For one-truck carriers on their own authority
A dispatch service for owner operators that runs on your rules
You keep your customers, your lanes and your home time. We fill the gaps, push the rates and handle the phone work. Every load is offered to you first, and every rate con comes straight to you.
Owner C · hypothetical month
Dry van
| Loads | Count | Gross | Dispatch fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your own customers | 5 | $7,500 | $0 (you booked it) |
| Loads our desk added in your gaps | 4 | $6,000 | $300.00 at 5% |
| Backhauls toward home | 3 | $3,380 | $169.00 at 5% |
| Month | 12 | $16,880 | $469.00 |
Net after dispatch fee: $16,411.00 on $16,880 gross. This example assumes loads you book yourself with your own customers carry no fee; that is agreed up front in your dispatch agreement.
EXAMPLE. Hypothetical owner-operator, illustrative load values, not rate data or a promise of loads.
What a month with a dispatcher looks like
The table beside the headline follows a hypothetical owner-operator we'll call Owner C. Owner C already has a couple of direct customers who keep the truck busy about half the time. The problem is the other half: the empty leg home after a customer delivery, the slow week in late January, the Friday when the regular load cancels.
In the example month, Owner C runs five loads for their own customers, four loads our desk found in the gaps and three backhauls that pointed the truck toward home. Change the rig in the card and the numbers change with it. The point isn't the dollar amounts, which are made up to show the shape of a month. The point is where the extra revenue comes from: the miles that would otherwise have run empty or the days the truck would have sat.
That is what a dispatch service for owner operators should do. Not replace the customers you built, but fill everything around them so the truck earns on more of its days. If a dispatcher's plan starts with "give us all your freight," ask why. A good plan starts by asking which days your truck already has work and which days it usually doesn't, then puts the effort where the empty days are.
Your customers stay yours
Plenty of owner-operators worry that a dispatcher will try to take over the customers they spent years earning. We don't contact your direct customers unless you ask us to, and we don't book loads for them behind your back.
On the first call, tell us which customers you run for, which days their freight usually moves and which lanes they cover. We mark those days and lanes as spoken for and plan around them. If a regular load cancels, call the desk and we look for a replacement that keeps your week together.
Specialty carriers often have the strongest direct relationships: the car hauler with a dealer group, the hopper bottom with a local elevator, the heavy hauler with two contractors. Those relationships are worth more than any load board. Our job is to make the days in between pay too.
Home time is a plan, not a favor
The fastest way to burn out on your own authority is a dispatcher who books the next load wherever it happens to be. Three weeks later you're 1,400 miles from home with nothing heading back.
We plan the other way around. You give us the day you need to be home, and we work backward: the load that gets you out, the reload near that delivery and the backhaul that lands you close to your driveway on time. If the market won't give you a good load in the right direction, we tell you the honest options instead of quietly stretching your week.
What our dispatchers handle for an owner-operator
The full list. Nothing here costs extra beyond the percentage on loads you haul.
- Finding the next load before this one delivers
- We work the reload while you're still rolling, so you aren't sitting at a truck stop refreshing a board after you drop.
- Negotiating every rate
- We counter the first offer with lane data and walk away from freight that doesn't clear your floor once deadhead is counted.
- Checking the broker
- Payment history and credit come first. A great rate from a broker who pays in 90 days, or never, isn't a great rate.
- Carrier packets
- We fill in the routine details and send each packet to you to sign, once per broker.
- Check calls and ETAs
- Brokers want updates. We send them, so your phone isn't ringing at every fuel stop.
- Detention, layover and cancellations
- We log arrival and departure times and file the claim, including truck order not used pay when a load cancels late.
- Paperwork after delivery
- We chase the bills of lading and proof of delivery photos so payment isn't held up by a missing page.
- The weekly report
- Loads, gross, loaded and empty miles, rate per mile and fee, every Friday.
The same week, two ways
Where the hours go when you run the desk yourself, and where they go when someone else does.
| Task | Self-dispatched | With our desk |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the next load | Load boards at night after driving all day | We search and shortlist while you drive |
| Rate negotiation | Often take the first number when you're tired | We counter every offer before you hear it |
| Broker checks | Easy to skip when a load looks good | Payment history checked on every broker |
| Check calls | Phone rings at every fuel stop | We send ETAs and updates for you |
| Detention claims | Often forgotten by the time you deliver | Times logged and the claim filed |
| Saying yes to a load | You decide | You still decide, and you sign the rate con |
What we do differently for your rig
Owner-operators run every kind of equipment, and a dispatcher who treats them all like a dry van leaves money on the table. A few examples of what changes by rig:
Car haulers
We fill the deck around your direct dealer runs, watch auction schedules and plan the cars so you aren't unloading three times to reach the one in the back.
Reefers
Appointment times decide everything. We look hard at delivery windows and lumper charges before we offer a load, and keep produce seasons in mind when we plan your backhaul.
Flatbeds and step decks
We match loads to the straps, chains and tarps you actually carry and make sure tarp pay is on the rate con when the shipper wants the load covered.
Hotshots and 26 ft box trucks
Smaller loads move quickly, so we stack them: a partial out, another partial nearby, then something pointed toward home. Payload and deck length come first.
Livestock
Load times and the 28-hour clock drive the plan, along with weather and sale barn days. We don't offer a load that can't be delivered inside the time the animals can stay on the trailer.
Heavy haul and tankers
Dimensions, permits, escorts, endorsements and tank paperwork are confirmed before your phone rings. A load that doesn't clear those checks never becomes an offer.
Every rig gets the same tiers and the same attention. Pick yours from the dispatch home page to see the full card.
Your first 30 days
Week one is setup and learning. We build your card from the first call, send carrier packets to the brokers that suit your equipment and run the first few loads with extra check-ins so we learn how you like to work.
Week two the calls get shorter. We know your floor rate, your lanes and the loads you'll pass on, so most offers are close to what you would pick yourself. This is usually when the backhauls start lining up.
Weeks three and four are about rhythm: the reload planned before you deliver, home time on the calendar, and a weekly report you can compare against the month before you started. At the end of the month, look at the numbers. If dispatch isn't paying for itself, tell us, and either we change the plan or you leave with 30 days notice.
When you're better off dispatching yourself
A dispatcher isn't right for every owner-operator, and we would rather say so now than lose you in a month. You may not need us if your direct customers already fill the truck most weeks, if you run a dedicated lane with the same reload every time, or if you enjoy the negotiating and have the hours to do it well.
Dispatch earns its fee when the truck has gaps, when you're spending evenings on load boards and broker calls after a full day of driving, or when you suspect you're taking the first rate offered because you're too tired to push back. If that sounds like your week, the percentage tends to pay for itself. Run your own numbers with the dispatch ROI calculator.
What a good owner-operator dispatcher looks like
Whoever you choose, hold them to this:
- They call before booking, and you can refuse any load without a penalty.
- The rate confirmation comes to you, and you sign it.
- The fee is a clear percentage of gross, with no setup fee and no long contract.
- They know your equipment well enough to filter loads before calling.
- They ask about your home time and your floor rate on the first call.
- They send a weekly report you can check against your bank.
- They never ask for your load board login, your bank login or money up front.
What owner-operators tell us before they sign up
"I got burned by a dispatcher before."
Usually that means loads booked without asking, a contract that was hard to leave or a fee that grew with extras. None of that happens here: we call first, you sign the rate con, the fee is one percentage and you can leave with 30 days notice.
"The loads will be cheap."
Only if you accept them. Give us your floor rate and we won't bring you anything below it once deadhead is counted. A cheap load booked by a dispatcher is still a load you said yes to, so the no stays in your hands.
"You'll send me to brokers who don't pay."
We check payment history before a broker gets near your truck, and we drop brokers with a slow or poor record. If one you've had trouble with shows up, tell us and they stay off your list for good.
"I don't want to give up my freedom."
Then don't. You choose the loads, the lanes, the days off and the customers. We do the searching, the calling and the paperwork, which is the part most owner-operators didn't go independent for in the first place.
The fee for a one-truck carrier
One truck on an authority older than 6 months pays 5% of the gross on each load you haul. A new MC pays 7% until it turns 6 months old, and 26 ft box trucks and hotshots pay 7% at any age. There's no setup fee or minimum, and a week off costs nothing. The full breakdown is on our dispatch fee page.
Waiting 30 days or more for brokers to pay? Read about factoring for owner-operators. Still planning the business? Our guide to starting a hauling business covers authority, insurance and equipment.
Deal me in: 3 taps
Pick all three and your fee shows here. No haul, no pay.
Keep my truck movingOwner-operator questions
01Can I turn down a load you find?
Yes, any load, any time, and without a reason if you don't want to give one. We call before booking, and nothing is confirmed with the broker until you say yes. A load you turn down costs you nothing. We simply go back to searching with whatever you told us about why it didn't fit.
02Can you work around my own customers?
Yes. Tell us which days, lanes and loads are already spoken for, and we plan around them. Your customers stay yours, and we don't contact them unless you ask us to. Most owner-operators use us for the reload after a regular delivery, the backhaul toward home and the weeks when their usual freight slows down.
03Do you work with owner-operators who factor?
Yes. Tell us your factoring company and we put the notice of assignment in each carrier packet, so brokers pay the factor directly. Nothing about the dispatch fee changes. If you don't factor yet and want faster pay, we can introduce you to RTS Financial, but factoring is optional and never required for dispatch.
04How do I pay the dispatcher?
The fee is a percentage of the gross on loads you haul: 5% for one truck on an authority older than 6 months. Each load and its fee appear on your weekly report. How and when you pay is set out in your dispatch agreement before you start, with no setup fee and no minimum.
05What does a dispatcher do for an owner-operator?
Finds loads that fit your truck and your schedule, negotiates the rate, checks the broker, handles carrier packets, makes the check calls, logs detention and plans the next load before you deliver. You drive, approve loads and sign rate confirmations. We handle the phone work that usually eats your evenings.
06Do I need my own authority?
Dispatch works best when you run under your own MC, because brokers contract with the authority holder. If you're leased onto a carrier, that carrier usually controls the freight and the rate cons. If you're getting your own authority now, apply anyway and we'll plan around the date it goes active.
07Can a dispatcher plan my home time?
Yes, and it should. Tell us when you need to be home and for how long, and we build the week backward from that date: the outbound load, the reload and a backhaul that gets you close to home on time. If no load fits the plan, we say so instead of stretching your week.