it.

Our broker vetting guide walks through each check in order, with what to do when one fails.

• How to vet a freight brokerThe checks, in order, in about ten minutes.
• Double brokeringA load passed on without the shipper or broker agreeing.

Step 4: Negotiate and book

The posted rate is where a negotiation starts. The dispatcher knows the truck's floor from step 1, asks for a rate that covers the loaded miles, the empty miles to reach the pickup and a margin, and walks away when the numbers do not work. Before saying yes, the dispatcher agrees the terms that cost money when something goes wrong.

• The rate, all-in: one number for the load, with any fuel surcharge or extra stops spelled out.
• The times: pickup and delivery windows, appointment numbers and the addresses.
• Detention: how many hours of free time at each stop, and what each hour after that pays.
• TONU and layover: what is paid if the load is canceled after the truck was sent, or if the truck has to wait overnight.
• Lumper: who pays to load or unload, and how a carrier that pays at the dock is paid back.
• Payment terms: how many days to pay, and how the invoice and paperwork are sent.

Step 5: Carrier packet and rate con review

The first time a carrier works with a broker, the broker asks for a carrier packet: the authority details, a certificate of insurance, a W-9, payment details and a signed agreement, plus a notice of assignment when the carrier factors its invoices. Then the broker sends the rate confirmation, its written terms for this one load.

Read every line before signing. Check that the rate is the one agreed, that the stops, dates and times are right, and that the detention, TONU, lumper and payment terms are written in. A charge that is not on the rate confirmation is hard to collect later, so ask for a corrected one before the truck moves, never after.

• Carrier packetThe documents a broker asks for before the first load.
• Rate confirmationThe broker's written terms for one load.
• Notice of assignment (NOA)Tells a broker to pay the carrier's factoring company.
• TONUPay when a load is canceled after the truck was sent.

Step 6: Pickup, check calls and the detention clock

At pickup, the driver checks in on time, notes the arrival time and leaves with a signed bill of lading that matches the freight on the trailer. The bill of lading names who ships and who receives, where the load goes and what it is (49 CFR 373.101).

On the road, the dispatcher gives the broker the updates the rate confirmation asks for and plans around the driver's hours. Under the federal rules for drivers of property-carrying trucks, a driver may drive up to 11 hours within the 14 hours after coming on duty, only after 10 hours off duty in a row, and needs a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, with the exceptions set out in the rule (49 CFR 395.3). Calls wait until the truck is stopped or can be answered without holding the phone (49 CFR 392.82).

The detention clock starts when the truck waits past the free time at a dock. Get the arrival and departure times written on the bill of lading, or kept from the electronic log, and tell the broker in writing as soon as the free time runs out. A claim with times on record and an early notice is far easier to collect.

Step 7: Delivery, POD and billing

At delivery, the receiver signs the bill of lading, and that signed copy becomes the proof of delivery. Any shortage or damage is written on it before the driver leaves, because a note added later carries little weight.

Then the invoice goes out, the same day if possible, with the rate confirmation, the proof of delivery and any receipts or detention times, to the broker or to the carrier's factoring company. The dispatcher or the back office follows up when the payment terms are up, and keeps every document: carriers must keep bills of lading and other shipping records for the periods set in 49 CFR part 379.

• Proof of delivery (POD)The signed paper that shows the freight arrived.
• FactoringSelling an invoice to be paid sooner, for a fee.
• Who is who in a loadThe path of one load, from dock to payment.

What a dispatcher must never do

Some lines do not move for any rate.

• Push a driver to break the safety rules. Coercing a driver to drive in violation of the safety rules, hours of service included, is prohibited for motor carriers, shippers, receivers and transportation intermediaries alike (49 CFR 390.6). A load that only works if the driver skips rest is a load to turn down or reschedule.
• Expect a call answered at the wheel. A driver may not use a hand-held phone while driving, and a carrier may not require it (49 CFR 392.82), so plan calls for stops.
• Book a load the truck or its papers cannot carry: the wrong equipment, too much weight, freight the insurance does not cover, or a pickup the driver cannot reach within the hours left.
• Sign a rate confirmation unread, or agree terms on the phone that never make it into writing.
• Book with a broker nobody has checked, or send the truck for a load from someone other than the broker on the rate confirmation.
• Keep anything from the carrier. Every rate, term and problem goes to the owner, who decides.

Learn it, or hand it off

All of this can be learned for free. Our step-by-step path pairs each part with a practice task, and the glossary explains every word on this page. Many owner-operators dispatch their own truck and do it well. Others find the phone work eating into their driving or their rest, and hand it off.

• Learn truck dispatching, step by stepEight steps, each with what to learn and a practice task.
• Trucking and dispatch glossaryDeadhead, TONU, rate con and more, in plain English.

If you are deciding, put your own numbers into the calculator: your hours on the phone, what an hour of your time is worth, the idle days and empty miles you think a dispatcher could save you, and what dispatch help would cost you. Nothing here promises loads, rates or income.

Aditya Enterprises gives U.S. owner-operators, small fleets and larger fleets dispatch and operations support. Founded by Aditya Jain. Not a freight broker. For the carriers we work with, that means finding and checking loads, reading every rate confirmation before it is signed, keeping track of pickup and delivery, and keeping the paperwork moving to billing. The carrier always decides which loads its trucks take.