Starting outPlaybook · 6 min read

Trucking, logistics and the supply chain, for small carriers

What the three words mean, who is who in a load from the shipper to the factoring company, how one load moves from dock to payment, and where a small carrier earns and loses money.

By Aditya Jain, Aditya EnterprisesUpdated October 24, 2026General operational guidance, not legal advice

Three semi trucks on a highway at golden hour, each one carrying a shipper's freight to a receiver

Trucking moves the freight, logistics plans and arranges how it moves, and the supply chain is the whole path a product takes from raw material to customer. A small carrier's part is the truck and the load, but every load touches up to six parties: the shipper, the receiver, often a broker, the carrier, the dispatcher who books for the carrier, and sometimes a factoring company. Knowing who does what, and who pays whom, shows where a load makes money and where it leaks.

General guidance in plain words, not legal advice. Where a rule defines a word, the rule is named by its number.

Three words, three jobs

Trucking is moving freight by truck. It is the carrier's job: the truck, the driver, the authority and the insurance, and getting each load from pickup to delivery on time and in one piece.
Logistics is planning and arranging how freight moves: which carrier, which day, at what cost. A shipper's own shipping team does it, and so do freight brokers and other logistics companies.
Supply chain is the whole chain behind a product, from raw materials to the factory, the warehouse, the store and the customer. Trucking is one link in it, usually the one between each of those stops.

So a search for logistics or supply chain is usually about the planning side. A small carrier lives on the trucking side and meets logistics every time a broker or a shipper calls, and the people in each job want different things from the truck.

Who is who: shipper, receiver, broker, carrier, dispatcher, factoring company

The parties in one truckload, what each does and who each works for
Who	What they do in a load	Who they work for
Shipper	Has the freight and hands it over to be moved. The federal rules define the shipper as the one who tenders property to a motor carrier for transportation (49 CFR 390.5). It sets the pickup time and often loads the trailer.	Itself. It pays a broker, or pays the carrier directly when it books a carrier itself.
Receiver	Takes delivery at the other end, unloads or has lumpers unload, and signs the bill of lading. The bill of lading names it as the consignee (49 CFR 373.101).	Itself. It is often the shipper's customer, and the carrier rarely deals with it outside the delivery.
Freight broker	Arranges, for pay, for an authorized motor carrier to move the freight, without hauling it (49 CFR 371.2). It offers the load, agrees the rate and puts the terms on a rate confirmation.	Its customer, usually the shipper. It pays the carrier the rate on the rate confirmation.
Carrier	The company with the truck, the operating authority and the insurance. It hauls the load and answers for the driver's hours, the truck's safety and the freight while it is on board.	Itself. It is paid by the broker or the shipper, on the terms it signed.
Dispatcher	Finds loads for the carrier's trucks, checks the broker, negotiates the rate, books the load and keeps track of pickup, delivery and the paperwork.	The carrier, as its own staff or hired by it. The carrier decides which loads its trucks take.
Factoring company	Buys the carrier's invoices, pays most of their value soon after delivery and collects from the broker or shipper, for a fee. It is only in the picture when the carrier factors.	The carrier, its customer, under a contract the carrier signs.

Two things follow from the table. The broker's customer is the shipper, so the rate it first offers is where a negotiation starts, not where it has to end. And a dispatcher works for the carrier: the truck's costs and the driver's hours come first, and every load is the carrier's decision.

How one load moves

Here is one dry van load booked through a broker, from the shipper's dock to the money in the carrier's account.

The path of one load

Shipper:
Has a trailer of freight to move from its warehouse to a customer, and gives it to a broker to arrange.
Broker:
Posts the load on a load board or calls carriers it knows, with the lane, dates, equipment and an offered rate.
Dispatcher, for the carrier:
Finds the load, checks the broker's authority and credit, works out whether the rate covers the empty miles and the truck's costs, and negotiates.
Carrier:
Signs the rate confirmation after reading every line, and sends its carrier packet the first time it works with that broker.
Pickup at the shipper:
The driver checks in, waits while the trailer is loaded, and leaves with a signed bill of lading that shows the times in and out.
On the road:
The driver runs the load within their legal driving hours, and the dispatcher keeps the broker updated on where the truck is and when it should arrive.
Delivery at the receiver:
The receiver unloads and signs the bill of lading, which becomes the proof of delivery.
Billing:
The carrier invoices the broker with the rate confirmation and the proof of delivery, or sells the invoice to its factoring company.
Payment:
The broker pays the carrier, or the factoring company, on the agreed terms. The shipper pays the broker separately.

One truckload booked through a broker. When a shipper books a carrier itself, there is no broker: the carrier agrees the rate with the shipper and invoices the shipper.

Every hand-off in that path leaves a document: the rate confirmation, the bill of lading, the proof of delivery and the invoice. A carrier that keeps all four, with the times written down, is in the best position to be paid in full and to show a broker what happened when something goes wrong.

Where a small carrier earns and loses money

A carrier earns on loaded miles at a rate above its own cost per mile. It loses money in the gaps around the load, and most of those gaps can be seen before the truck rolls.

Empty miles. The deadhead to reach a pickup is unpaid, so a rate that looks good on the loaded miles alone can lose money once the empty miles are counted.
Waiting time. Hours at a shipper or receiver past the free time are paid as detention only when the terms are on the rate confirmation and the times are on record.
Canceled loads. A truck sent for a load that is then canceled is paid a TONU only if the rate confirmation provides for one.
Lumper and dock charges. A carrier that pays at the dock needs the agreement in writing and the receipt to be paid back.
Slow or no payment. A broker that pays late ties up the carrier's cash, and a broker that never pays, or a double-brokered load, can cost the whole trip. Checking the broker before booking lowers that risk.
Your own costs. Fuel, insurance, the truck payment and maintenance set the floor under every rate. Without your cost per mile, a busy week and a profitable week look the same.

Free calculatorsIs this load worth it?The all-in rate per total mile, empty miles included, against your own break-even for that load.Open Free calculatorsDeadhead cost calculatorWhat your empty miles cost a year, and how much more every loaded mile has to earn because of them.Open Free calculatorsCost per mile and break-evenYour own cost per mile, and the rate every mile has to bring in, from your miles and your costs.Open

What changes as you grow

An owner-operator with one truck under its own authority does every carrier-side job in the table: the carrier's, the dispatcher's and often the billing, much of it from the cab. As a carrier adds trucks, those jobs come apart.

Dispatch becomes a job of its own. Finding, checking and booking loads for several trucks, each planned around its driver's hours, fills a day. It moves to a staff dispatcher or to someone the carrier hires.
Drivers bring files. A carrier keeps a qualification file for each driver it employs, under 49 CFR 391.51.
Filings grow with the fleet. The UCR fee is set by how many commercial vehicles the carrier owns or operates (49 CFR part 367), and every truck has its own Form 2290 and plates. Our compliance dates guide lists them.
The freight can change. With a record of on-time loads and clean paperwork, some carriers add contract lanes, or shippers who book them directly, alongside load-board freight.

Free calculatorsSelf-dispatch or hire: cost and savingsYour time, idle days and empty miles a dispatcher could save you, by your own estimate, next to the fee you would pay.Open

Words to know

The terms on this page, each explained in a sentence or three in our trucking and dispatch glossary.

Freight brokerArranges the move for pay, without hauling it.
Rate confirmationThe broker's written terms for one load.
Carrier packetThe documents a broker asks for before the first load.
Bill of lading (BOL)The shipping document signed at pickup and delivery.
Proof of delivery (POD)The signed paper that shows the freight arrived.
FactoringSelling an invoice to be paid sooner, for a fee.
DeadheadMiles driven empty, which nobody pays for.
DetentionPay for waiting past the free time.
TONUPay when a load is canceled after the truck was sent.
Double brokeringA load passed on without the shipper or broker agreeing.

Where we can help

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, dispatch support 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. No one can promise loads, rates or income, and we do not.

Ask a follow-up on WhatsApp