Trucking and dispatch terms, defined

Deadhead is the distance a truck drives empty, usually from where it delivered to where it picks up the next load.

Deadhead is the most commonly ignored cost in trucking. A load paying $3.10 a loaded mile with 200 empty miles to reach it can net less than a $2.60 load you are already sitting next to. Always divide the rate by TOTAL miles, loaded plus empty.

Rate per mile is the load’s total pay divided by its miles — but it means two different things depending on whether empty miles are included.

Rate per LOADED mile flatters every load. Rate per TOTAL mile tells you what you actually earned. When a broker or dispatcher quotes RPM, ask which one they mean before you agree to anything.

TONU stands for Truck Ordered Not Used — a fee a broker pays when they cancel a load after you have already been dispatched to it.

TONU is negotiable and frequently goes unclaimed. If you were dispatched, accepted and moved toward the shipper, you are entitled to ask. Get the cancellation in writing with a timestamp; that is what makes the claim collectable.

Detention is the money a shipper or receiver owes you for holding your truck beyond the free time agreed on the rate confirmation.

Free time is usually one to two hours and it must be stated on the rate confirmation to be enforceable. Record arrival and departure times, get them signed or stamped, and bill it the same day. Unbilled detention is the single largest source of quietly lost revenue in small fleets.

An accessorial is any charge beyond the linehaul rate — detention, layover, tarping, extra stops, lumpers, reconsignment.

Accessorials are where margin lives or dies. Each one must appear on the rate confirmation before you accept, because a verbal agreement with a broker’s night shift is worth nothing when the invoice is disputed three weeks later.

Linehaul is the base rate paid for moving the freight from origin to destination, before fuel surcharge and accessorials.

This distinction matters when a dispatcher quotes a percentage. A percentage of gross linehaul and a percentage of total invoice including accessorials are different deals at the same headline number. Ask which basis is being used.

A fuel surcharge is a separate per-mile amount added to the linehaul to offset diesel price movement.

FSC is usually pegged to a published diesel index and recalculated weekly. Whether it is included in a dispatcher’s percentage is a question worth asking explicitly before you sign.

A lumper fee is a charge for third-party labour to load or unload your trailer, most common at grocery and food warehouses.

Lumpers are normally reimbursed by the broker, but only if you get a receipt and submit it. Some brokers issue a comcheck on the spot; others reimburse on the invoice. Confirm which before you pay out of pocket.

Drop and hook means dropping the loaded trailer you arrived with and hooking to a pre-loaded one, instead of waiting while a trailer is loaded or unloaded.

It is the single biggest time saver in van and reefer freight. A live load and a live unload can cost three hours each; two of those in a day quietly halves your earning time. Screen for drop programmes before accepting, not after.

A live load or unload is one where the driver waits at the dock while the trailer is filled or emptied.

The opposite of drop and hook. Live stops are where detention accrues, which is exactly why free time and detention rates need to be on the rate confirmation before you accept the load.

A rate confirmation is the written agreement between carrier and broker setting out the load, the rate, the appointment times and the accessorial terms.

It is the document that decides every later dispute. Everything agreed verbally must appear on it — detention terms, tarp pay, temperature settings, free time. If it is not on the rate con, it did not happen.

A bill of lading is the legal document listing what was shipped, who shipped it and who is receiving it, signed at pickup and delivery.

The BOL is the contract of carriage and the evidence of condition. Discrepancies between the BOL and the rate confirmation — temperature, piece count, commodity — must be corrected before you roll, because that gap is where claims are won and lost.

A proof of delivery is the signed document confirming the freight arrived, and it is what triggers your right to be paid.

A missing or illegible POD is unpaid revenue. Photograph it at delivery, check the signature and date are legible, and send it the same day. Rejected invoices restart the payment clock from zero.

Reconsignment is when a broker changes the delivery destination after the load is already in transit.

It is a billable accessorial and frequently goes unbilled. The new destination changes your miles, your reload market and possibly your hours-of-service plan — all of which have a cost.

A carrier packet is the set of documents a broker requires before they will book you — typically authority, W-9, certificate of insurance and a signed agreement.

Every new broker means a new packet. Built once and reused properly, setups run in parallel with load search; handled badly, they are the reason a truck sits while paperwork catches up.

An RGN is a heavy-haul trailer whose front section detaches and lowers to the ground, turning the deck into a ramp so machinery can be driven straight on.

Often used interchangeably with "lowboy". Strictly, lowboy describes the low deck profile and RGN describes the detachable front — most heavy-haul lowboys are RGN. If you need to drive equipment on, confirm it is an RGN.

A step deck is a flatbed with two deck heights, letting it carry freight too tall for a standard flatbed while staying under legal height.

The lower rear deck buys vertical clearance without a permit. Unlike an RGN the front does not detach, so loading needs a dock, ramps or a forklift — confirm access before accepting.

A Conestoga is a flatbed or step deck fitted with a rolling tarp system that slides back for loading and covers the freight without hand tarping.

It gives flatbed access with weather protection and removes hours of physical tarping. It should be rated as its own equipment class, not quoted like the flatbed parked next to it.

Power only means supplying just the tractor and driver, pulling a trailer owned by the shipper, broker or another carrier.

Lower overhead and faster turns, because you are not maintaining trailers. The winning strategy is trailer pool and programme access rather than working the open board.

Hotshot trucking is expedited freight hauled on Class 3–5 pickups with gooseneck or flatbed trailers, rather than a Class 8 tractor.

Lower barrier to entry and faster response, but margins are decided by deadhead and by weight-legal screening — a 40ft gooseneck runs out of legal weight long before it runs out of deck.

A reefer is a refrigerated trailer with its own temperature-control unit, used for food, pharmaceuticals and other temperature-sensitive freight.

Pays more and demands more. Most claims start with a trailer that was not pre-cooled or was set to cycle instead of continuous run. Get the required mode in writing on the rate confirmation.

A dry van is an enclosed, non-refrigerated trailer — the most common equipment type in US freight.

The deepest reload pool in trucking, which is why dry van is won on reload density rather than headline rate. A lower-paying load into a live market beats a higher one into a dead one.

A CSA score is the FMCSA safety percentile assigned to a motor carrier, built from roadside inspections, violations and crashes over a rolling 24-month window.

It is a percentile, not a grade — higher is worse, and it ranks you against comparable carriers rather than against a standard. Brokers and insurers screen it, so it costs freight before it ever costs a fine.

A BASIC is one of the seven categories FMCSA scores carriers in: Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours-of-Service, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances and Alcohol, Hazardous Materials, and Driver Fitness.

Each BASIC is scored separately, so which category a violation lands in matters more than most carriers realise. A light out hits Vehicle Maintenance; a logbook error hits Hours-of-Service.

DataQs is FMCSA’s official system for challenging a violation or crash record you believe is factually inaccurate.

It is the only legitimate route to correct a record, and it works only where the data is genuinely wrong — misattributed, duplicated or later dismissed. It is not an appeals process for violations you committed.

Hours of Service are the federal rules limiting how long a commercial driver may drive and work before taking mandated rest.

HOS violations are among the easiest to accumulate and the easiest to prevent. They feed directly into a BASIC, and they are a routine finding in a New Entrant audit.

A driver qualification file is the set of records FMCSA requires a carrier to keep for every driver, including licence, medical certificate, employment history and road test.

The first thing an auditor asks for. Files must exist and be current at the time of the audit — they cannot be assembled retroactively, which is why this is ongoing work rather than a project.

The New Entrant Safety Audit is an FMCSA review of a newly authorised carrier, confirming the required safety management systems are actually in place.

It looks for DQ files, HOS records, a drug and alcohol programme and maintenance records. Entirely passable, and entirely preparable — but only if the records existed from load one.

IFTA is the International Fuel Tax Agreement, under which carriers file a single quarterly return distributing fuel tax across the states and provinces they drove in.

It requires accurate mileage and fuel records by jurisdiction. Sloppy IFTA records are a common audit finding and an avoidable one.

PSP is the FMCSA programme that lets carriers view an individual driver’s inspection and crash history before hiring them.

Distinct from CSA, which is carrier-level. A clean carrier percentile does not tell you anything about the driver you are about to hire; PSP does.

Factoring is selling your freight invoice to a third party at a discount so you are paid in days rather than waiting out the broker’s terms.

Useful when you would otherwise be financing the broker out of your own pocket. The advertised rate is rarely the effective rate — recourse windows, reserve holdbacks, minimum volume penalties and termination notice are where the real cost lives.

With recourse factoring you must buy back an invoice the broker never pays; with non-recourse the factor absorbs that credit risk.

Non-recourse costs more and the protection is usually narrower than it sounds — it typically covers broker insolvency, not a disputed invoice. Read what is actually excluded.

A notice of assignment is the document telling a broker that your invoices have been assigned to a factoring company and must be paid to them.

Brokers will not pay a factored invoice without one on file. A missing NOA is a routine and entirely avoidable cause of delayed payment.

Operating authority, identified by an MC number, is the FMCSA registration permitting a carrier to transport regulated freight for hire in interstate commerce.

A dispatch service works under YOUR authority and holds none of its own. Any dispatcher offering to run you under theirs is describing a different arrangement entirely — understand exactly what you would be signing.

Forced dispatch is any arrangement where a driver is penalised for declining a load rather than being free to refuse it.

The opposite is approved dispatch: you see the rate, the lane and the broker before anything is booked, and declining costs you nothing. Ask a prospective dispatcher what concretely happens the third time you decline.

A load board is a marketplace listing freight that brokers and shippers need moved, searchable by lane, equipment and date.

A board is a listing service, not a negotiator. It shows what is posted; it does not argue the rate, screen broker credit, complete your setups or chase your POD. Most carriers use both a board and a dispatcher.

Broker credit is an assessment of how reliably a freight broker pays, usually expressed alongside an average days-to-pay figure.

A high rate from a broker who pays in 60 days, or not at all, is not a high rate. Credit should be screened before the load is accepted, not after the invoice ages.