How much does a truck dispatcher cost?

There are only two models

Almost every dispatch service in the US charges one of two ways, and most will offer you both.

Percentage of linehaul. You pay a share of what the load pays. Typical market range is roughly 3–10%, clustering around 5%. You pay nothing on a week the truck does not move, which is the whole appeal.

Flat weekly per truck. A fixed figure per truck per week regardless of revenue. Market rates commonly sit somewhere between $150 and $250 per truck. Predictable, and it stops costing you more simply because you had a good week.

Working out which is cheaper for you

The break-even is simple arithmetic. Divide the flat weekly rate by the percentage rate to find the weekly revenue where they cost the same.

• Flat $200/week against 5% — break-even is $4,000 of weekly linehaul.
• Run above $4,000 a week and flat is cheaper.
• Run below it, or miss weeks, and percentage is cheaper.

A truck grossing $6,000 a week pays $300 on 5% but $200 flat — flat saves $5,200 a year. The same truck having a bad month, or sitting for a fortnight with a blown turbo, pays nothing on percentage and $400 on flat.

So the real question is not which rate is lower. It is how consistent your weeks are. Consistent high-revenue weeks favour flat. Variable weeks, seasonal freight, or a single truck that occasionally sits favour percentage.

The questions that change the real number

The headline rate is rarely the whole cost. Before you compare two services, ask both of these the same questions:

• Is the percentage on linehaul or on gross? If it includes fuel surcharge and accessorials, the effective rate is higher than quoted.
• Is there a setup or onboarding fee?
• What is not included? Compliance, IFTA, billing and factoring paperwork are sometimes separate line items and sometimes bundled.
• Is there a minimum, or a notice period? A 30-day notice on a bad fit is a month of paying for something you have stopped using.
• Do they charge on a load you sourced yourself?
• Who pays if a load falls through after you have repositioned?

A 4% service with a setup fee, a monthly minimum and compliance billed separately can easily cost more across a year than a 6% service with everything included.

What you should be getting for it

At 5% of a $6,000 week, you are paying about $300 for the dispatch. For that to make sense, the dispatcher has to be worth more than $300 a week to you — in better rates, fewer empty miles, or hours you get back.

That is a low bar for a good dispatcher and an impossible one for a bad one. One properly negotiated load a week, or one avoided deadhead run, usually covers it. A dispatcher who simply books whatever is on the board at the posted rate does not.

Ask what they will do about your rate floor, and what happens on a week when the freight is bad. The answer tells you which kind you are talking to.