What dispatch should cost an owner-operator

Dispatch is sold two ways: a flat weekly fee, or a percentage of gross revenue. Owner-operators tend to pick on instinct — the flat fee feels safer, the percentage feels fairer — and the instinct is wrong about half the time. The two models behave very differently at different revenue levels, and the crossover point is easy to calculate.

The two models

A percentage model charges an agreed share of the gross on loads the dispatcher books. Common quotes sit in the mid single digits to around ten percent, depending on how much is included.

A flat model charges a fixed amount per truck per week regardless of what you gross. Quotes vary widely by market and by scope.

Neither is inherently better. What differs is who carries the risk of a bad week.

The crossover

The arithmetic is one line. The flat fee and the percentage cost the same when:

• weekly gross = flat weekly fee ÷ percentage rate

So at a 5% rate and a $250 weekly fee, the crossover is $5,000 gross a week. Below that, the percentage is cheaper. Above it, the flat fee is.

That single number is the whole decision, and it is worth writing your own version of it before you take a call with anyone. Then apply the judgement the formula cannot:

• If your weekly gross is consistently above your crossover, take the flat fee and keep the upside of your good weeks.
• If your gross swings hard — seasonal freight, a lane that dries up, a truck that spends a fortnight in the shop — the percentage model costs you nothing in the weeks you earn nothing, and that matters more than the average.
• If you are newly authorised and still building lanes, the percentage model aligns the dispatcher with you during exactly the period you can least afford a fixed bill.

What the headline rate leaves out

Compare scope before you compare price, because the same word covers very different services:

• Is factoring included, or a separate cut? A dispatch percentage plus a factoring percentage is the real number.
• Who handles paperwork, broker setup, and carrier packets?
• Is there a per-truck minimum, or a charge for weeks the truck does not roll?
• What is the notice period? A 30-day notice on a percentage agreement is a fixed cost in disguise if you park the truck.
• Are detention, layover and TONU claims chased, and does the dispatcher take a percentage of those too?

The deadhead maths that actually decides it

Rate per mile on the rate confirmation is not what you earn. What you earn is revenue divided by total miles, loaded and empty.

A $2,000 load at 800 loaded miles looks like $2.50 a mile. Drive 200 empty miles to pick it up and it is $2,000 over 1,000 miles — $2.00 a mile, a twenty percent cut before a single cost is counted. Your fuel, maintenance and hours-of-service clock all run on the empty miles too.

This is the number to hold a dispatcher to, in either pricing model: revenue per total mile, and the average deadhead percentage they book you. A dispatcher who books high-rate loads with long empty legs is worse than one booking modest rates close together, and the percentage-of-gross model quietly rewards the first behaviour — they are paid on the gross, not on your margin.

So ask for it directly, before signing: what deadhead percentage do your trucks average? A dispatcher who tracks that number will tell you. One who does not track it is optimising something other than your take-home.