Truck dispatch service agreement: a carrier review checklist

Identify the parties and the equipment covered

Check the legal names, contact details and effective date. List the carrier operation and trucks covered, and identify the person authorized to approve loads and service changes. A salesperson’s description should match the agreement you are asked to sign.

For a fleet, decide whether every truck is included from the same date or whether trucks can be added separately. Ask how the agreement handles a replacement truck, a driver change or a period out of service. These details affect the search and can also affect billing.

Assign the work one task at a time

Separate load search, rate discussions, booking coordination, broker calls, appointment updates and document follow ups. Record which tasks the dispatcher performs, which remain with the carrier and which require another provider. “Full service” is not a substitute for that list.

Identify any tools, platform seats or third party charges separately. Keep load board access within the provider’s supported process. If the carrier already has factoring or bookkeeping arrangements, explain where signed documents go and who owns each remaining task.

Make carrier approval workable under time pressure

A useful process states what information the dispatcher will present: route, dates, appointments, compensation, empty miles and important handling requirements. Agree how approval is recorded and what happens if the authorized carrier contact cannot answer.

Test the process with a changed appointment. If a broker moves delivery to the following day after you approved the load, who contacts you and who may accept the change? Discuss how the driver receives the final instructions so an old message is not mistaken for the current plan.

Test the billing base with actual invoice categories

Rai Dispatch’s published fees are 4 to 12% by equipment. The written agreement needs to identify the applicable rate and revenue base. Ask how fuel surcharge, detention, other accessorials, cancelled loads, disputed payment and independently booked loads are treated.

Consider a hypothetical dry van load with $2,000 linehaul and a $300 separately stated fuel surcharge. At 5%, a $2,000 billing base produces a $100 dispatch fee; a $2,300 base produces $115. The agreement decides which base applies. The example is a question to resolve, not a statement that either treatment applies to your contract.

Ask when the fee is earned, when the invoice arrives and when payment is due. A carrier receiving load payment later should understand the timing before accepting the dispatch terms. Keep the accepted quote with the agreement so changes can be traced.

Agree communication, records and account control

Record the primary dispatcher, published desk hours and escalation contact. Clarify who handles an active load if your regular contact is unavailable, and whether a particular load requires communication outside normal hours. Do not infer continuous coverage from a phone number alone.

Keep carrier owned accounts under carrier control. Agree the authorized access method, document sharing process and where the final load records will be stored. Sensitive carrier documents should go through the agreed channel; an ordinary website inquiry is enough to start the discussion.

Read cancellation and handover terms before the first booking

Review notice requirements, any minimum term, fees still owed and the process for ending access. List how loads already booked will be completed, who will send outstanding delivery records and how open accessorial requests will be followed up. Ending a search relationship does not make an active shipment disappear.

FMCSA’s guidance addresses dispatch relationships and the activities that can require broker authority. Use that official guidance for role questions and seek qualified advice about legal clauses you do not understand. Ask the provider to resolve unanswered operational and billing questions in writing before signing.