How Truck Dispatchers Find Carriers to Dispatch

How truck dispatchers find owner-operator clients: FMCSA's broker line, new-carrier lists by state and cargo, email templates, a call script and agreements.

Published Oct 29, 2026 · 36 min read · by Lead Mining Company

A truck dispatcher's clients are motor carriers. Most are one-truck owner-operators and small fleets whose owners would rather drive than spend the day on load boards and on the phone with brokers. Finding them is a list problem and a timing problem. Before either, it is a legal problem: pitch the wrong kind of service and you are brokering freight without authority.

This guide covers the line FMCSA draws between a dispatch service and a broker, which carriers hire dispatchers, where dispatchers find them, and how to build a list from new FMCSA registrations by state, cargo and fleet size, for free or for a fee. It then covers what to send and say at each stage after a carrier registers, what the agreement and onboarding file should hold, and the scams and mistakes that end dispatch businesses. Carrier counts come from the FMCSA Company Census File as of October 28, 2026.

The short answer

Dispatchers find carriers in four places: referrals from carriers they already serve, people they meet in trucking groups and at truck stops, partners who sell to the same carriers, and lists of new registrations built from the FMCSA Company Census File. The census file is the only one of the four that grows on a schedule. As of October 28, 2026 it held 178,190 active carriers added since October 1, 2025, and 11,218 of them were added in the last 30 days.

Stay on the carrier's side of the line. Under FMCSA's June 2023 final guidance, a dispatch service that is paid by the carrier under a written agreement, works for that carrier only and stays out of the money between broker and carrier generally does not need broker authority. Take pay from a broker or factor, deal with shippers, or decide which of your carriers gets a load, and you probably do.
Target small for-hire carriers. 169,569 of the 178,190 carriers in the file (95.2%) report five power units or fewer, and 130,839 (73.4%) are authorized for hire.
Filter by state, cargo and fleet size. The file has no trailer-type field, so the cargo boxes a carrier checked are the nearest guide to its equipment.
Email first, call by hand after a Do Not Call scrub, and never text without consent. Never make your outreach look like it came from the government.

Where dispatching ends and brokering begins

Read this section before you build a list, because it decides what you can sell. Nothing here is legal advice. FMCSA says its own guidance does not have the force and effect of law, and the facts of your setup decide where you fall. If your model is close to the line, talk to a transportation attorney before you sign carriers.

The broker definition in 49 CFR 371.2

Federal regulations define a broker as a person who, for compensation, arranges or offers to arrange the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier. The same section says motor carriers, and persons who are employees or bona fide agents of carriers, are not brokers. A bona fide agent is a person who is part of the normal organization of a motor carrier and performs duties under the carrier's directions, under a preexisting agreement that provides for a continuing relationship, "precluding the exercise of discretion on the part of the agent in allocating traffic between the carrier and others."

That last clause is where a dispatch business stands or falls. A dispatcher who acts for one carrier, under a standing agreement, at the carrier's direction, fits the agent definition. A dispatcher who holds freight and decides which of several trucks gets it is allocating traffic, which is what brokers do.

The November 2022 interim guidance

Section 23021 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act told FMCSA to issue guidance on the terms broker and bona fide agent, and to look at dispatch services in particular. FMCSA published interim guidance on November 16, 2022 (87 FR 68635, docket FMCSA-2022-0134) and took public comments until January 17, 2023.

The interim notice described dispatch services as businesses that work for motor carriers rather than shippers, find loads for those carriers and may perform other services for them. It said a dispatch service that represents only one motor carrier, or that takes no part in arranging freight, is not a broker. A dispatch service that arranges transportation for several carriers and allocates traffic among them needs broker authority. It also set out the money question: handling money exchanged between shippers and carriers strongly suggests the need for broker authority, though it is not an absolute requirement for being a broker.

The June 2023 final guidance

FMCSA issued its final guidance on June 16, 2023 (88 FR 39368). The definitions did not change, because only a rulemaking can change them. Three points in the final version matter most to dispatchers:

There is no statutory or regulatory definition of a dispatch service, so FMCSA judges each one by what it actually does.
"Allocating traffic" means "any exercise of discretion on an agent's part when assigning a load to a motor carrier."
The more control a carrier has over a dispatcher's actions, the less likely the dispatcher is exercising independent discretion.

The final guidance then sorts the facts into two lists: factors that suggest a dispatch service is a bona fide agent and does not need broker authority, and factors that suggest it does. FMCSA says neither list is complete and a service does not have to match every factor. Here they are in plain words.

Factors that point away from broker authority

A written contract with the carrier appoints the dispatch service as the carrier's agent. FMCSA notes this is often a long-term relationship, and the contract should spell out the insurance and liability responsibilities of each side.
The service complies with any state licensing requirements that apply to it.
It goes through a broker to arrange loads for the carrier and does not seek or solicit shippers for freight.
It does not bill or accept pay from the broker, third-party logistics company or factoring company. It is paid by the carrier under the pre-determined written agreement.
It is not an intermediary in, or otherwise involved in, the financial transaction between the broker and the carrier.
It receives an IRS Form 1099 from the carrier or is the carrier's W-2 employee, as the contract specifies.
It tells brokers it is a dispatch service working under an agreement with a specific carrier, and the load is arranged for that carrier only.
It does not later hand the load to another carrier.
It provides services only to carriers that have appointed it as their agent under such an agreement.

Factors that point toward broker authority

The service deals with or negotiates any shipment directly with the shipper or the shipper's representative.
It accepts pay for a load from the broker or factoring company, or takes part in any piece of the money moving between them.
It arranges freight for a carrier without a written contract of the kind described above.
It accepts a shipment with no truck lined up and then looks for a truck or carrier to move it.
It accepts a shipment that more than one of its carriers could haul and assigns it to one of them.
It is a named party on the shipping contract.
It solicits the open market of carriers to move a shipment.

The who-pays-you test

If you keep one question from the guidance, keep this one: who pays you? Pay from the carrier, under a written agreement, points toward agent status. Pay from a broker or a factoring company for a load points toward brokering, and so does any role in the money moving between the broker and the carrier.

In practice the clean setup looks like this. The carrier, or the carrier's factoring company, invoices the broker. The broker pays the carrier or its factor. The carrier then pays you under your agreement. You never invoice the broker, you are never the remit-to party on a rate confirmation, and you never accept a "dispatch fee," spiff or bonus from the broker side, however it is labeled.

The guidance does not set a fee amount, a percentage or a fee method, and this guide does not quote typical dispatch fees because we found no official source that publishes them. What FMCSA asks for is that the pay come from the carrier and be fixed in the written contract in advance. Whatever you charge, write it down before the first load.

Dispatching for more than one carrier

A dispatch business that grows past one truck runs into the multiple-carrier question. The guidance says representing more than one carrier does not by itself make you a broker. What matters is whether you allocate traffic. FMCSA gives two situations where an agent can serve several carriers without allocating: the carriers do not pick up freight in each other's areas, or they are not willing or able to haul the same loads, with hazmat versus non-hazmat and refrigerated versus flatbed as its examples. If you source the same type of load for two carriers with no geographic limits, FMCSA says you could not represent both without broker authority.

Picture a dispatcher with ten dry-van owner-operators running the same region. Every load found could go to any of them, and choosing between them is allocation. Options to raise with counsel include giving each carrier its own lanes or regions, keeping each carrier's load search separate and letting the carrier approve every load, or getting broker authority and running the business as a brokerage. The guidance also notes that a business that only makes information about potential shippers public, with or without a fee, does not need broker authority as long as it is not otherwise involved in any transaction between the shipper and a carrier.

What broker authority involves

If your model needs broker authority, you register with FMCSA as a broker and keep financial security in place. Under 49 CFR 387.307 a broker must have a $75,000 surety bond (evidence filed on Form BMC-84) or trust fund (Form BMC-85), and FMCSA will not register a broker until it is in effect.

The penalty statute is 49 U.S.C. 14916. It allows a person to provide interstate brokerage services as a broker only when registered and covered by the required financial security. A person who knowingly authorizes, consents to or permits a violation is liable to the United States for a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation, and to the injured party for all valid claims regardless of amount. Corporate entities and partnerships, and their individual officers, directors and principals, are jointly and severally liable. Both FMCSA notices say a gap in the statute keeps the agency from assessing 14916 civil penalties itself, so those go through the Department of Justice in federal court. The private claim by an injured party does not depend on FMCSA at all.

Which carriers hire a dispatcher

Large fleets dispatch in house. A dispatch service sells to carriers too small to keep a dispatcher on payroll: owner-operators running under their own authority, and small fleets where the owner also drives. The census file shows how many of those register each year, and it is most of them.

Fleet size of active carriers registered October 1, 2025 to October 28, 2026
Power units reported	Carriers	Share
One power unit or none	122,643	68.8%
Two to five	46,926	26.3%
Six to 20	7,079	4.0%
21 or more	1,542	0.9%
Total	178,190	100%

Carriers with five power units or fewer add up to 122,643 + 46,926 = 169,569, or 95.2% of the file. A carrier with one truck is the classic dispatch client, because the owner is the driver and every hour spent on the phone is an hour not driving. A fleet of two to five can be an owner who drives plus a few hired drivers, and may want dispatch for the extra trucks. The bigger the fleet, the more likely it already has a dispatcher on staff, so carriers above five trucks are a smaller market for an outside service.

For-hire carriers versus private carriers

130,839 carriers in the file (73.4%) are authorized for hire, which means they haul other people's freight for pay. The rest have a classification that does not include authorized for hire, such as private carriers that move their own goods. A dispatcher has nothing to book for a private carrier, so the for-hire flag is the first filter to turn on.

The share swings by state. In Texas 18,142 of 20,972 new carriers are for hire (86.5%). In New York it is 3,639 of 8,122 (44.8%). A New York list pulled without the for-hire filter would be more than half private carriers.

Interstate carriers and the MC docket

102,308 carriers (57.4%) registered an interstate operation, and 71,307 (40.0%) have an MC, MX or FF docket in the file. The docket number is assigned when a carrier applies for operating authority, which for-hire carriers need to haul regulated freight across state lines.

In this guide, new authority means a for-hire carrier whose census record was added in the last 12 months and that has an MC docket. Keep the limits clear. A docket shows the carrier filed for authority. It does not prove the authority is active, and the census file does not show insurance status, the date authority was granted, inspections or crash history. Check the carrier's current status on FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot or its licensing and insurance lookup before you sign it and again before the first booking, because every broker will check too.

There is also a gap worth noticing: 130,839 for-hire carriers but only 71,307 with a docket, a difference of 59,532. The file does not say why. At least 28,531 for-hire carriers did not register an interstate operation (130,839 minus 102,308 interstate carriers), and others may not have filed for authority yet. Either way, a dispatcher who books interstate loads should treat the docket, and its active status, as a requirement.

Every carrier in the file is in its first 18 months

Under 49 CFR 385.307, FMCSA monitors a new entrant for 18 months and runs a safety audit once the carrier has been operating long enough to have records, which the rule says will generally be at least three months. Every carrier added since October 1, 2025 is inside that window. A new carrier is building its safety record, its broker relationships and its paperwork habits at the same time, which is the moment many owners look for help. Compliance work itself is a separate trade; see how DOT compliance services find new carrier clients if you plan to offer it alongside dispatch.

Where dispatchers find carriers

Every channel below works for someone. They differ in cost, in how fast they produce conversations and in how well you can aim them.

Ways dispatchers find carrier clients
Source	What you get	Cost	Limits
Referrals from your carriers	Warm introductions to drivers they know	Your time, plus any referral credit you choose to offer	Slow until you have a base of happy carriers
Trucking groups, forums and social media	Conversations with drivers thinking about their own authority	Free	Some groups ban sales posts; hard to aim by state or cargo
Truck stops, trade shows and driver events	Face-to-face trust	Travel and any booth fees	Few contacts per day; hit or miss
Partners who sell to the same carriers	Introductions from insurance agents, accountants, ELD sellers or factoring companies	Usually a referral swap	Watch the who-pays-you test when the partner is a factor
Your own website and search ads	Carriers who come to you	Ad spend and time to build pages	Takes months to rank; ads cost money per click
FMCSA Company Census File (free)	Every new registration with phone, email, fleet size and cargo	Free to download	Raw: you filter, clean and refresh it yourself
A filtered new-carrier file	The same public records, filtered and refreshed	From $99 a month or $149 once with us	Same data as the free file; it saves the work, not the outreach

Referrals and word of mouth

A satisfied carrier's word carries weight with other drivers. Ask every carrier after its first good month whether it knows anyone running its own authority. Keep it simple and do not pay referral money in a way that ties to specific loads. The trouble is volume: a new dispatch business has few carriers, so referrals alone grow it slowly.

Groups, forums and in-person events

Owner-operator groups on social media and trucking forums are full of drivers asking how to find loads. Answering questions in public, without a pitch, is a low-cost way to start. Read each group's rules first, since some remove sales posts. In-person events and truck stops build trust fast but produce few contacts per day.

Partners who serve the same carriers

Insurance agents, factoring companies, ELD and fleet software sellers and truck dealers chase the same new carriers. Each meets carriers at a different stage, which makes a referral swap natural. Our guides for truck insurance agents, factoring companies and truck lenders show how they work the same list. One caution: the final guidance treats taking compensation for a load from a factoring company, or any role in the money between factor and carrier, as a sign of brokering. Keep any partner arrangement separate from loads and freight payments, disclose it to the carrier, and get advice before you take money from a factor.

New registrations from the census file

The census file is the only source that adds new carriers every day, tells you where each one is based, how many trucks it reported and what it plans to haul, and carries a phone and email on almost every row. As of October 28, 2026, 177,751 of the 178,190 carriers (99.8%) list a phone, 177,954 (99.9%) list an email and 177,517 list both. That makes it the base layer for a dispatcher's prospect list. The next section shows how to build one.

Building a carrier list from new registrations

The FMCSA Company Census File is published on the U.S. DOT open data portal, data.transportation.gov, as dataset az4n-8mr2. It holds active, inactive and pending entities registered with FMCSA, more than 4.5 million USDOT records in all, and the portal showed it updated on October 29, 2026. It is free, needs no login, and as a work of the U.S. government it carries no copyright. Here is the free route, then what a filtered file changes. For a fuller walk-through of the download itself, see how to get a list of new trucking companies from FMCSA data.

The free route, step by step

Open the Company Census File page on data.transportation.gov. Do not export the whole file: at millions of rows it is too big to open in a spreadsheet.
Filter on the add date. The column is add_date, stored as text in the form YYYYMMDD, so October 1, 2026 is 20261001. Filter status_code to A for active carriers.
Add the dispatch filters: phy_state for the state, classdef containing AUTHORIZED FOR HIRE, and power_units for fleet size. Cargo sits in about 30 separate columns that start with crgo_, each marked X when the carrier checked that box, for example crgo_genfreight for general freight, crgo_coldfood for refrigerated food and crgo_bldgmat for building materials.
Export the filtered view as CSV. If you prefer a link, the portal's API accepts a query such as the one below, which returns active for-hire Texas carriers added since October 1, 2026.
Clean it: merge the cargo columns into one readable field, fix the capitalization of names, format phones, drop rows with no usable contact, and remove carriers you have already contacted.
Repeat every week with a new add date, and keep a log of who received what.

https://data.transportation.gov/resource/az4n-8mr2.csv?$where=add_date >= '20261001' AND phy_state = 'TX' AND status_code = 'A' AND classdef like '%AUTHORIZED FOR HIRE%'&$limit=50000

Our own pull uses the same source. In our file, "Registered" is the census add date, the date FMCSA added the record. It is not the date operating authority was granted.

The filters that matter for dispatch

Census fields a dispatcher filters on
Filter	Why it matters	Census column
Registered date	Sets where the carrier is in its first months	add_date
Authorized for hire	Only for-hire carriers haul loads you can book	classdef
Power units	One to five trucks is the dispatch market	power_units
Operation	Shows whether the carrier plans to haul across state lines	carrier_operation
MC docket	Shows the carrier filed for authority; check that it is active	docket1prefix, docket1
Cargo	Matches the freight you know how to book	crgo_ columns
State and city	Puts carriers near the lanes and shippers you know	phy_state, phy_city
Hazmat	Hazmat loads carry extra requirements; include or exclude on purpose	hm_ind
Phone, cell and email	How you will reach the owner	phone, cell_phone, email_address

Cargo types and the missing trailer field

Dispatchers specialize by equipment: dry van, reefer, flatbed, step-deck, car hauler, hopper. The census file has no trailer-type field. It counts the trailers a carrier owns or leases, but not what kind they are, and our CSV carries neither. The cargo boxes a carrier checked on its registration are the nearest guide. Refrigerated food usually means a reefer. Building materials, machinery and metal coils usually mean flatbeds or step-decks. Motor vehicles and drive away or towaway point to car haulers. Confirm the equipment on the first call, because a carrier can check boxes for freight it hopes to haul.

Cargo boxes checked most often by carriers registered in the 90 days to October 28, 2026 (a carrier can check several)
Cargo	Carriers	Share of the 39,891 registered in 90 days
General freight	22,005	55.2%
Building materials and construction	6,615	16.6%
Other	6,257	15.7%
Machinery, large objects	2,045	5.1%
Grain, feed, hay	1,614	4.0%
Motor vehicles	1,503	3.8%
Agricultural / farm supplies	1,452	3.6%
Garbage / refuse	1,429	3.6%
Drive away / towaway	1,428	3.6%
Logs, poles, beams, lumber	1,381	3.5%
Paper products	1,330	3.3%
Household goods	1,239	3.1%
Commodities dry bulk	1,230	3.1%
Metal: sheets, coils, rolls	1,159	2.9%

FMCSA's census sets the construction box whenever building materials is set, so the two are shown as one row. General freight leads by a wide margin: 22,005 of the 39,891 carriers registered in the last 90 days checked it. Refrigerated food is not on this list, so a reefer-only list will be smaller than the 1,159 carriers that checked metal, the last line. State lists vary: in California, fresh produce had 171 checks in the same 90 days, and in Florida motor vehicles had 223.

New carriers by state

The twelve largest states account for 111,997 of the 178,190 carriers in the file (62.9%). The table shows each state's count since October 1, 2025, the last 30 days, and the three fields a dispatcher filters on first. Each state name links to that state's page, with its cities and cargo mix.

New active carriers by state, registered October 1, 2025 to October 28, 2026
State	Registered	Last 30 days	One power unit or none	For hire	MC docket
Texas	20,972	1,305	14,641 (70%)	18,142 (87%)	8,460 (40%)
California	19,061	1,151	14,232 (75%)	14,196 (74%)	6,902 (36%)
Florida	14,906	961	11,004 (74%)	12,587 (84%)	5,699 (38%)
Georgia	8,791	526	6,130 (70%)	6,386 (73%)	3,369 (38%)
New York	8,122	524	5,313 (65%)	3,639 (45%)	1,607 (20%)
Pennsylvania	7,865	523	5,381 (68%)	5,429 (69%)	3,563 (45%)
New Jersey	6,159	458	4,260 (69%)	4,281 (70%)	2,742 (45%)
Illinois	6,144	466	4,471 (73%)	5,115 (83%)	3,778 (61%)
Ohio	6,020	393	4,326 (72%)	5,071 (84%)	3,168 (53%)
North Carolina	5,738	366	3,881 (68%)	4,435 (77%)	2,510 (44%)
Minnesota	4,262	292	2,804 (66%)	2,659 (62%)	1,229 (29%)
Michigan	3,957	236	2,626 (66%)	2,734 (69%)	1,493 (38%)

Other states have their own pages too, such as Tennessee, Indiana and Arizona, or start from the trucking leads overview.

How many new carriers register each month

Registrations run at a steady pace, which is why a weekly pull works. The counts below are carriers still active on October 28, 2026, by the month FMCSA added them.

Active carriers by month added
Month	Carriers
October 2025	12,521
November 2025	10,257
December 2025	10,669
January 2026	13,594
February 2026	13,561
March 2026	16,414
April 2026	15,993
May 2026	15,065
June 2026	15,536
July 2026	15,243
August 2026	14,701
September 2026	14,444
October 2026 (to October 28)	10,192

The twelve full months from October 2025 to September 2026 add up to 167,998, an average of about 14,000 a month. The last 30 days held 11,218 carriers, about 2,618 a week (11,218 divided by 30, times 7).

Worked example: a flatbed dispatcher in Texas

Say you book flatbed freight out of Texas. Texas had 4,860 new carriers in the last 90 days. 882 of them checked building materials and 281 checked machinery or large objects. A carrier can check both, so the two groups overlap and together hold at most 1,163 carriers. Building materials alone runs about 68 carriers a week (882 divided by 13 weeks).

Across the whole Texas file, 86.5% of new carriers are for hire. If the same share holds for the building-materials group, about 763 of the 882 are for-hire (882 times 18,142/20,972). That is an estimate; filter the real file to get the exact number. Houston, with 620 new carriers in 90 days, is the largest city group in the state. See the Texas trucking leads page for the full city list.

Worked example: a dry-van dispatcher near Atlanta

Georgia added 1,870 carriers in the last 90 days, 526 of them in the last 30. 1,028 checked general freight, the usual dry-van load. Atlanta had 159 new carriers in 90 days (about 12 a week), Lawrenceville 79 and Stone Mountain 38. Across the 12-month Georgia file, 69.7% report one power unit or none and 72.6% are for hire. A dispatcher working the Southeast would add the neighbor states, starting with Florida and the Carolinas, rather than wait for Atlanta's weekly trickle.

What a filtered file saves

The free file and a paid file hold the same public records. What you pay for is the work around them: no re-filtering of text dates, no merging of 30 cargo columns, consistent fleet-size bands, phones and emails in fixed columns, and a refresh you do not have to remember. If you would rather spend that hour on calls, a filtered file is worth it. If you are comfortable with the portal's filters, the free route works, and you should use it.

Outreach by days since registration

The Registered date tells you where a carrier is in its first year. It does not tell you whether its authority is active or its insurance is filed, so treat the stages below as a guide to what to check and send, not a statement of what each carrier has done.

FMCSA itself warns that basic carrier information becomes public once a carrier applies or updates its record, and that marketers often reach new carriers within minutes of their online transactions with the agency. So the first week is crowded. A short, plain message that stands apart from the rest matters more than being first.

Outreach stages for a new carrier
Days since registered	What to check	What to send
0 to 7	For hire, fleet size, cargo, whether an MC docket exists	One short introduction email. No call yet.
8 to 30	Docket status on FMCSA's public lookup; scrub phones against the Do Not Call Registry	A second email with something useful, then a first call dialed by hand
31 to 90	Whether authority shows as active; whether the carrier now has insurance on file	A call to carriers with active authority; an email to the rest
91 to 180	Still active? The safety audit generally comes after at least three months of operation	One email a month at most, with a short note on what you do
181 to 365	Still inside the 18-month new entrant period	A quarterly check-in email

Here is how the October 28, 2026 file splits across those stages: 11,218 carriers in the last 30 days, 28,673 between 31 and 90 days (39,891 minus 11,218), and 138,299 added between October 1, 2025 and the start of the 90-day window (178,190 minus 39,891). The older group is about 3.5 times the size of the 90-day group (138,299 divided by 39,891). It is easy to skip, and a slow cadence to it costs little.

Two rules apply at every stage. Stop the moment a carrier says no, and log it. And never send anything that could be mistaken for a notice from FMCSA, the DOT or a state agency. More on that below.

Email templates for new carriers

Email is the right first touch for an owner-operator. They can read it after a shift instead of answering a call while driving. B2B email is legal under the CAN-SPAM Act if you follow its rules, which the FTC's compliance guide lists:

Accurate From, To and Reply-To headers that identify you.
A subject line that matches the message.
A clear statement that the message is an advertisement.
A valid physical postal address.
A clear way to opt out, honored within 10 business days, and an opt-out that still works for at least 30 days after you send.
Responsibility for anyone who sends email on your behalf.

The FTC's guide notes that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email and lists penalties of up to $53,088 for each email in violation. Replace the bracketed parts below with your own details. Keep the numbers you quote real: your actual fee, your actual lanes, a reference who has agreed to take calls.

Template 1: introduction, days 0 to 7

Subject: Dispatch help for [Legal name]

Hi [First name],

I run [Your company], a truck dispatch service in [City, State]. I saw [Legal name] registered recently as a for-hire carrier based in [City]. I find and book loads for owner-operators running [equipment] in [region], and you approve every load before I book it.

How it works: you pay me [your fee and how it is calculated] under a written agreement. I do not take money from brokers or shippers, and payment for each load goes from the broker to you or your factoring company, not through me.

If you want to talk, reply with a good time and I will call. If not, no problem.

[Your name], [phone], [website]

This is an advertisement from [Your company], [street address, city, state, ZIP]. Reply "stop" and we will not email you again.

Template 2: follow-up with something useful, days 8 to 30

Subject: Broker setup checklist for a new carrier

Hi [First name],

Brokers send a setup packet before they book a new carrier. They commonly ask for your operating authority, a certificate of insurance, a W-9 and payment details. I put together a one-page checklist of what to have ready. It is yours whether or not we work together: [link to your page].

If you would rather have someone handle broker setups and load searches for you, I am at [phone].

[Your name], [Your company]

Advertisement. [Street address, city, state, ZIP]. Reply "stop" to opt out.

Template 3: authority active, days 31 to 90

Subject: Loads for [Legal name] out of [City]

Hi [First name],

I see [Legal name] is set up for for-hire freight. I book [equipment] loads out of [region] for [number of] carriers, and [reference name, carrier] has agreed to take a call about how we work.

My terms are simple: [fee], paid by you, written in a one-page agreement you can cancel with [notice period]. You approve each load. I never handle the freight money.

Can I call you this week?

[Your name], [phone]

Advertisement from [Your company], [street address, city, state, ZIP]. Reply "stop" to opt out.

Template 4: check-in, month 4 and later

Subject: Still booking your own loads?

Hi [First name],

I wrote a few months ago about dispatch for [Legal name]. If booking your own loads is working, good. If you are spending more time on the phone than you want, I have room for [number] more trucks running [equipment] in [region].

[Your name], [phone]

Advertisement from [Your company], [street address, city, state, ZIP]. Reply "stop" and you will not hear from us again.

Keep subject lines plain. Never put "FMCSA," "DOT," "USDOT," "compliance notice," "action required" or a deadline in a subject line. Those are the words impersonation scams use, and FMCSA has warned carriers about messages like that.

A first-call script

Owner-operators often register with a personal cell phone. The file shows 29,448 carriers (16.5%) giving a separate cell number, and it does not say whether the main phone is a mobile, so treat every number as if it could be. Before you dial:

Scrub every number against the National Do Not Call Registry and your own internal do-not-call list.
Dial by hand. No autodialers, no prerecorded messages and no AI voices.
Call between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the carrier's local time, not yours.
Do not text unless the carrier has given you consent to text.
Assume the person may be driving, and offer to call back.

The script

Opener: "Hi, is this [First name]? This is [Your name] with [Your company]. We're a private truck dispatch service in [City]. Is now a safe time to talk for two minutes, or should I call back?"

Reason for the call: "I saw [Legal name] registered as a for-hire carrier recently. I book loads for owner-operators running [equipment] in [region], and I wanted to see whether you're looking for help with that."

Questions:

"What are you running: tractor and what kind of trailer?"

"Is your authority active yet, or still pending?"

"Where is home, and how often do you want to be home?"

"What lanes or regions do you want to run?"

"Are you booking your own loads now, or does someone help you?"

"Do you factor your invoices, or do brokers pay you directly?"

"What's the lowest rate you'd accept, and are there loads you won't take?"

How you are paid: "Here's how I work. You pay me [fee] under a written agreement. I don't take money from brokers or shippers, and the load payment goes to you or your factor, not to me. You approve every load before I book it."

Next step: "If that sounds right, I'll email you the agreement and a list of what I need to set you up with brokers. What's the best email?"

If not interested: "Understood. I'll take you off my list. Drive safe." Then add the number to your internal do-not-call list the same day.

Common questions on the first call

"Are you with the DOT?" "No. We're a private company. I found your registration in FMCSA's public records."
"How did you get my number?" Say the same thing, plainly. Carriers have been warned about scammers, and a straight answer builds trust.
"How much?" Give your actual fee and how it is calculated. Do not dodge it.
"Can you guarantee me loads or a rate per mile?" Do not promise either. Explain what you book and let the carrier talk to a reference.
"I already have a dispatcher." Thank them and ask whether you can check in in a few months.

If you reach voicemail, leave a short message in your own live voice, or leave none and send an email instead. A recorded or AI-voiced voicemail drop is a prerecorded message under the rules below.

Calling, texting and email rules

This is a summary, not legal advice. The longer version, with the rules for each channel, is in rules for calling, texting and emailing new trucking companies.

Autodialers and prerecorded voices. The FCC's TCPA rules at 47 CFR 64.1200 bar calls to cell phones made with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the called party's prior express consent, and telemarketing calls of that kind need prior express written consent.
AI voices. On February 8, 2024 the FCC announced a declaratory ruling that AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the TCPA, so the same consent rules apply to them.
Do Not Call. Telephone solicitations to residential subscribers on the National Do Not Call Registry are barred, and the rule extends to wireless numbers. A sole proprietor's personal cell phone is exactly the kind of number it protects.
Calling hours. No telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location.
Internal list. Callers must keep their own do-not-call list, with a written policy, trained staff and opt-out requests honored.
Texts. Treat a text like a call. Do not text a carrier without consent.
State laws. Some states, Florida and Oklahoma among them, have their own telemarketing laws that add rules and private lawsuits.
Email. CAN-SPAM applies, as covered above.
Mail. A plain business letter to the carrier's mailing address is the lowest-risk channel, as long as it does not look official.

The census file has a mailing address column, and our CSV carries it. A short letter with your name, your fee and a phone number reaches the owner without interrupting a drive.

The dispatcher-carrier agreement

The first factor in FMCSA's final guidance is a written contract in which the carrier appoints the dispatch service as its agent. The agreement is not paperwork you do after you sign a carrier. It is the document that keeps you on the agent side of the line. Have an attorney draft or review yours. The points below are what the guidance asks for, plus what dispatch agreements commonly cover.

Clauses tied to the guidance

Appointment. The carrier, named with its USDOT and MC numbers, appoints you as its agent to find and arrange loads on its behalf. FMCSA says this is often a long-term relationship.
Compensation. The fee and how it is calculated, invoiced to the carrier and paid by the carrier. State that you accept no compensation from brokers, shippers, third-party logistics companies or factoring companies.
Payment flow. Brokers pay the carrier or its factoring company directly. You are never the payee and never handle freight payments.
Insurance and liability. FMCSA says the contract should specify the insurance and liability responsibilities of the dispatch service and the carrier. Spell out who is responsible for what.
Tax status. Whether you are an independent contractor paid on a 1099 or a W-2 employee.
Disclosure. You tell every broker you are a dispatch service acting for this named carrier, and loads are booked for this carrier only.
No reassignment. You will not hand a load booked for this carrier to another carrier.
No shipper solicitation. You work through brokers and do not solicit or negotiate with shippers.
State licensing. You comply with any state licensing that applies to you.

Clauses dispatch agreements commonly add

Load approval. The carrier approves each load before you book it. This keeps the discretion with the carrier, which the guidance treats as significant.
Scope. What you do (load searches, rate negotiation with brokers, broker setup packets, paperwork) and what you do not do.
Other carriers. If you serve other carriers, how you avoid allocating loads between them, for example separate regions or equipment.
Access. Which accounts the carrier shares with you, such as load board logins, and a commitment to keep them confidential. The carrier keeps its own FMCSA login and PIN.
Records. The carrier gets a copy of every rate confirmation and broker agreement you handle.
Term and termination. How either side ends the agreement, the notice period, and how loads already booked are handled.

Onboarding documents for a new carrier

Once the agreement is signed, a dispatcher collects what brokers will ask for and what you need to search well. This list is common practice, not a federal requirement.

The signed dispatch agreement.
A W-9 from you to the carrier, so the carrier can issue your 1099 if you are a contractor.
The carrier's USDOT number and MC number, and a copy of its operating authority once granted. Check the status yourself on FMCSA's public lookup.
A current certificate of insurance. Brokers' setup packets ask for one.
The carrier's W-9, which brokers request during setup.
If the carrier factors: the factoring company's name and the notice of assignment, so brokers pay the factor.
An equipment sheet: tractor, trailer type, length, door type, weight limits and any special equipment. Collect this because the census file has no trailer type.
Operating preferences: home base, home time, lanes, minimum rate the carrier will accept, freight it will not haul.
Driver details brokers ask for, such as the driver's name and phone for the load.

Do not collect what you do not need. A dispatcher has no reason to hold the carrier's FMCSA PIN, its bank login or a copy of the owner's Social Security card. FMCSA tells carriers it will never ask for a PIN, Social Security number, EIN or bank details in an unsolicited message; a dispatcher who asks for those up front looks like the scams carriers are warned about.

Scams and impersonation warnings

New carriers are a target, and they know it. Understanding what they have been warned about tells you what not to look like.

Messages that pretend to be FMCSA

FMCSA keeps a fraud alerts page about emails built to look like agency mail. It says official FMCSA email almost always comes from an address ending in .gov, that the agency will never ask for payment or sensitive information such as a UCR payment, PIN, Social Security number, EIN or bank details in an unsolicited message, and that recipients should not fill out forms attached to imposter emails. It tells carriers to report them to the FMCSA Contact Center, the FBI's IC3 site or the DOT Inspector General's hotline.

Vendors that imply they are required

FMCSA also has a page on fraudulent and misleading marketing to new applicants. It says private companies use the public registration data to contact new carriers by phone, email, text and mail, often within minutes, and press them to buy services. It reminds carriers that the government does not endorse private vendors and generally does not require their use. A dispatch pitch that implies a new carrier must use a dispatcher fits that pattern.

What this means for your outreach

Never put FMCSA, DOT or USDOT in your business name, email address, domain, logo or subject lines.
No seals, eagles, case numbers, "notice" headers, "required" language or deadlines.
Say in the first line that you are a private company, and say where you found the carrier.
Make yourself easy to check: a real website, a business address, your state business registration, and references who agree to take calls.

The FTC's rule on government and business impersonation, 16 CFR 461, makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to falsely pose as a government entity or to misrepresent an affiliation with one, directly or by implication. "By implication" is the part that catches lookalike mail.

Dispatch scams carriers will ask you about

Carriers also hear about bad dispatchers. Expect questions about these patterns and answer them before they are asked:

Large upfront fees for "guaranteed" loads, with no written agreement.
A dispatcher who asks brokers to pay it, then pays the carrier late or short.
A dispatcher who wants the carrier's FMCSA login, PIN or bank access.
Someone who uses a carrier's USDOT and MC numbers to book loads the carrier never sees. FMCSA has a page on broker and carrier fraud and identity theft for this.

Your agreement, your payment terms and your willingness to be checked are the answer to each of these.

Mistakes that cost dispatchers

Taking pay from shippers or brokers. This is the clearest broker factor in the guidance. A dispatcher paid by the broker side is acting as a broker, whatever the invoice calls it.
Talking terms with shippers. Negotiating any shipment directly with a shipper or its representative points toward brokering. Work through brokers.
Double brokering. FMCSA notes that double brokering is not a term defined in statute or regulation and that commenters used it for several practices, most often brokering without proper authority. For a dispatcher the danger is concrete: booking a load for one carrier and handing it to another, or taking a load with no truck lined up and then finding one. Both are on FMCSA's broker-authority list, and 49 U.S.C. 14916 makes the people involved liable to injured parties.
Allocating loads among your carriers. If two of your carriers run the same equipment in the same area, choosing between them is allocating traffic. Separate them or get advice.
No written agreement. Booking loads for a carrier without the contract the guidance describes is itself a broker factor.
Booking without approval. A carrier that learns about a load after it is booked will not stay, and the guidance weighs carrier control.
Touching freight money. Being the remit-to party, holding factoring payments or netting your fee out of a broker payment all put you inside the transaction.
Signing carriers whose authority is not active. A docket in the census file is not active authority. Check before you sign and before you book.
Outreach that looks official. It breaks the impersonation rules and gets your mail deleted.
Autodialers, voicemail drops and texts without consent. The consent and Do Not Call rules apply to each call and text, and owner-operator cell phones are protected numbers.
Promising loads or rates. You do not control the market. Promise your effort and your terms.
Ignoring opt-outs. CAN-SPAM gives you 10 business days. Do it the same day.

Measuring what your list produces

We do not publish response or signing rates, because they depend on your offer, your region and your follow-up, and any number we gave would be invented. Track your own instead. A simple sheet with one row per carrier is enough:

A tracking sheet for dispatch prospecting
Column	What to record
USDOT number	The key that keeps one carrier on one row
Registered date	From the file, so you can sort by stage
State, cargo, power units	So you can see which segments answer
Emails sent and dates	To keep the cadence and avoid repeats
Reply	Yes, no or opt-out
DNC scrub date	Proof you checked before calling
Calls and outcome	Connected, voicemail, call back, not interested
Agreement sent and signed	Dates for each
Still active after 90 days	The number that tells you whether the carrier was a good fit

After a few weeks you will have your own numbers. Then the planning math is simple. If you want four more trucks this quarter, and your sheet shows one signed carrier for every N conversations, you need 4 times N conversations. Divide by the conversations a week you can hold and you have the number of weeks. Divide the conversations by your own rate of conversations per email sent and you have the list size you need. Use your numbers, not someone else's.

Segment the sheet by state and cargo after the first month. A dispatcher who knows refrigerated lanes in California will see different results from one who books flatbeds in Texas, and the sheet will show where your time pays.

Where Lead Mining Company fits

We pull the same public FMCSA Company Census File every six hours and keep active carriers registered since October 1, 2025. You can filter by state, city, registration date, for hire, fleet size (one, two to five, six to 20, 21 or more), hazmat, cargo and contact type (phone, cell, email or both), then download a CSV with the USDOT number, MC docket, legal and DBA names, company officer, phone, cell, email, physical and mailing addresses, registration date, operation, power units, drivers, hazmat flag and cargo. Lead Mining Company is a private company and is not affiliated with FMCSA or the U.S. DOT.

$99 a month: new trucking companies in every state, up to 25,000 rows a month.
$149 once: carriers registered in the last 90 days, downloadable for 7 days after payment.
Custom software from $1,500: if you want your own pipeline built around the data, see custom lead-generation software.

The filters a dispatcher uses most are laid out on our page for dispatch services, and prices are on the pricing page. The data does not show whether a carrier already uses a dispatcher, the lanes it runs, its trailer type, its insurance status or whether its authority is active. If you would rather build the list yourself from the free file, the steps above are all you need. For how public records turn into B2B prospect lists in general, see our guide to public records as B2B lead sources and the trucking and logistics overview.

Questions and answers

Do truck dispatchers need broker authority?

It depends on what the dispatcher does. Under FMCSA's June 2023 final guidance, a dispatch service generally acts as a bona fide agent, without broker authority, when a written contract appoints it as the carrier's agent, it is paid only by the carrier, it works through brokers rather than shippers, and it stays out of the money between broker and carrier. Negotiating with shippers, taking pay from a broker or factor, assigning loads among several carriers or being named on the shipping contract all point toward needing broker authority. This is not legal advice.

Can a dispatcher be paid by the broker?

FMCSA's final guidance lists accepting compensation for a load from a broker or factoring company, or taking part in the money moving between them, as a factor that indicates the dispatch service should get broker authority. The guidance points toward pay from the carrier under a pre-determined written agreement.

Can I dispatch for more than one carrier?

Yes, but not if you allocate traffic. FMCSA defines allocating traffic as any exercise of discretion in assigning a load to a carrier. The guidance says an agent can serve several carriers that do not compete for the same loads, for example carriers in different regions or with different equipment such as refrigerated versus flatbed. Sourcing the same loads for two carriers with no limits would require broker authority.

Where can I get a free list of new trucking companies?

The FMCSA Company Census File on data.transportation.gov (dataset az4n-8mr2) is free and needs no login. Filter add_date for recent registrations, status_code A for active carriers, classdef for authorized for hire, phy_state for the state and power_units for fleet size, then export the result as CSV. As of October 28, 2026 it held 178,190 active carriers added since October 1, 2025.

Does the FMCSA census file show trailer type?

No. It has no trailer-type field. It counts the trailers a carrier owns or leases but not whether they are vans, reefers or flatbeds. Use the cargo boxes the carrier checked as a guide (refrigerated food usually means a reefer, building materials and machinery usually mean flatbeds) and confirm the equipment on the first call.

Can I cold call owner-operators?

Only with care. Owner-operators often register personal cell phones, which the National Do Not Call Registry protects. Scrub every number, dial by hand, call between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the carrier's local time, use no autodialers, prerecorded or AI voices, and do not text without consent. Email under CAN-SPAM and plain business mail carry less risk. This is not legal advice.

What should a dispatcher-carrier agreement include?

At a minimum: the carrier appointing you as its agent, your fee paid by the carrier and fixed in advance, a statement that you take no money from brokers, shippers or factors, the insurance and liability responsibilities of each side, your tax status (1099 or W-2), disclosure to brokers that you act for that carrier only, no reassignment of loads, carrier approval of each load, and termination terms. Have an attorney review it.