A dispatch service for owner operators who want their evenings back, not their control taken
One truck, one owner, and every decision still yours. Our dispatch service for owner operators finds the loads, negotiates the rate and the extras, and handles the broker calls and paperwork. You keep the final say on every load, your home time, your lanes and the freight you refuse to haul.
5% of gross for one established truck, no contract, any equipment from a 26 ft box to an RGN.
What do you run?
Control is the whole point
Most owner-operators who've tried a dispatcher and quit did so for one reason: they felt like an employee again. Loads booked without asking, pressure to take cheap freight, rate cons they never saw. Here, every load is an offer you can turn down, and the rate con comes from the broker straight to you.
Load offer / Dry van
Memphis, TN to Kansas City, MO
- Miles
- 450
- Rate
- $1,250
- Per mile
- $2.78
On the rate con: drop-and-hook, 2 hrs free, then detention
Pickup: Mon 10:00
Nothing is booked until you say so. You see the lane, the miles, the rate and every extra before anyone commits your truck.
Two weeks, side by side
An example owner-operator week, self-dispatched and dispatched, drawn as a timeline. Toggle between them. The numbers are an example to show the shape of it, not a promise.
- Loaded
- Empty miles
- Waiting
- Home / reset
- Calls + boards
- Loaded
- 40 h
- Empty
- 1 h
- Calls + boards
- 1 h
- Waiting
- 3 h
The dispatched week isn't magic. The difference comes from three habits: reloads lined up before delivery, detention terms on the rate con so waits get paid, and the last load of the week planned toward home. To see what an hour of empty driving or waiting costs your truck, use the trucking cost per mile calculator.
What we take off your plate
Everything that eats an owner-operator's evenings, and nothing that takes away a decision.
- Finding loads
- Load boards, broker contacts and direct shippers, matched to your truck, gear, lanes and home time.
- Negotiating
- Every rate and every extra: detention, extra stops, tarp pay, layovers, TONU.
- Broker calls
- Setup, check calls, tracking requests and delivery confirmations.
- Paperwork
- Carrier packets, insurance certificates on file, and BOLs and PODs sent where they need to go.
- Planning
- Reloads before you deliver, and the week planned toward home.
- Claims
- Detention and layover claims filed with your in and out times.
What stays yours, always: which loads you take, when you run, where you go, which brokers you work with, and every customer you already have. We run the phone and the paperwork; you run the business, and you can take any piece of it back whenever you like.
Home time and lanes, planned from the start
A dispatcher who plans one load at a time can't get you home on Friday. Here's how we plan the week instead.
We start with home. If you want to be home every weekend, the week is planned backward from Friday: the last load ends near home, the one before it sets that up, and so on. If you run out two or three weeks at a time, we plan a loop that comes back on the date you set, not when the freight happens to allow it.
Lanes come next, and they matter almost as much as home. Some owner-operators love a lane and want to run it until it stops paying. Others want variety. Some won't go into certain cities or mountain passes in winter. All of that goes in your notes, and offers that ignore them don't reach you. For longer runs, read how we plan OTR loops.
Plans change mid-week, and that's fine. A family thing comes up, the truck needs a shop, or you just want an extra day home. Tell us as soon as you know, and we re-plan around it: a shorter load, a load that ends closer to home, or nothing at all until you're ready. You don't owe us an explanation, and there's no fee on weeks the truck doesn't run.
Choosing a dispatcher as an owner-operator
Ask any dispatcher these questions before you sign anything. We'll answer them the same way every time.
- 01Can I turn down any load?If the answer has conditions, walk away.
- 02Who sends me the rate con?It should come from the broker to you.
- 03What is the fee charged on?Gross, linehaul only, or something else, in writing.
- 04How do I cancel?Month-to-month with a short notice period is fair. Long contracts aren't.
- 05Do you ask about my truck and gear?If they don't, they'll offer loads you can't take.
- 06Can I keep my own customers?Your relationships should stay yours.
Flatbedders can go deeper with our flatbed dispatch guide, and the flatbed owner-operator guide covers the business side of running one open-deck truck.
Your rate floor, and the report that keeps us honest
Setting a rate floor
A rate floor is the lowest all-in rate per mile you'll run, empty miles included. It starts with your cost per mile: fuel, insurance, truck payment, maintenance, tires, permits and everything else, divided by the miles you run. Add what you need to pay yourself, and you have a floor. Anything below it costs you money to haul.
Tell us your floor on the setup call, and offers below it don't reach you. If the market drops and your floor starts parking the truck, we'll say so plainly and show you what's out there, so you can decide whether to lower it, change lanes or wait.
- Cost per mile
- $1.45
- Your pay per mile
- $0.55
- Floor, all-in
- $2.00/mi
- Below that
- Not offered
The weekly report
Every week you get a report for your truck: each load, its miles, gross, rate per mile and the fee. It's how you check our work. If the numbers don't add up to a better week than you'd have booked yourself, you'll see it before we do.
Adding a truck later, and when not to use us
When you add a second truck
Plenty of owner-operators grow into a small fleet. When you run 2 or more semi trucks with an MC older than 6 months, the fee drops to 4% of gross, and it stays there. You choose who approves loads for the second truck, you or its driver, and each truck gets its own weekly report. Our small fleet dispatch page covers how that works.
When an owner-operator shouldn't use a dispatcher
If you have steady direct customers who keep you loaded, enjoy working the boards and negotiate well, a dispatcher may cost more than it adds. That's a real answer, not a sales line. The carriers we help most are the ones losing evenings to the phone, taking the first rate offered, and running empty more than they'd like. If that's not you, keep doing what works.
5% for one established truck
One semi truck with an MC older than 6 months pays 5% of gross on loads you haul. New MCs pay 7% until month 6, then the rate drops on its own. 26 ft box trucks and hotshots pay 7% at any age. No setup fee, no minimums, month-to-month with 30 days notice to cancel.
The full breakdown is on the dispatch pricing page. If waiting on broker pay is the bigger problem, see owner-operator factoring, or read our honest take on whether factoring is worth it.
- Week gross
- $6,500
- Rate
- 5%
- Fee
- $325
- Hours on boards saved
- About 10
Owner-operator dispatch questions
Note 01How much does dispatch cost for one truck?
For one semi truck with an MC older than 6 months it's 5% of the load's gross, charged only on loads you haul. New MCs pay 7% until month 6, and 26 ft box trucks and hotshots pay 7% at any age. No setup fee, no minimums, month-to-month with 30 days notice.
Note 02Can I choose my own lanes and home time?
Yes, and we start there. On the setup call you tell us where home is, how often you want to be there, which lanes you like and which you avoid. Every offer gets planned around those notes. If a great load doesn't fit your home time, you'll hear about it as an option, never as an order.
Note 03Do I approve every load?
Every one. We send the lane, miles, rate, pickup and delivery windows and the extras. You say yes or no, and no costs nothing. If you say yes, the broker sends the rate confirmation straight to you to read and sign, so you always see exactly what the load pays before the truck moves.
Note 04Can I still book my own loads?
Yes. Book your own loads whenever you want, keep your direct customers, and use us to fill the gaps. We only charge on loads we book. Tell us when you've booked something yourself, so we plan the next offer around it instead of offering you a load you can't take.
Note 05Do you work with leased-on owner-operators?
Our service is built for owner-operators running under their own authority, because brokers set up and pay the carrier whose MC is on the load. If you're leased on to another carrier, your loads usually come through that carrier. Tell us your situation on the call and we'll tell you honestly whether we can help.
Note 06What if I don't like a broker?
Tell us once and that broker is off your list for good. Late pay, unpaid detention, a rude dock or a bad feeling: your reasons are your own. We keep a blocked list on your account, and offers from those brokers never reach you, however good the rate looks.
Note 07What makes a dispatch service good for owner operators?
Look for five things: you approve every load, the rate con comes to you, the fee and what it's charged on are in writing, there's no long contract, and the dispatcher asks about your truck, gear and home time before quoting anything. A service that can't promise those isn't working for you.
Load offer
Pickup → delivery, miles, rate, accessorials
The rate con comes from the broker straight to you.
Keep the decisions. Hand us the phone calls.
Apply in about 2 minutes. You approve every load after that.