Do the arithmetic on your own numbers, not on averages
Take your last ten loads. For each one, write down the rate, the loaded miles, the empty miles to get to the pickup, and any detention or accessorial you were entitled to but did not bill. Work out your actual revenue per total mile — not per loaded mile, which flatters every load. Then ask a prospective dispatcher what they would have done differently on those same ten loads. If they cannot answer specifically, that tells you something.
The three places the money usually is
First, the rate itself: the posted number is an opening position, and a carrier negotiating alone between drives rarely has the lane data to argue from. Second, deadhead: a higher-paying load into a market with nothing coming out can easily lose to a lower-paying load into a live one, and that comparison is hard to run from the cab. Third, accessorials — detention, layover, TONU, lumpers and extra stops go unbilled constantly, simply because nobody raised the paperwork.
The cost that never shows up on an invoice
Brokers post and answer during business hours, which are your driving hours. Self-dispatching therefore means either pulling over to work the board or booking in the evening, after the best freight has moved. It also means doing invoicing and document chasing during hours that should be rest. That cost is real even though nothing bills you for it, and it compounds — a tired driver making a rushed load decision is how a marginal week becomes a bad one.
When it is genuinely not worth it
If you run dedicated or contracted freight for a small number of repeat customers, you are already getting most of the benefit and a percentage would buy you little. If you are on a short predictable regional lane and reliably off the road early, self-dispatching is workable. And if you are in a cash squeeze where any percentage genuinely hurts, it is reasonable to self-dispatch while you rebuild — as long as you are counting the hours honestly.
How to try it without committing
Avoid long lock-ins. A week-to-week arrangement with a short notice period lets you judge a dispatcher on results rather than on a sales call. Agree in advance what gets measured — rate per mile against the lane benchmark, deadhead percentage, time between loads, accessorials billed and collected — and ask for it in writing weekly. A dispatcher confident in their work will not object to being measured.
If you want this handled rather than researched: truck dispatch and billing & invoicing.
Worth reading next: The owner operator profit guide: what your cost per mile is really telling you, and Deadhead math: why a $3.10 load can pay less than a $2.60 load.
Unfamiliar with a term used above? The trucking glossary defines the words brokers, dispatchers and auditors actually use.
Want a straight answer about your own operation? Send your last ten loads. We will tell you what we would have done differently — including "nothing, you are doing fine", when that is the honest answer. Book a free audit, or read who runs the desk first.
Sources and further reading
This site publishes no performance statistics of its own, because none could be independently verified. Where a fact is checkable, here is where to check it — primary sources, not summaries of summaries.
- BLS — Cargo and Freight Agents, Occupational Outlook — Background on what the dispatching occupation involves.
- FMCSA — Motor Carrier Registration — Operating authority requirements for single-truck carriers.
Regulations, fees and processing times change. Verify current requirements directly with the issuing agency rather than relying on any third-party summary, including this one.