Truck dispatch for owner-operators and small fleets
Truck dispatch service built around the dock, and every load is your call.
RescueLoad is a truck dispatch service that negotiates free time, detention, layover and TONU before a load ever reaches you. You see the rate and the terms, you say yes or no, and the rate con comes straight to you to sign.
Load offer 1 of 3
ExampleFresno, CA to Phoenix, AZ
- Miles
- 588
- Rate
- $2,150
- Per mile
- $3.66
- 2 hrs free, then detention per hour
- Lumper reimbursed with receipt
- Setpoint 34°F written on the BOL
Pickup Mon 05:00
Eleven kinds of trucks, one set of rules, no favorites.
Our truck dispatching services treat a 26 ft box the same as a 53 ft reefer: the same fee, the same say on every load, the same attention to the paperwork. What changes is what we check before booking. A flatbed load lives or dies on tarp pay and mill wait time. A power only load depends on what the BOL says about a trailer you never saw loaded. Pick your truck below to see what we look for on its rate cons.
What do you run?
A few things hold for every truck. We only offer loads your equipment, your endorsements and your insurance actually cover, so you don't find out at the shipper that the freight needed a tanker endorsement or a bigger cargo limit. We plan the next load before you deliver the current one, so the reload is ready and the deadhead is short.
For box trucks we dispatch the 26 ft size, CDL or not. A 26 ft box rated at 26,000 lb or less runs without a CDL; one rated above that needs a CDL, and that changes which loads fit and whether DOT drug testing applies. Tell us which one you run and we plan around it. Hotshots work the same way: we confirm the load weight against your payload before it reaches you.
Each truck has its own page with the loads, the accessorials and the documents that matter for it:
Before you say yes
The money at the dock gets decided on the rate con, before you leave home.
Most unpaid hours start with a rate confirmation that says nothing about time. No free time listed, no detention rate, no TONU, nothing about who pays the . Once you've signed it, arguing for any of that is a favor you're asking, not money you're owed.
So our dispatchers work the terms first. Before an offer reaches you, we've asked for free time in writing at both ends, an hourly detention rate and how the time gets proven, a layover amount per day, a flat TONU if the load cancels after you're rolling, and lumper reimbursement with a deadline.
Not every broker agrees to every line. When one won't put detention in writing, we tell you that before you decide, along with what we think the load is worth without it. Sometimes it's still a good load. Sometimes it's the reason to pass.
What we won't do
- Book a load you haven't said yes to.
- Sign a rate con for you or ask for your load board passwords.
- Hide a term the broker refused, or pad a rate to make an offer look better.
Tap each clause on the sample to see what we push for and what you should read twice before signing.
Rate confirmation
Load EXAMPLE-1042 · Origin, ST to Destination, ST
Linehaul: $2,150 all-in
Carrier signature ____________ (that's you)
Free time
What we negotiate before you see it
Free time written for both ends, starting at check-in, so a slow gate doesn't eat your hours.
What to check before you sign
That it names both the shipper and the receiver, and when the clock starts.
At the dock
Hours you wait are hours you should bill. Proof decides which ones you do.
Waiting at docks costs drivers real money. A U.S. DOT Inspector General report estimated that detention cut for-hire truckload drivers' earnings by $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion a year, and found that each 15-minute rise in average dwell time raised the expected crash rate by 6.2 percent.
We can't make a receiver faster. We can make the time count. You send us your check-in and check-out times from the gate slip or your app. We log them against the free time on the rate con, message the broker before free time runs out, and file the claim with the times, the messages and the signed paperwork attached.
On every stop, the proof is the same short list: the check-in time from the gate or the receiver's system, the check-out time on the signed BOL or POD, any message you sent when free time was about to end, and the if one was paid. Photograph them before you pull out. Paper gets lost; photos on your phone don't.
Type your own times into the card. That number is what one stop was worth at your rate.
Source: U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General, 2018, checked October 2026
- ARRIVED07:10
- INTO DOOR 1407:58
- LUMPER FINISHED11:46
- CHECKED OUT12:40
$175 detention at $50/hr after 2 free hours.
Terms come from your rate con. This is the math, not a promise that a broker pays.
Clock start 07:10.
The fee
One percentage, a short list of what it touches, and nothing on weeks you sit.
You pay 5% with one truck once your authority is past 6 months, 4% with two trucks or more, and 7% while your MC is under 6 months old. Equipment doesn't change the rate. A new authority moves down a tier in month 7 without asking.
The percentage comes off the linehaul and the accessorial pay we actually collect for you. Money that only passes through your hands, like lumper reimbursements, tolls and scale tickets, is never in it. We don't think you should pay a dispatcher on the cash you fronted to get unloaded.
There's no setup fee, no monthly minimum and no long contract. If you don't haul, you don't pay. If you decline a load, you don't pay. Move the numbers in the meter to see a week with our fee taken out.
A week, worked out Example
Say a one-truck carrier with a year of authority hauls ,000 in linehaul in a week, collects 00 in detention and gets 50 back for a lumper. The fee is 5% of ,200, which is 10. The lumper 50 isn't touched. The carrier keeps ,040 of the ,350 that came in.
See exactly how the truck dispatch fee is worked out, or read how a load goes from offer to paid invoice.
Price my week
Example weekPass-through money. Never in our fee.
Our fee (5%)
$310
You keep
$6,040
Fee on $6,200. $150 in lumper money passes straight to you.
Dispatch services for trucking companies of one to ten trucks.
The size of the operation changes what slows you down. One truck loses time to the load boards. A new authority loses loads to brokers who want history. A fleet loses money in the gap between the truck and the office. Here is what we do about each.
- Owner-operators
You drive and you run the business. We take the load board hours and the broker calls off your plate, and you keep your lanes, your home time and the final say on each load.
- New authorities
Some brokers won't book an MC that's a few weeks old. We know which ones will, and we walk your first loads through the paperwork so the first invoice doesn't bounce.
- Small fleets
More trucks means more receipts that go missing and more detention nobody bills. One desk plans every truck, collects every POD and keeps the claims moving.
In every case the setup is the same: a call to learn your lanes, your home time and the lowest rate you'll run for, then carrier packets with the brokers that fit, then offers. You can change any of those settings at any time, and you can stop with 30 days notice.
Still weighing it up? Here is a side-by-side look at a dispatcher versus working the load boards yourself.
Free tools and guides for the work between pickup and payment.
We write about freight operations because that's where carriers lose money quietly. Every tool uses your own numbers, and every rule in the guides is cited.
Tools
- Detention pay calculator
Your in and out times and free time become billable hours and dollars.
- Accessorial charges calculator
Turn detention, layover, TONU and stop pay into invoice lines.
- Freight class and density calculator
Density from your dimensions, with a class estimate the tariff confirms.
- Bill of lading generator
Fill in a clean BOL in your browser and print it.
Guides by topic
- At the dock
Detention, layover, TONU, lumpers and every other accessorial: what triggers each one and what proves it.
- Paperwork
Rate cons, bills of lading, PODs, invoices and receipts, in the order a load creates them.
- Cube and class
Density, freight class estimates, pallets and how much fits on the floor.
- Claims
Damage and shortage claims, the federal deadlines, and the letters that start them.
- Freight terms
FOB, collect and prepaid, FAK and the rest, in plain words.
- Shipping basics
Straight answers for small shippers about how freight moves and what it costs.
- Freight agent
What freight agents do, how they are paid and how the work differs from dispatch.
Start with how a dispatcher gets detention and lumper money paid, or browse every freight guide.
Straight answers about our dispatch
How much does your truck dispatch service cost?
Do I have to take every load you find?
Who gets the rate confirmation?
Do you take a cut of lumper reimbursements?
Do you bill detention, layover and TONU for me?
What equipment do you dispatch?
Is there a contract or setup fee?
Do you ship freight or give freight quotes?
Need faster pay on the loads you haul? We refer carriers to RTS Financial for freight factoring. We may be paid for referrals, and it doesn't change your rate.
See a load before anyone books it.
Send the application, and a dispatcher calls with your first offer: the lane, the rate and the terms. Yes or no is yours.
You approve every load. No setup fee. No contract.