Be wary of third-party trucking dispatch services

W Joel Baker Headshot
Updated Jan 24, 2025

These so-called dispatch services are a relatively new phenomenon in trucking. The earliest I can remember their existence in numbers is probably seven-ish years ago. That’s not to say an independent dispatch provider, typically working with multiple motor carriers, didn’t exist before, yet I was never aware of them if they did. Point being; if they did exist before that time, I hadn’t run into any yet, and they were about as common as a unicorn. 

Now, though: It sometimes seems as if every new independent owner-operator believes they can't get loads unless they hire one. This is emblematic of what the underlying issue is for new truck owners entering the trucking industry -- a dearth of experience and knowledge, both of which will be virtually a requirement to acquire if they truly hope to succeed as a truck owner. 

Setting that aside, there are several reasons to exercise extreme caution before ever considering a third-party dispatching service in my view.

The first is obvious. Cost. The old “one more hand in the cookie jar” cliche comes to mind. And for what? So they can post your truck on a load board, frequently only using free load boards, and wait for an email or for a phone call? Or maybe occasionally inform you of an available load on a load board? On the rare occasions I have sought a load from a broker, it might take fewer than five minutes to post my truck on several boards. Then: get and make calls to secure any load I choose. I could never imagine paying a dispatcher anywhere from 5% to as much as 20% of the rate for no more than that.

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[Related: How to change your decision-making for successful self-dispatch]

It’s even worse if they are offering direct loads without a brokerage authority. In such cases, I’d call them a bad actor, trying to fly under the FMCSA’s radar and avoid purchasing the required bond to get their broker authority. That runs the potential of opening up another bag of problems no truck owner wants to be caught in the middle of when seeking payment for a load, payment that will never come. 

By far the biggest reason to be wary in this day and age: Security. The advent of unregulated and uninsured third-party dispatch services is a dream come true for every bad actor and fraudster looking to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting truck owner. I’d argue an essentially unregulated business of this type provides the bad actor or fraudster the ability to operate freely and without attracting unwanted attention to themselves. There are countless ways this might occur. As with some of my prior articles, I don’t want to give any new ideas here to would-be bad actors. As such, I’m only going to focus on the obvious.

Recall that I wrote about the importance of safeguarding Certificates of Insurance (COI) for independent owner-operators in efforts to avoid the potential for business identity theft. These so-called dispatchers will frequently request a COI from you or even your insurance agent, yet dispatchers never, ever have a need for a COI. Who needs it? Your customer and/or broker. If a dispatcher wants a COI, it should immediately be very concerning to the truck owner.

Said another way, it should be a bright-red, flashing STOP light.

[Related: Safeguard your trucking business' certificate of insurance to avoid becoming an ID theft victim]

Just take a moment to imagine all the seemingly unimportant details a dispatcher with an ongoing relationship with your trucking business will have collected about you. Preferred lanes, schedules, tendencies -- if they’ve also successfully convinced the truck owner to provide them a COI, they probably have truck VIN numbers, amounts of coverages, policy numbers, insurance carrier(s), and etc. Now imagine that the so-called dispatcher is convinced to provide, for a small fee of course, all those details to a bad actor/fraudster. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, the dispatcher could be getting paid to help plan a hijacking, an accident for a fraudulent insurance claim, identity theft and/or credit theft, and etc. The possibilities are endless. It could be quite profitable for someone to do exactly what they are being paid to do by the truck owner while simultaneously, without the truck owner’s consent, making money on the back end -- the truck owner might never know it.

That’s especially true considering how easy it is these days to hide one’s true identity and location. It could be extremely difficult to find a committed bad actor in the event the truck owner suspects something and wants to confront them. Who are you going to call? Who is the truck owner going to file a claim with?

Anyone can say anything over the phone. How many times have you heard a broker say something like, “I can’t go any higher on the rate because that’s all I’m getting paid for the load.” Obviously, that can’t always be true, otherwise the broker wouldn’t be in business. Consider a dispatcher who says they are in Memphis, and may even have a phone number with a Memphis area code. Why would anyone believe them? We all know that we get calls from a local number, for all intents and purposes appearing to be a call coming from someone in the United States, yet the voice on the line is actually beamed in from Asia, Africa or some other part of the world. Why? Often enough, they want to appear to be in the United States in efforts to perpetrate some type of fraud on an unsuspecting victim. But, hey, they speak perfect English!, you say.

[Related: Norman Camamile's weekend with the 'Iluminati' hacker: Four Amazon loads, no payment

Today, I might remind you, you could very well be talking to nobody. That is to say a computer. AI.

We live in a world that is less and less safe by the day. Each and every day it’s easier to be victimized by a bad actor or fraudster. 

Lawyers don’t start being lawyers by first practicing law before they ever go to law school, pass the bar exam and get a license to practice. Doctors, similarly, don’t start out being doctors by practicing medicine before they ever sit in a class in medical school. Insurance agents don’t first sell insurance policies, then complete the required education to pass the licensing exam and get an insurance license.

Trucking is no different. There are a plenty basics every truck owner should know before buying that first truck, especially if they are going to be an independent owner-operator with motor carrier authority. In today’s world that includes knowing how not to put yourself in a position to be victimized by a bad actor. Using an unregulated and uninsured third-party dispatching service, in my view, puts you at that very kind of risk.

It’s certainly not true that all third-party dispatchers have ill intent. I have no doubt that there are some truck owners who have had successful relationships with such services. Yet it’s just not a good business model putting the cart before the horse on the knowledge and experience necessary to succeed as an independent with authority. Just like broker relationships, dispatch-service arrangements typically run their course and come to an end. Once ended, if a new carrier has no clue how to find their own loads or even use a load board, they have set themselves up for a disaster. Sadly, I've seen it time and time again.

I’ve never used such a service, nor will I ever. 

To be blunt, if I don’t know how to or can’t find my own loads, I have no business being an independent with my own authority. 

[Related: Getting your own authority: Basics of filing, insurance and avoiding common mistakes]

Need help with your insurance? Call the author of this story, insurance agent and longtime independent W. Joel Baker -- if you have questions about insurance you'd like to see addressed by Baker here in Overdrive, drop a comment under this story or get in touch with him directly via his websites. 


Find more information on the ins and out of trucking insurance in-depth in Chapter 16 , operating with authority in Chapter 18, of the annually updated Overdrive/ATBS-coproduced "Partners in Business" handbook for new and established owner-operators, a comprehensive guide to running a small trucking business sponsored for 2024 by the Rush Truck Centers dealer networkClick here to download the most recent edition of Partners in Business free of charge.

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