The sequence, start to finish
Every load runs the same path: find or receive it, decide whether it fits, book it, assign a driver, dispatch, track to delivery, capture the proof of delivery, invoice, and reconcile the payment. A dispatch desk is the machine that runs that path many times a day without dropping steps.
At two or three trucks the path fits in one person’s head and a spreadsheet. The failure points appear between about five and fifteen trucks, when the volume outgrows memory but the process has not been written down.
Finding and vetting the load
Loads come from committed freight, direct shippers, and load boards. The board rate is an ask; the real rate is the call. Before a load is booked it has to be vetted — the broker’s authority and credit, the actual pickup and delivery windows, the commodity, and any accessorials.
Vetting is where a growing desk saves itself pain. A load booked without confirming the appointment window becomes a phone call the day of pickup; a broker booked without a credit check becomes a collection problem in 45 days.
Booking, assignment, and dispatch
Booking produces a rate confirmation — the contract for that load, with the rate, the stops, the equipment, and the detention and accessorial terms. Everything that will land on the invoice should be on it.
Assignment matches the load to a truck that can legally and practically do it: the driver’s available hours, current location, equipment, and home-time. Dispatch hands the driver the load details, the appointment numbers, and the documents.
This is the first place re-entry creeps in. If a booked load has to be typed again into a dispatch board, and typed a third time into invoicing later, the desk is doing the same work three times per load.
Tracking, documents, and delivery
Tracking is status tied to the load — arrival, departure, ETA, exceptions — visible to dispatch and, where required, pushed to the shipper. The goal is to answer "where is my freight" without a check call.
At delivery the driver captures the POD: a signed delivery receipt or BOL, with any shortage or damage noted at the door. A clean, legible POD is what lets the load be invoiced and what defends it if a claim comes in weeks later. Capturing it from the cab beats a manila folder that reaches the office on Friday.
Invoicing and reconciliation
The invoice is the linehaul plus every accessorial — detention, layover, stop-offs, tarps, lumper reimbursement — with the POD and other required documents attached. Missing an accessorial here is margin left on the table; a thin linehaul is often profitable only because the extras were billed.
Reconciliation is checking the payment against what was owed. Chargebacks — deductions for claims, late-delivery fines, advances — arrive as reduced payments, not bills, and are only caught by comparing every settlement to the expected amount line by line.
Writing it down before it breaks
The move from "one person remembers" to "the desk runs a process" is a written sequence: who does each step, what has to be true before the load advances, and what documents attach where. It does not need to be elaborate — a checklist per stage is enough — but it needs to exist before the volume forces it.
Key takeaways
- Every load runs the same path: find, vet, book, assign, dispatch, track, POD, invoice, reconcile.
- The process breaks between five and fifteen trucks, when volume outgrows memory.
- Vet the appointment window and the broker before booking, not on pickup day.
- Kill re-entry: a booked load should flow into dispatch and a delivered load into invoicing without retyping.
- Capture a clean POD from the cab, bill every accessorial, and reconcile every settlement.
Related questions: What should I look for in dispatch software?, How do I price a load?, Can I run a trucking company on spreadsheets?
Terms: Rate Confirmation, Proof of Delivery (POD), Accessorial Charge, Chargeback, Load Board
In Trailflow: dispatch.