Trucking and dispatch terms, explained plainly

The words that get used around a load, in the order you are likely to meet them. No jargon used to explain jargon.

• **Dry van** — an enclosed trailer, usually 53 ft, for anything palletised that needs no temperature control. The most common trailer on the road.
• **Reefer** — short for refrigerated. A trailer with its own cooling unit, used for produce, protein, dairy and frozen freight. The unit maintains temperature; it does not cool warm product down.
• **Flatbed** — an open deck with no sides or roof, for freight that will not fit in a van or must be loaded from the side or above. Steel, lumber, pipe, machinery.
• **Step deck** — a flatbed with a lower rear deck, so taller freight stays under the legal height without a permit. Also called a drop deck.
• **RGN** — removable gooseneck. The front detaches so machinery can be driven onto a very low deck. Heavy haul equipment.
• **Power only** — you supply the tractor, somebody else supplies the loaded trailer. Usually drop-and-hook.
• **Box truck** — a straight truck where the body and cab are one vehicle, rather than a tractor pulling a trailer. Commonly 26 ft.
• **Hotshot** — a Class 3 to 5 pickup pulling a gooseneck trailer, used for urgent loads too small for a semi.
• **Gooseneck** — a trailer hitching over the rear axle of a pickup rather than at the bumper. More stable and carries far more weight.

• **Broker** — arranges freight between a shipper and a carrier. The shipper pays the broker; the broker pays you.
• **Dispatcher** — works for the carrier, finding and negotiating loads on your behalf. Not a broker, and paid by you rather than by the shipper.
• **Load board** — a marketplace where available freight is posted. Everyone sees the same loads, which is why rates on a board clear at the market price.
• **Spot rate** — the price of a single load today, set by what the market will bear.
• **Contract rate** — a price agreed in advance for a period, usually a year. Moves slowly; that is the point.
• **Rate confirmation** — the document setting out the rate and the terms for one load. Once signed it is the contract, which is why it is worth reading before rather than after.
• **Dedicated lane** — freight that repeats on the same route, so you run it regularly instead of finding it each time.
• **Drop and hook** — you drop a trailer and take a loaded one, instead of waiting for a live load.
• **Deadhead** — driving empty. Costs everything a loaded mile costs and earns nothing.

• **BOL** — bill of lading. The document describing the freight and acknowledging its condition. The signed copy is what you invoice against.
• **Detention** — what a shipper or receiver owes for holding your truck beyond the agreed free time. Claimable only if somebody recorded the arrival and departure times.
• **Free time** — how long they may hold you before detention starts. Commonly two hours, but it is negotiated rather than fixed.
• **TONU** — truck ordered not used. Compensation when a load is cancelled after you have committed or arrived.
• **Lumper** — a third party paid to load or unload the trailer. Agree who pays, and whether it is reimbursed or advanced, before you arrive.
• **Live load / live unload** — you wait while the trailer is loaded or emptied, rather than dropping it.
• **Appointment** — a fixed time slot. Firm appointments are firm, and missing one usually costs more than the load pays.
• **Accessorial** — anything charged on top of the linehaul: detention, lumper, extra stops, tarping, liftgate.

• **Linehaul** — the base rate for moving the freight, before fuel surcharge and accessorials.
• **Fuel surcharge (FSC)** — an amount added to the linehaul that floats with the diesel price, usually calculated from a published index so a price agreed months ago is not destroyed by a fuel spike.
• **All-in** — a single quoted rate that already includes the fuel surcharge. Nothing further is coming.
• **Cost per mile** — what it costs you to run a mile, fixed plus variable. The only number that makes a rate good or bad.
• **Factoring** — selling an invoice to a third party who pays you most of it immediately and collects from the broker later, for a fee.
• **Recourse / non-recourse** — whether you repay the factor if the broker never pays. Recourse means you do.
• **Quick pay** — the broker pays you in days rather than on normal terms, keeping a percentage for doing so.

• **USDOT number** — the FMCSA identifier required to operate a commercial vehicle in interstate commerce at 10,001 lb GVWR or more.
• **MC number** — operating authority to haul other people’s freight for hire across state lines. Separate from a USDOT number.
• **GVWR** — gross vehicle weight rating. The manufacturer’s maximum for one vehicle, stamped on the door plate. Not what it weighs today.
• **GCWR** — gross combination weight rating. The same, for truck and trailer together.
• **CDL** — commercial driver’s licence. Broadly required at 26,001 lb and above; the precise test depends on the combination. Check the FMCSA rather than a rule of thumb.
• **HOS** — hours of service. The federal limits on driving and duty time.
• **ELD** — electronic logging device. Records duty status automatically, and is also the best evidence you have in a detention claim.
• **BOC-3** — the filing designating a process agent in each state. Required before authority is granted.
• **Trailer interchange** — cover for damage to a trailer you do not own while it is in your possession under a written agreement.
• **Cargo insurance** — covers the freight itself, as distinct from the truck or the trailer.

Put your truck to work

Send your MC and DOT numbers and a dispatcher will call you within one business day.