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How to Get Loads: The Three Paths to Freight
There are exactly three ways to get freight, and the right one depends on whether you have authority, how fast you need to start, and how much of the office work you want to own. Pick your equipment — cargo van, sprinter, box truck, or semi — for the specifics.
The short answer
There are three ways to get loads as an owner-operator: get your own FMCSA operating authority and book freight yourself from load boards and brokers, run under an established carrier's authority and take dispatched loads, or keep your own authority and pay a dispatch service 5–10% of linehaul to find and negotiate freight for you. Own authority pays the most and costs the most time; running under a carrier starts fastest and gives up the most control; a dispatch service sits in between. Which loads you can reach after that depends on your equipment: expedited freight on cargo vans and sprinters posts in expedite networks, while full-truckload dry van freight for a semi posts on the general load boards.
Your Equipment
Each equipment page carries its own freight profile, regulatory line, board guidance, and booked-rate figures.
The three ways to get loads
Every route to freight is one of these three, or a combination of them. They differ on three things: how long before you can haul, how much of the linehaul you keep, and how much of the office work is yours.
| Path 1Own authority | Path 2Under a carrier | Path 3Own authority + dispatch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose MC authority | Yours | The carrier's | Yours |
| Until you can legally haul | 4–8 weeks from filing | Days, once onboarding clears | 4–8 weeks, then a day or two to onboard |
| Until most brokers will set you up | 6–12 months of authority age | Immediately — you run on the carrier's age | 6–12 months of authority age |
| Who buys the insurance | You | The carrier, usually deducted from settlements | You |
| Who finds and negotiates the load | You | Their dispatch | The service, on lanes you set |
| What it costs | $300 FMCSA filing, then $9k–$17k/yr insurance for a new authority | 8–20% of linehaul, plus settlement deductions | 5–10% of linehaul, on top of your own insurance |
| Control over lanes and rates | Full | Accept or decline only | High — you set the lanes, you approve the rate |
| Back office (invoicing, collections, IFTA) | Yours | Theirs | Usually shared — confirm before signing |
| If a broker doesn't pay | Your loss | The carrier's loss | Your loss |
| Whose safety record the miles build | Yours | Theirs | Yours |
Run under someone else's authority
You lease on to an established carrier, run under their MC number and their insurance, and take the loads their dispatch assigns you.
Best for: Drivers who want to start hauling in days instead of months, or who can't get a workable insurance quote on their own yet.
What you get
- No authority to file, no FMCSA waiting period, no $9k–$17k insurance policy to buy in year one.
- You can be moving freight within days of onboarding rather than in two months.
- Somebody else owns the compliance, the invoicing, and the collections risk when a broker doesn't pay.
What it costs you
- The carrier takes a percentage of every load — commonly 8–20% of linehaul, before deductions for insurance, plates, ELD, or trailer rent.
- You accept or decline what dispatch offers. You do not see the broker's rate confirmation, so you cannot verify the split.
- Miles run under their MC build their safety record, not yours. Leaving means starting the authority clock from zero.
- Escrow and settlement deductions vary enormously between carriers. Read the lease agreement line by line before you sign it.
Two versions of this, depending on whether you own a vehicle
You own the vehicle, leased on
Your van or truck runs under their MC number. You are still an owner-operator; what you are renting is the authority, the insurance, and the back office.
- You bring
- The vehicle, its registration, and usually physical damage coverage · Fuel, maintenance, tires, and tolls · Occupational accident coverage, in most lease agreements
- They cover
- MC authority, the liability and cargo filings, and the safety program · Invoicing, collections, and the risk when a broker doesn't pay · Broker setup — you inherit their authority age from day one
- How you're paid
- A percentage of linehaul, commonly 70–88% depending on how much the carrier absorbs, minus settlement deductions. Read what those deductions are before signing — escrow, plates, ELD, and insurance chargebacks vary enormously.
You don't own a vehicle
You drive the carrier's equipment. You have no capital at risk and no operating costs, and correspondingly no equity in the operation.
- You bring
- A clean MVR · The driver credentials your equipment class requires · Your time
- They cover
- The vehicle, fuel, maintenance, and insurance · Everything on the compliance and back-office side · All of the downside when freight is soft — and all of the upside when it isn't
- How you're paid
- Percentage of linehaul, per mile, or hourly depending on the carrier and the freight. Percentage is the most common arrangement in expedite.
Keep your authority, pay someone to dispatch you
What Truxx.AI doesYou hold your own MC number and insurance, and a dispatch service finds, negotiates, and books the freight for a percentage of the load.
Best for: Drivers who already have authority (or are willing to get it) and would rather drive than spend the evening refreshing a load board.
What you get
- You keep your MC number, your safety record, and your broker relationships. The service works for you, not the other way round.
- You see the rate confirmation on every load, so the percentage is verifiable rather than a claim.
- Percentage-of-load pricing means the service earns nothing when you don't haul.
What it costs you
- You still buy your own insurance and still carry the collections risk if a broker doesn't pay.
- You still need the authority first, so this does not solve the 4–8 week startup gap.
- Rates run 5–10% of linehaul. At 10% on thin freight, a dispatch service can cost more than it earns you.
- Quality varies wildly. A dispatcher juggling 40 trucks is a load-board proxy, not a negotiator.
What you need for each path
Paths 1 and 3 both start with your own authority, so they share a checklist. Path 2 skips all of it and replaces it with a lease or driver agreement.
Credentials depend on your equipment, and mostly on two numbers
Two GVWR thresholds decide almost everything: 10,001 lbs brings in the DOT medical card, hours of service, and DVIRs, and 26,001 lbs brings in the CDL, the drug and alcohol program, IFTA, IRP, and the heavy vehicle use tax. Three of the four equipment classes below sit under the CDL line entirely.
| Credential | Cargo Van | Sprinter | Box Truck | Semi / Dry Van |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDL | Not required — far below the 26,001 lb threshold | Not required — far below the 26,001 lb threshold | Not required at 26,000 lbs GVWR or below; the threshold is 26,001 | Class A required — above 26,001 lbs |
| DOT medical card | Not required under 10,001 lbs GVWR | Required — most builds exceed 10,001 lbs | Required | Required |
| Federal drug & alcohol testing program | Not required | Not required — the program is CDL-keyed | Not required without a CDL | Required — consortium enrolment comes with the CDL |
| Hours of service / DVIRs / ELD | Not required under 10,001 lbs GVWR | HOS and DVIRs required over 10,001 lbs; no ELD mandate | HOS and DVIRs required; ELD varies | All three required |
| IFTA / IRP / heavy vehicle use tax | None — all three key to over 26,000 lbs | None — all three key to over 26,000 lbs | None at 26,000 lbs GVWR or below | All three apply |
| Clean MVR | Every carrier and insurer will pull it | Every carrier and insurer will pull it | Every carrier and insurer will pull it | Every carrier and insurer will pull it |
| Requirement | Path 1 | Path 2 | Path 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDOT numberFree from FMCSA. Issued as part of registration. Brokers will not set you up without one. | Required | — | Required |
| MC (operating) authority$300 one-time FMCSA filing, then a 21-day protest period before it goes active. Required to haul regulated property for hire across state lines. | Required | — | Required |
| BOC-3 process agent filing$25–$50 through a filing service. Must be on file before authority activates. | Required | — | Required |
| Liability + cargo insuranceFMCSA requires a $750k liability filing on regulated freight. Brokers routinely contract for $1M liability and $100k cargo — that higher number is a contract term, not a statute. | Required | — | Required |
| Unified Carrier Registration (UCR)Annual, roughly $46 in the smallest fleet bracket. Renews every year in the fall. | Required | — | Required |
| A signed lease or driver agreementThe whole deal lives here: the percentage, the escrow, the deductions, and how you get out. Read it before you sign it. | — | Required | — |
| A vehicleYours on paths 1 and 3 — owned or financed, with registration and physical damage coverage. On path 2 you either bring your own and lease it on, or drive the carrier's. | Required | Required | Required |
| Driver credentials for your equipment classNo CDL on any of the three equipment types here. Medical card, hours-of-service, and DVIRs depend on whether your vehicle crosses 10,001 lbs GVWR — see the table above. Every carrier and insurer will also pull your MVR. | Required | Required | Required |
Where the loads actually are
Expedited freight and full-truckload freight are two different markets that share a vocabulary. Signing up for the wrong venue is the single most common reason a new operator concludes there is no freight for their equipment.
Expedite networks
Closed networks where expedite carriers post available capacity and trade freight with each other. This is where most cargo van and sprinter volume actually moves, and it is invisible from a general load board. Membership usually requires authority and a monthly fee.
Examples: Sylectus, Expediters Online, Expedite All
General load boards
The big subscription boards carry every equipment type, but their reputation is built on dry van — which makes them the primary market for Class 8 and a much thinner side aisle for vans and straight trucks. For expedited equipment they are best used as a rate-check and a backhaul tool rather than a main venue.
Examples: DAT, Truckstop, 123Loadboard
Partial and LTL marketplaces
Volume LTL and partial-truckload freight that never fills a 53-foot trailer. Straight trucks are the natural fit here, especially on retail, trade show, and appliance freight where a liftgate and a pallet jack are the whole reason you get the load.
Examples: Broker partial boards, 3PL capacity portals
Contract and dedicated freight
Lanes awarded for a year rather than booked for a day, through shipper RFPs, dedicated programs, and drop-and-hook trailer pools. It pays less per mile than a hot spot load and holds its rate when the spot market falls, which is the trade. Awards go to carriers with a track record, so this is what board freight earns you rather than where you start.
Examples: Shipper RFPs, 3PL dedicated programs, Drop-and-hook trailer pools
Direct broker and shipper relationships
The freight that never gets posted. A broker with a lane you have run cleanly three times will call you before they post it. This is slow to build and the single highest-margin source of loads on any equipment.
Examples: Broker carrier portals, Shipper vendor programs
Getting your first load
The sequence below is the same on any of the three paths. Only the worked examples change with your equipment.
- 1
Calculate the rate you cannot go below
Before you look at a single load, work out your operating cost per loaded mile — total cost per mile divided by your loaded-mile share. Every rate you see afterwards gets measured against that one number instead of against how the load feels.
- 2
Assemble the carrier packet before you need it
Every broker asks for the same documents: W-9, certificate of insurance naming them, signed carrier packet, MC authority letter, and voided check or factoring notice of assignment. Have them in one folder as PDFs. Setup is where first loads are lost, because the freight goes to whoever is ready first.
- 3
Sign up where your equipment's freight actually posts
Pick the venue that matches your equipment rather than the board with the best-known name. Expedited freight and full-truckload freight are two different markets that happen to share a vocabulary.
- 4
Call on the load, and call fast
Posted loads are seen by everyone at once. The carrier who calls within the first minutes with the MC number, the equipment, and a specific pickup time usually wins it. Have your pitch to fifteen seconds.
- 5
Vet the broker before you accept
Check days-to-pay and credit score on the board, confirm the MC is active and bonded, and get the rate confirmation in writing with detention and TONU terms on it before you roll. A great rate from a broker who pays in 90 days is not a great rate.
- 6
Turn the first load into a lane
Deliver clean, send the paperwork the same day, and call the broker back when you're empty in their area. One completed load with a broker is worth more than a hundred board searches, because the second load from them never gets posted.
Where Truxx.AI fits on each path
Whichever of the three you're on, there's a version of this we can do. Each one is listed with what it doesn't cover.
Path 3 · Own authority + dispatch
You already have your own MC or DOT number
This is the main product. You keep your authority, your insurance, and your safety record; we find, negotiate, and book freight on the lanes you set, and you see the rate confirmation on every load. 5% of linehaul, deducted at settlement — if we don't book you, we don't get paid.
What it doesn't do: It does not take the collections risk off your books, and it does not change your authority age.
Path 1 · Own authority
You want your own authority but haven't filed yet
We can help you get set up with your own MC number, then dispatch you on it once it's active. That puts you on path 1 and path 3 at the same time rather than filing alone and waiting.
What it doesn't do: It does not shorten the FMCSA protest period, and it does not skip the months where brokers are still filtering you on authority age.
Path 2 · Under a carrier
You want to start driving now, without your own authority
We can connect you with a carrier who can hire you. You run under their authority and their insurance, so you can be moving freight in days rather than months.
What it doesn't do: The carrier sets the terms, not us — the pay structure, the deductions, and the agreement are theirs. Everything in path 2 above is what to read that agreement for.
Full detail on the 5% dispatch rate is on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
First, get your own FMCSA operating authority and book freight yourself from load boards, expedite networks, and direct brokers. Second, run under an established carrier's authority as a leased-on driver and take the loads their dispatch assigns. Third, keep your own authority and pay a dispatch service 5–10% of linehaul to find and negotiate freight for you. Each trades money against time and control differently.
Running under an established carrier's authority. There is no FMCSA waiting period, no authority filing, and no insurance policy to buy in your first year, and — the part that matters most — you run on the carrier's authority age, so brokers will book you immediately. On your own MC you would be waiting months for that. The cost is a percentage of every load and giving up control over which loads you see.
Longer than it takes to get the authority. Filing takes 4–8 weeks including the 21-day protest period, but most broker setup departments filter on authority age: roughly 3 months is the lowest common threshold, 6 months opens up a meaningful number of brokers, and many of the better-paying brokers and shipper programs use 12 months as a hard floor. Insurance prices the same curve. That gap between 'legal to haul' and 'brokers will book me' is the hardest stretch of a new carrier's life, and it is the main reason operators lease on first.
The FMCSA operating authority filing is $300 one-time, followed by a 21-day protest period. Add a BOC-3 process agent filing ($25–$50) and annual UCR (roughly $46 in the smallest bracket). The real cost is insurance: a brand-new authority with no operating history typically pays $9,000–$17,000 in the first year, because carriers under 12 months are rated as unknown risk.
Not for a cargo van, a sprinter, or a box truck spec'd at 26,000 lbs GVWR or below — the CDL threshold is 26,001 lbs. Those three classes also sit outside the federal drug and alcohol testing program. Above 10,001 lbs you do need a DOT medical card, hours-of-service compliance, and DVIRs. A CDL only becomes necessary on Class 8 equipment.
It depends on your rate and your alternative. At 5% of linehaul, a dispatch service needs to find you roughly one better load per twenty to pay for itself, which is achievable. At 10% on thin freight it often is not. The test is whether you see the broker's rate confirmation on every load — if you cannot verify the linehaul the percentage is calculated on, you cannot evaluate the service.
No. Running under an established carrier's MC number is a legitimate and common path, especially in the first year when insurance on a new authority is at its most expensive. The trade is that the miles build the carrier's safety record rather than yours, and leaving means starting the authority clock from zero.
How to get loads by equipment
These tools are provided for informational purposes and should not be treated as legal, tax, or financial advice.
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Stop searching for loads. Start earning more.
We find, negotiate, and book loads on your lanes — you drive. Carriers on the network average $2.49/mi across 47,000+ loads dispatched.
- No signup fees
- 5% only when you haul
- No long-term contracts