Guides
Last updated
How to Get Loads for a Semi Truck
Class 8 is where the compliance is heaviest, the freight is most abundant, and your own authority is worth the most. Here are the three ways to get loads, and what each one actually costs.
The short answer
There are three ways to get loads for a semi truck: get your own MC authority and book full-truckload freight from load boards and direct brokers, lease on to an established carrier and run under their authority, or keep your authority and pay a dispatch service 5–10% of linehaul. Class 8 has the deepest freight market of any equipment class — the general load boards are the venue rather than a supplement — and it also carries the heaviest compliance load: CDL, IFTA, IRP, heavy vehicle use tax, ELD, and a drug and alcohol consortium all apply.
What semi truck freight looks like
- Full truckload dry freight, typically 26,000–45,000 lbs in a 53-foot trailer
- Spot market freight booked load-by-load, and contract or dedicated lanes booked by the year
- Drop-and-hook programs at large shippers, where trailer pools replace live loading
- Reefer, flatbed, and step deck as adjacent trailer choices on the same tractor
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.
Which path semi truck operators actually take
Class 8 is where your own authority is worth the most and where leasing on is most established, so operators genuinely split. Own authority pays best in a strong market and exposes you fully in a weak one; leasing on to a large carrier trades roughly a quarter to a third of the linehaul for freight volume, fuel discounts, and someone else carrying the insurance. Running leased-on rather than under your own authority cuts roughly $0.12/mile of cost, mostly insurance and permits the carrier absorbs — which is worth weighing against the percentage before assuming your own authority is automatically the better deal.
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.
What a Class 8 operator needs
Semi is the one equipment class on this site where every federal requirement applies: Class A CDL, drug and alcohol consortium, DOT medical card, ELD and hours of service, plus IFTA, IRP, and the heavy vehicle use tax. The three lighter classes are shown alongside so you can see where the thresholds actually fall.
| 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 |
The semi truck line that catches people out
This is the class where everything applies. Over 26,000 lbs GVWR you need a Class A CDL, and the federal drug and alcohol testing program comes with it. Over 26,000 lbs also triggers IFTA fuel tax reporting, IRP apportioned plates ($1,500–$3,000/yr for 48 states), and the heavy vehicle use tax ($550/yr). ELD and hours-of-service are mandatory, annual inspection is mandatory, and FMCSA's statutory minimum is $750k primary liability — though brokers routinely contract for $1M. Class 8 is the only one of the four equipment classes on this site that owes IRP, IFTA, and HVUT.
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.
For semi trucks: Unlike the van classes, the big general boards are the market for Class 8, not a side aisle — DAT and Truckstop carry the majority of posted dry van volume. Expedite networks are largely irrelevant here. The venue worth graduating to is contract freight: shipper RFPs and dedicated lane awards, which pay less per mile than a hot spot load but hold their rate when the spot market falls.
Expedite networks
Thin for semi trucksClosed 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
Thin for semi trucksVolume 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.
Semi / Dry Van
At $1.40/mi operating cost and 17% deadhead, your break-even is roughly $1.69 per loaded mile before your own pay. Add $5,000/month over 8,000 miles and it lands near $2.45 — close enough to the spot average that the cost side is where the margin is.
- 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.
Semi / Dry Van
Have your IFTA licence, IRP cab card, and annual inspection in the folder too. Class 8 setup asks for more paperwork than any other class, and a missing HVUT Form 2290 stamp will hold you up.
- 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.
Semi / Dry Van
The general boards are the market here, not a supplement — start on DAT or Truckstop. Skip the expedite networks entirely; they are built for van freight.
- 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.
Semi / Dry Van
Lead with your current location, your empty time, and whether you can take a drop-and-hook. On dry van the broker is solving a scheduling problem, and availability wins more loads than a lower rate.
- 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.
Semi / Dry Van
Your fuel outlay on a 900-mile run is real money before anyone pays you. Check days-to-pay against your cash reserve, and factor the load if the gap is wider than you can carry.
- 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.
Semi / Dry Van
Board freight is where you build the record that gets you contract and dedicated lanes. Those pay less per mile than a hot spot load and hold their rate when the spot market falls — that trade is the whole Class 8 growth path.
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
Three ways: get your own MC authority and book from load boards and direct brokers, lease on to an established carrier and run under their authority, or keep your authority and pay a dispatch service 5–10% of linehaul. For Class 8 the general load boards — DAT, Truckstop — are the primary venue rather than a supplement, and contract or dedicated lanes are what you graduate to once you have a track record.
No. Leasing on to an established carrier is a well-established path in Class 8 and cuts roughly $0.12 per mile of cost, mostly insurance and permits the carrier absorbs, in exchange for a percentage of linehaul. Running under your own authority pays more in a strong market and exposes you fully in a weak one. Either way you need a Class A CDL, a DOT medical card, and enrolment in a drug and alcohol testing consortium.
DAT carries the largest volume of posted dry van freight, with Truckstop the main alternative; most owner-operators with their own authority run at least one of them. Boards are where you start. The higher-margin freight is contract and dedicated work awarded through shipper RFPs and direct broker relationships, which is never posted — that is what a track record on the boards buys you.
National dry van spot averaged roughly $2.41 per loaded mile in early 2026. Against that, an owner-operator's operating cost runs $1.15–$1.85 per total mile before their own pay, which puts break-even near $2.14–$2.99 per loaded mile at 17% deadhead once $5,000/month of driver pay is added. The upper half of that cost range does not clear on spot freight, which is why utilization and deadhead matter more than chasing the top rate.
It depends on the market and on how much office work you want. Own authority keeps 100% of the linehaul and builds an MC number, a safety record, and broker relationships you own — but you carry insurance, collections risk, and the 6–12 month window where brokers will not book a new authority. Leasing on removes all of that for roughly a quarter to a third of the linehaul, and the miles build the carrier's record rather than yours.
How to get loads by equipment
These tools are provided for informational purposes and should not be treated as legal, tax, or financial advice.
Related Tools & Guides
calculator
Cost Per Mile Calculator
Free trucking CPM calculator with equipment-specific defaults for cargo vans, sprinters, box trucks, and semis. See your true cost per mile, breakeven rate, and how you compare to industry benchmarks.
Open tool →
guide
DOT Inspection Prep Guide
Free DOT inspection checklist for cargo vans, sprinters, and box trucks. Know exactly what inspectors check, what documents to carry, and which rules apply to your vehicle.
Open guide →
comparator
Cost Per Mile by Equipment Type: Cargo Van vs Sprinter vs Box Truck vs Semi
Side-by-side 2026 cost per mile for cargo van, Sprinter, box truck, and semi: total CPM, fuel, insurance, and break-even rates in one table. Free.
Open tool →
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