Dispatch services for new trucking companies, built around a brand-new MC
Your authority is active, the truck is ready, and the first broker you call asks how long you've had your MC. Then the second one does. A new authority can watch good loads go to carriers with more history for weeks, and every one of those weeks has a truck payment in it.
We set a new carrier up the way a careful dispatcher would: packets ready, search pointed at brokers that work with new authorities, and every load brought to you to approve. It's 7% of gross while your MC is under 6 months, then the standard rate for your equipment. No setup fee and no contract.
- 7% under 6 months
- No setup fee
- Month-to-month
- You approve every load
NEW MC DAY 1
The hard part isn't finding loads
New authorities can see plenty of postings. The hard part is getting a broker to say yes to an MC with no history, without falling for the scams that target new carriers. That's where a desk helps most.
check every broker
Your first 90 days, pinned to one board
Every new carrier's first three months look different, but the shape is usually the same: paperwork first, then a handful of loads with brokers willing to take a chance on you, then lanes you can run again. Here's how we plan it. Rates on the cards are EXAMPLE numbers to show the math, not a forecast.
WEEKS 1-2 SETUP
Paperwork and packets
We confirm your authority shows active on FMCSA's records, collect your documents and fill out carrier packets with brokers that accept new MCs. You set your lanes, home time and floor rate. Nothing moves until this is right.
- EXAMPLE
WEEKS 3-6 FIRST LOADS
Get history on the board
First loads come from brokers that accept new authorities, and every one comes to you to approve. EXAMPLE: $1,650 for 720 loaded miles plus 40 empty is $2.17/mi all-in. Clean deliveries and on-time check calls start building the record brokers look at.
- EXAMPLE
WEEKS 7-12 LANES
Turn loads into lanes
With a few deliveries behind you, more brokers will set you up. We look for freight you can repeat and reloads that keep you out of dead markets. EXAMPLE: a weekly round trip that pays $2.35/mi all-in beats a random $2.60/mi load that strands you.
Ninety days isn't a magic number. Some brokers will load you sooner and some want more history than that, and market conditions change what anyone can book. The point of the plan is that every week has a job, so the slow early weeks still move you forward.
What you can do to speed it up: answer the phone when a broker calls for setup, keep your insurance agent on speed dial for certificate requests, send clean bills of lading and delivery receipts the same day, and never miss a check call. Brokers talk to each other less than people think, but their carrier teams notice which new MCs make their job easy. Those carriers get the second load, and the third.
Why brokers turn down a new MC, without the myths
No law says a broker can't use a new carrier. Brokers set their own carrier rules, and those rules vary a lot. What they're weighing is risk: if something goes wrong on a load, they want a carrier with a track record they can check. Here's what most of that comes down to.
- Authority age. Some brokers won't load an MC younger than a certain number of months. Others will, with extra checks. There's no single industry number, so we don't pretend there is one. We keep track of who has said yes to new authorities and point your search there.
- No safety record yet. A new carrier has no inspections and no history in FMCSA's public data. New carriers go through FMCSA's New Entrant Safety Assurance Program, including a safety audit in the first 12 months. Some brokers wait to see that history build.
- Insurance. FMCSA's minimum for most general freight carriers is $750,000 in liability coverage under 49 CFR 387.9. Many brokers ask for more, often $1,000,000 in auto liability plus cargo coverage. If your policy is under what a broker requires, they can't set you up no matter the rate.
- Fraud. New MCs are also where a lot of fraud comes from, including identity theft and double brokering. Brokers are careful with any carrier they can't verify, which is one more reason clean, matching paperwork matters.
So what changes over time? Mostly history. Each delivery with on-time check calls and clean paperwork makes the next broker setup easier. Your authority getting older opens doors at brokers with age rules. None of that happens by waiting. It happens by running safe, on-time loads, which is exactly what the first weeks are for.
For the boards themselves, our guide to load boards for new authority covers which features matter when your MC is new and how to read postings that say "no new MCs".
How a desk works a new MC differently from an old one
Dispatching a carrier with five years of history is mostly about price. Dispatching a new MC is mostly about access. The work shifts, and so does what we watch for.
- More setups, earlier. We send packets to brokers before there's a load on the table, so when one posts something that fits, you're already approved instead of waiting a day for a setup to clear.
- Shorter first runs. Early on, a few clean regional loads can do more for you than one long run. Each delivery is a chance to show on-time pickups, good check calls and clean paperwork.
- A floor you can live with. New carriers sometimes need to take a little less to get history started. We'll show you the all-in math so you can decide where that line is, and we'll never go under it without your yes.
- Extra broker checks. A new MC hasn't learned which names to avoid yet. We look up every broker before the counter, and we pass on loads that fail the check even when the rate is tempting.
- Planning around cash. If you don't factor, a broker paying in 30 days or more matters a lot in month one. We'll ask about payment terms on every load so you're not surprised by a long wait.
The goal for the first months isn't the highest rate on any single load. It's a steady run of deliveries that makes your MC look like a carrier brokers want to keep using. Rates tend to follow that, though no one can promise when.
Your new-authority checklist
Brokers ask for most of the same documents in their carrier packets. Having these ready is the difference between a setup that takes an afternoon and one that drags on for days. Check each item against the official source, because requirements depend on what you haul and where.
- Active operating authority (MC) and USDOT number, showing active on FMCSA's public registration lookup.
- BOC-3 process agent filing, required before FMCSA activates your authority.
- Certificate of insurance (COI) showing auto liability and cargo, with the broker added as certificate holder when they ask.
- W-9 with the business name exactly as it appears on your authority.
- Unified Carrier Registration (UCR) for the current year if you run interstate.
- Notice of assignment (NOA) if you factor, so brokers pay your factoring company.
- Drug and alcohol testing program if your truck needs a CDL: a pre-employment test, a random testing pool and FMCSA Clearinghouse registration under 49 CFR Part 382. See our page on joining a DOT drug testing consortium. This doesn't apply to non-CDL trucks.
7% while your MC is new, then your equipment's rate
For an authority under 6 months old, the fee is 7% of the gross on loads you haul. After 6 months it moves to the standard rate for your equipment: 5% for most single trucks, while 26 ft box trucks and hotshots stay at 7%. Add a second truck and the fleet rate is 4% while it lasts.
Why more at the start? The first months take more work per load: more broker setups, more calls to get one yes, more checking of brokers you haven't hauled for. The rate comes down as that work does.
Here's what that looks like on one load. EXAMPLE: a $1,650 load at 7% is a fee of $116. At 5%, the same load costs $83. The gap goes away on its own the month your authority turns 6 months old, unless you run a 26 ft box truck or a hotshot.
Same terms as everyone else otherwise: no setup fee, no monthly minimum, month-to-month, cancel with 30 days notice, and no fee in a week you don't haul. The full math is on the fee breakdown. If brokers' 30-day pay terms are the bigger worry, factoring for new authorities explains how getting paid on delivery works.
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New carriers are the favorite target. We check before we call.
A new MC with no broker relationships is exactly who fake brokers look for. The usual pattern: a load that pays well above the lane, a broker who only wants to text, pressure to go now, and a rate con from a company whose MC doesn't match the email domain. Sometimes the load is real but double brokered, and the carrier never gets paid.
Every broker we book with gets checked first: authority and registration on FMCSA's public records, contact details that match the registration, payment terms that make sense, and nothing that looks like a load being passed along twice. If something is off, the load never reaches you.
A few habits protect you even when nobody else is checking. Call the broker back on the phone number listed on their FMCSA registration, not the one in the posting or the email. Match the email domain to the company. Be suspicious of any load that asks you to pay something up front, use a fuel card they provide, or send the freight somewhere other than the address on the rate con. And never let anyone else hold your FMCSA login.
You'll still be the one signing the rate con, and the broker sends it straight to you. That's on purpose. It means you see exactly who you're contracting with, and you can always ask us why we trusted them.
New MC dispatch: questions we get
Why do brokers reject new authorities?
Which load boards work for new authorities?
Do I need my own drug testing program?
Should a new carrier use factoring?
Do I need factoring as a new carrier?
What insurance do brokers ask new carriers for?
Do you help me avoid scams as a new carrier?
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New MC? Let's get your first loads on the board.
5% standard, 7% new authority, 4% fleets. No haul, no pay.
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