Owner-operators
How to check that a dispatch company is real, and allowed to do this
There is a federal test for whether a dispatch service is operating lawfully, and it is short enough to run on anyone in an afternoon. Here it is, with how to check each part.
Why this check exists
A dispatch service does not need operating authority of its own, but that is only true while it stays inside a specific boundary. Step outside it and the service is brokering freight without a licence, which is a problem for it and, in the ways that matter most, a problem for you: an unauthorised arrangement is where unpaid loads and voided insurance come from.
FMCSA published final guidance on where that boundary sits, effective in June 2023. It is not obscure and it is not long. What follows is the same test in plain language, with the way to check each part.
The checklist
Run all six. A service that fails one is not necessarily dishonest, but it is operating on ground it should be able to explain, and you are entitled to ask it to.
A written appointment, signed before any load moves
Arranging transport without a written contract with the carrier is one of the things that turns a dispatcher into an unauthorised broker. If nobody sent you a contract, ask why.
Here: Ours is signed before the first load, and we send you the whole thing to read before you sign anything. Ask for it at any point in the conversation, including the first call.
They work through brokers, and never solicit shippers directly
A dispatcher who negotiates directly with the shipper is doing a broker's job and needs a broker's authority to do it.
Here: We work the load boards and the brokers. If a shipper approaches us about your truck, we hand it to you.
They are paid by you, and only by you
Compensation from a broker or a factoring company is a direct trigger for broker authority. It also means the person picking your loads is being paid by the other side of the negotiation.
Here: We invoice you for our fee. We take nothing from a broker and no referral commission from any factoring company, ever, including the one we may point you to.
They are not in the money flow between broker and carrier
Money moving through an intermediary between broker and carrier is the clearest sign there is that the intermediary should be holding broker authority.
Here: The broker pays your carrier, or your factor, in your name. We never receive it and never hold it.
They never move a load from one carrier to another
Re-tendering a load booked under one authority to a carrier running under another is double brokering. It is not a paperwork slip: it runs into tens of thousands of dollars per violation, and the carrier that hauled the load can find itself unpaid and uninsured.
Here: Your load is booked under your authority and stays there. It is never offered to, or assumed by, our own trucks.
They tell the broker which carrier they represent
A dispatcher who is vague about whose truck they are calling for is a dispatcher a broker cannot check.
Here: We name you, and we give the broker your own numbers, because they are the numbers on the load.
Checking the company itself
Look the business up in the federal register by name. A motor carrier or broker is in there with an address, an authority status and an insurance record, and anyone who is not in there is not one of those things, whatever the website says.
Compare the address you find with the address on the website. A mismatch is worth a question. So is an address that turns out to be a registered-agent suite or a mailbox in a state the company does not otherwise seem to be in: it is legal, it is common, and it also means there is no office there and nobody to visit.
Then phone them and ask who will be dispatching your truck, where that person sits, and what hours they work. The answer to a verification question tells you as much as the answer itself. A company that treats the check as an insult has told you something.
Warning signs that are worth walking away from
No written agreement, or one that arrives after the first load. Money asked for up front. A relationship that lives entirely in a messaging app with no email trail, so nothing that was agreed can be produced later. Guarantees about rates or weekly revenue that no honest party can make, because neither of you controls the market. And any discouragement, however polite, of the checks on this page.
None of these is exotic. They are the ordinary failure modes of a category with a low barrier to entry, which is why the check is worth running even on a company that comes recommended.
Where this desk stands on each of them
Every answer in the checklist above is ours. They are written there rather than in a separate paragraph on purpose: a claim is worth more when it sits inside the test it is supposed to pass, where it can be compared with what everyone else answers.
Talk to the desk
One conversation with the person who would actually be dispatching your truck. Nothing here commits either of us.
Perguntas
Respostas diretas
Does a truck dispatcher need broker authority?
Not if it stays inside the bona fide agent boundary: a written appointment with the carrier signed before any load, work through brokers rather than direct with shippers, paid only by the carrier it represents, never in the money flow between broker and carrier, never moving a load from one carrier to another, and always telling the broker which carrier it represents. Step outside any of those and the answer changes.
How do I check if a dispatch company is legitimate?
Look the company up in the federal register by its legal name, compare the address there with the one on its website, ask for the written agreement before you sign anything, ask who specifically will dispatch your truck and where they sit, and ask whether they take any money from brokers or factoring companies. The willingness to answer is part of the answer.
What is double brokering, and how does it affect me?
It is a load booked under one carrier's authority being re-tendered to a carrier operating under a different one. It carries penalties in the tens of thousands of dollars per violation and can cost a repeat offender its authority. For the truck that hauled the load it is worse in practice than in theory: you can end up unpaid, with an insurer declining a claim because the load was not moving under the authority it was supposed to be.