If you Google "best truck dispatch company," you'll find a hundred sites all claiming to be it. Half of them are dispatch services. Some are unlicensed brokers operating in costume. A few are content farms ranking pages they wrote about themselves. We're going to give you something more useful — the screening rubric you should actually use, including on us.
Run through these seven questions with any dispatch service before you sign. If a service can't answer all seven cleanly, walk.
1. Is your published rate the only rate?
The right answer: yes, that's it, in writing. The wrong answer: vague language about "premium tiers" or "high-paying load" upcharges. The very wrong answer: refusal to commit to a number until you're on a phone call.
The cleanest dispatch services publish their full rate by equipment type and stick to it. Ours: 5% van/reefer, 6% flatbed/step-deck, 7% RGN, 8% hotshot/power-only, period. Posted on the site. If a competitor's site has no number on the pricing page, the number's negotiable downward — and you should negotiate it.
2. Can you show me your authority on FMCSA SAFER?
This is a 30-second test. Look up the dispatch service on safer.fmcsa.dot.gov. They should NOT have an active property broker authority. If they do, they're a broker calling themselves a dispatcher.
A real dispatch service doesn't need an FMCSA authority — they aren't moving freight. If they have an inactive or revoked broker authority on the record, that's a story you want to hear before signing.
3. Who pays me — you or the broker?
Right answer: the broker pays you (or your factor) directly. The dispatcher's cut comes out of your settlement after the fact, on a separate invoice from the dispatcher to you.
Wrong answer: any version of "we collect from the broker and pay you out." That's a property broker disguising re-brokering as dispatch. The freight money should never sit in a dispatcher's account. If it does, you're paying twice (the broker's spread plus the dispatcher's cut), and you have zero leverage if a payment dispute happens.
"Who is named as the carrier on the rate confirmation?" The only correct answer is YOUR MC. If the dispatcher signs as the carrier and then re-assigns the load to you, that's re-brokering and you're already in trouble.
4. What's the contract length and what does it cost to leave?
Best answer: month-to-month, no contract, no termination fee. Acceptable answer: 30-day cancellation, no fee.
Bad answers: 6-month or annual contracts, "cancellation fee" of any size, "you owe us X% of the next 30 days' loads if you leave." Those clauses exist to lock you in past the point where you'd realize the service isn't working. Real dispatch services keep you because the work is good, not because the paperwork is sticky.
Some shops require an "onboarding fee" of $300–$500 to get started. We don't. The service either earns its cut or it doesn't.
5. What's your average response time during business hours? After hours?
Right answer: under 5 minutes during business hours, under 30 minutes after-hours for emergencies. Real services track this number and can quote it.
Wrong answer: vague. "We always pick up the phone" is not a number. Dispatch is a time-sensitive job. A 2-hour callback during a load problem can cost you a delivery window, a detention claim, or a relationship with a good broker.
Our number: under 4 minutes during 6am–10pm CT, dedicated dispatcher pager for after-hours load issues. We measure it because drivers ask, and because it's the difference between solving a problem and explaining one.
6. How do you vet brokers before booking?
Right answer: a specific process. FMCSA authority status, insurance on file, payment-history report (Carrier411 or FreightGuard), bond status, and an internal blacklist built from past payment disputes.
Wrong answer: silence, or "we work with reputable brokers." That's how drivers end up on a non-paying broker's freight 30 days into their career.
The brokers we'll book without question are the ones we've worked with for years. The brokers we won't book at all live on our internal blacklist — usually because of a slow-pay or no-pay incident with one of our drivers in the last 24 months. Drivers don't see those names, they just don't see those loads.
7. Show me a real settlement from a similar driver
Right answer: yes, redacted, here's last week from a [your equipment] driver in [your region]. You see what they grossed, what was deducted (dispatch %, factoring if any), and what they took home.
Wrong answer: marketing copy. "Our drivers gross $X,XXX/week" without showing settlements is a number from a sales deck, not the dispatch floor.
Asking this also tests whether the dispatch service has more than a handful of active drivers. A shop with 6 drivers won't have anyone running your equipment in your region. A shop with 2,000+ drivers can pull a similar settlement in 10 minutes.
Bonus questions worth asking
- "Forced dispatch — yes or no?" Always no. If a dispatcher tells you which loads you'll take, they're managing you, not working for you.
- "Do you handle factoring?" Real dispatchers help you pick a factor; they don't run a captive factor that competes with the open market.
- "What happens if I leave next month?" See contract length above. Listen for euphemisms.
- "Who is my dispatcher?" A name, not a desk. Best dispatch is relational. If it's call-center routing where you talk to a different person every shift, the broker negotiation will suffer.
Red flags that should kill the conversation
- Marketing language without numbers ("better rates," "top loads," "premium broker network").
- Setup fees, onboarding fees, software fees.
- Long contracts with cancellation penalties.
- Active property broker authority with the FCC SAFER record.
- Refusal to put the cut percentage in writing on the dispatch agreement.
- Money flowing through them rather than direct from broker to you.
- Pressure to sign within 24 hours of the first call.
How we'd score TruckersTool against this rubric
We'd be hypocrites to write this and skip the self-check, so:
- ✓ Published % is the only rate. 5/6/7/8 by equipment, written, on the site.
- ✓ No FMCSA broker authority. We've never had one.
- ✓ Broker pays you (or your factor) direct. We invoice you separately for the dispatch cut after settlement.
- ✓ Month-to-month, no contract, no setup fee, no termination fee.
- ✓ Under 4-minute response 6am–10pm CT. Tracked weekly.
- ✓ Documented broker vetting process: FMCSA, insurance, Carrier411, internal blacklist.
- ✓ We'll redact a recent week's settlement from a similar driver on request.
If you ask us those seven questions and the answers don't satisfy you, walk. If they do, we'd be glad to dispatch you. Either way, you'll have the rubric for the next dispatch service you talk to — and most of them will fail it.