What is dispatch fee?
A dispatch fee is what a dispatch service charges a carrier for finding and booking loads, usually a percentage of the linehaul or a flat weekly amount per truck.
Percentage fees commonly sit between five and ten per cent of linehaul. Flat fees are a fixed sum per truck per week regardless of what the truck earns.
The service typically covers sourcing loads, negotiating rates, handling paperwork with brokers and managing the schedule.
What it means on a dispatch desk
The two structures reward opposite behaviour, and carriers rarely notice which one they are being paid under. A percentage aligns the dispatcher with rate, because a better rate pays them more. A flat fee aligns them with volume, because another load costs them nothing extra. Neither is wrong, but a flat-fee desk with too many trucks per dispatcher is where service quietly degrades.
Related terms
- Cost per mileCost per mile is a carrier's total operating cost divided by total miles driven, including empty ones. It is the number that decides whether a given rate is profitable.
- FactoringFactoring is selling freight invoices to a third party at a discount in order to be paid within a day or two instead of waiting thirty to sixty days. The factoring company then collects from the broker.
- LinehaulLinehaul is the base charge for moving freight from origin to destination, excluding fuel surcharge and every accessorial. It is the core of the rate.
- Broker-carrier agreementA broker-carrier agreement is the standing contract between a freight broker and a carrier that governs every load they move together. It is signed once during onboarding, not per load.
Put dispatch fee in context when researching carrier leads by state, including Texas, California and Illinois.
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