Resources
Everything we know, written down and given away.
Practical guides for owner operators and growing carriers — the same material we use to train our own dispatchers. No email wall on the articles.
- Dispatch tactics
- FMCSA compliance
- Fleet growth
Library
Guides, tactics and checklists
Topics: Owner Operator · Dispatch Tips · FMCSA Resources · Fleet Growth · Industry Guides
The owner operator profit guide: what your cost per mile is really telling you
Most owner operators track gross revenue and fuel. Neither number tells you whether a load was worth taking. Here is the full cost-per-mile calculation, line by line, with the fixed costs almost everyone forgets.
Read the guideSix broker negotiation scripts that raise your rate without losing the load
The posted rate is an opening position. These are the exact counters our dispatchers use, when to use each one, and the two situations where you should take the first number and move on.
Read the guideDeadhead math: why a $3.10 load can pay less than a $2.60 load
Rate per loaded mile is the most misleading number in trucking. Run the total-mile math instead — including the empty miles to pick up — and the load rankings change completely.
Read the guideThe FMCSA compliance checklist every carrier should run quarterly
Driver qualification files, hours-of-service records, drug & alcohol program, vehicle maintenance files and IFTA. What an auditor actually asks for, and the order they ask for it in.
Read the guideScaling past five trucks: the operational ceiling nobody warns you about
Growth does not stall for lack of capital or drivers. It stalls when the owner is still the operations department. Here is what has to be systematized before truck number six.
Read the guideSeven clauses in your factoring contract that quietly cost you money
The advertised rate is rarely the effective rate. Recourse windows, reserve holdbacks, minimum volume penalties and termination notice periods are where the real cost lives.
Read the guidePower only: trailer pools, drop programs and interchange agreements
Power only looks simple — hook a trailer, haul it, drop it. The money is decided by the parts nobody explains: who owns the pool, what the interchange agreement makes you liable for, and how far the next trailer sits from your drop.
Read the guideDetention, layover and TONU: a carrier’s guide to getting accessorials paid
Accessorials are the charges a load earns beyond linehaul — detention, layover, TONU, lumpers, extra stops, tarps. Most carriers are owed more of them than they collect. Here is what each one is, and the paper trail that gets it paid.
Read the guideFree download
The Broker Negotiation Playbook
Six counters our dispatchers use every day, a deadhead math worksheet and a cost-per-mile calculator you can fill in for your own truck.
- 18 pages, no fluff
- Printable worksheets
- No sales call required
Send it to me
Free dispatch audit
Let’s find out what your truck should be earning.
Book a free 20-minute dispatch audit. We review your last 10 loads and show you — load by load — the rate we would have negotiated. No contract. No obligation. No forced dispatch, ever.
- Reply within 1 business hour
- First load usually booked in 24 hours
- Cancel with 15 days notice, any time