Can't find loads? Trucking doesn't run out of freight. Here's what's really going on.
You refresh the board at 5 a.m. Nothing in your lane, or nothing worth the diesel. You call on two postings and both are covered. By noon you've driven nowhere and burned a morning. If you can't find loads, trucking feels like it stopped moving, but the trucks around you are still running.
Freight rarely disappears. It moves to different lanes, different days, different brokers, or a different price than you're willing to take. Most of the time the cause is one of six things, and most of them can be fixed. Here's how to tell which one you're dealing with.
SEARCH: YOUR LANE YOUR EQUIPMENT
0 results is a symptom
An empty search is the board telling you something about your filters, your timing, your lane or the market. Read it like a clue, not a verdict.
widen one filter at a time
Six reasons you're not finding loads, and a quick check for each
Work down the stack. Each card has a self-check you can do in a few minutes and what usually helps. Often two or three apply at once.
1. YOUR FLOOR VS THE MARKET
Check: look at what's posted on your lane, not just what you'd accept. If everything is under your floor, the floor or the lane is the problem. Helps: know your real cost per mile, then decide whether to wait, reposition or take a short load that sets up a better one.
2. A WEAK MARKET AT YOUR LOCATION
Check: are you sitting where lots of freight goes in but little comes out? Some areas are mostly destinations. Helps: plan the next load before you deliver there, or take a cheaper load out to a stronger market instead of waiting days.
3. TIMING
Check: when are you searching? On many lanes, shippers tender early in the week and fresh postings come in the morning. Helps: search before you're empty, not after, and have broker calls going while you're still loaded.
4. FILTERS TOO TIGHT
Check: your deadhead radius, pickup dates and equipment filters. A 50-mile radius in a rural area can show nothing. Helps: widen one filter at a time, and price the extra empty miles into your counter.
5. AUTHORITY AGE OR PAPERWORK
Check: do brokers say no after you call? Many postings say no new MCs, and some brokers stall on insurance limits. Helps: carrier packets set up in advance with brokers who accept your authority and coverage.
6. ONLY USING THE BOARD
Check: is every load you haul from a public posting? Plenty of freight moves to carriers a broker already knows, before it's ever posted. Helps: building broker relationships, or a desk that already has them.
If one card fits and you can fix it yourself, do that first. Our guide on freight loads available explains where postings come from and why the same load can look different on different boards. If three or four cards fit, the problem is less about any single setting and more about time and access, which is what a dispatcher actually sells.
A word on equipment. Some trucks have fewer postings by nature: oversize, hazmat tankers, car haulers and dump trucks often move through direct relationships and specialty networks more than general boards. A 26 ft box truck competes for a different slice of freight than a 53 ft van. If your equipment is specialized, an empty general board is normal, and broker contacts matter even more.
Finding loads on your own vs with a dispatcher
Here's an honest side-by-side. Doing it yourself isn't wrong. It's cheaper in fees and costs more in hours. The right choice depends on which of those you're shorter on.
| On your own | With our desk | |
|---|---|---|
| Who searches | You, between drives | Dispatchers, all day |
| Sources | The boards you pay for | Major boards plus direct broker contacts |
| Broker checks | When you have time | Before every counter |
| Rate negotiation | You, on the phone | We counter above your floor |
| Reload planning | After you're empty | Before you deliver |
| Who approves the load | You | You |
| Cost | Board subscription plus your hours | 5% of gross (7% new MC, box, hotshot; 4% fleets), $0 when you don't haul |
The row that matters most is the one that doesn't change: you approve the load either way. A dispatcher brings the load to you and the broker sends the rate confirmation straight to you. What changes is who does the hours of searching, calling and arguing over price.
Want to put numbers on it? The dispatcher vs load board comparison has a calculator that weighs your subscription and your hours against the fee, and the fee breakdown shows our fee in cents per mile.
Is it you, or is it the market?
Sometimes it really is the market. Freight runs in cycles, and in a soft stretch there are more trucks than loads on most lanes, so rates drop and the good postings go fast. The load-to-truck ratio published by load board companies is one way to see that, with the source and date on it. Our guide to the load-to-truck ratio explains how to read it and what it can't tell you.
We only quote market numbers from named public sources with a date, and when we don't have a current figure we say so instead of guessing. A national number won't tell you what your lane pays this week anyway. Your own cost per mile and the postings on your lane will.
A slow market changes the plan, not the rules. You still set the floor and approve every load. What a desk can do in a soft market is cut the empty miles, keep you in markets with more outbound freight and call brokers who have loads that never get posted.
- Dry van load-to-truck ratio13.72 loads per truckDAT Freight & Analytics weekly market report, published October 6, 2026, Week before October 6, 2026 (checked 2026-10-11)
- Reefer load-to-truck ratio18.26 loads per truckDAT Freight & Analytics weekly market report, published October 1, 2026, Week before October 1, 2026 (checked 2026-10-11)
- Flatbed load-to-truck ratio41.38 loads per truckDAT Freight & Analytics weekly market report, published September 28, 2026, Week before September 28, 2026 (checked 2026-10-11)
Before you drive empty to find a load, run the math
When the board is empty where you are, the instinct is to drive toward a better market. Sometimes that's right. Sometimes a cheaper load out is the better move, because at least it pays for the miles.
EXAMPLE: you're empty in a slow market. Option one: deadhead 220 miles to a busier city and hope for a $2.50/mi load there. Option two: take a $650 load going 300 miles in the same direction. Option two pays $2.17/mi on loaded miles and gets you to the same place with money in hand instead of a fuel bill.
Neither answer is always right. It depends on your cost per mile, what's waiting at the other end and what day it is. The deadhead miles cost calculator puts a dollar figure on the empty miles so you can compare the two honestly.
One more check before any long reposition: call the brokers you've hauled for and ask what they have out of the market you're heading to. Five minutes on the phone can turn a hopeful drive into a booked load, or tell you the busier city isn't that busy this week.
What a dispatcher does when the board looks empty
A slow board is where a desk earns its keep, because the work moves off the screen and onto the phone. Here's what changes on our side when postings dry up on your lane.
- Calling before posting. We ask the brokers we book with what they have coming, since some of it goes to carriers they know before it's ever posted.
- Working the reload early. We start on the next load while you're still loaded, so you're not starting from zero at the receiver.
- Widening the search on purpose. We look at nearby markets and price the extra empty miles into the counter, instead of just widening the radius and hoping.
- Telling you the truth about the floor. If nothing on your lane clears your floor this week, you'll hear that, with options: wait, reposition, or take a short load that sets up a better one.
- Keeping your paperwork ready. Packets already on file mean that when a broker finally has something, you can say yes in minutes, not days.
Our guide on how dispatchers find loads goes through the process in more detail. The short version: the board is where the search starts, not where it ends.
Help finding loads: common questions
How do I find loads without a load board?
Do new MCs have a harder time finding loads?
Is the freight market slow right now?
How do dispatchers find loads?
How far should I deadhead for a load?
Found a posting but not sure it pays? Call it out.
Type in the lane, the miles and the offer. The card shows the all-in rate with your empty miles counted, and tells you whether to take it, counter or pass against your floor. If you'd rather have us chasing loads like this, one tap sends you to the application.
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