How to Find Loads as a New Carrier: Load Boards, Brokers and Direct Shippers

This is general information, not legal, tax, financial, medical or security advice. Rules and prices change, so confirm details with the official sources linked below or a qualified professional.

New trucking companies find loads in three main places: load boards, freight brokers and direct shippers. Most start on load boards and with a few brokers willing to work with new authorities, then build toward direct shipper relationships that pay better and more reliably. The skill that matters at every stage is pricing each load against your own cost per mile and vetting who you haul for.

Freight is not scarce for a carrier with a clean record and good service. Profitable freight from customers who pay on time is the hard part.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice.

Key takeaways

• Know your cost per mile before you look at a single load. The 2025 industry average was $2.336 per mile, according to ATRI; yours may be higher as a new carrier.
• Load boards are a tool, not a strategy. Use them for data and fill-in freight, while you build repeat customers.
• Vet every broker against FMCSA's official record, not the contact details in the email you received.
• Direct shippers pay better but take longer to win. Start the outreach in month one.
• You have a right to see the broker's transaction record. Federal rules give each party to a brokered load the right to review it.

The three freight channels compared

Before you search: build your rate floor

Every load decision should start with a number you calculated, not one a broker suggests.

1. Add up your fixed costs per month: truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits, ELD, phone, software, accounting.
2. Estimate your variable costs per mile: fuel, tires, maintenance, tolls, driver pay (including your own).
3. Divide fixed costs by expected monthly miles, including empty miles, and add the variable cost per mile. That is your break-even.
4. Add your target margin. That is your rate floor for loaded miles.
5. Price each load on all miles. A load that pays well per loaded mile but needs 150 empty miles to reach it may not clear your floor.

ATRI's 2026 benchmark found the industry-average operating cost was $2.336 per mile in 2025, with truckload and refrigerated margins below 1 percent. Use it as a sanity check, not a substitute for your own numbers. The trucking company startup costs breakdown helps you build the fixed-cost side.

Using load boards well

The major load boards, such as DAT, Truckstop and 123Loadboard, list freight posted by brokers and shippers and offer tools that are often worth more than the loads themselves. Pricing and features change, so check each vendor's current plans.

How to get more from them:

• Search lanes, not single loads. Look for a load out and a load back that together clear your rate floor.
• Use rate data to negotiate. Where a board shows lane averages, use them to counter low offers.
• Check credit and days-to-pay before calling. A great rate from a slow payer can sink your cash flow.
• Call fast and be prepared. Have your MC number, truck location, equipment and available time ready.
• Keep notes on every broker you speak with: who pays, who communicates, who treats drivers well.

Negotiating the rate

Treat the first number as an opening offer. A short script works:

1. Confirm the details first: weight, commodity, pickup and delivery windows, detention terms, and whether the load is ready.
2. State your number based on your rate floor and the lane data you see, not on what the broker says the shipper "budgeted."
3. Ask about accessorials in writing: detention after a set number of hours, layovers, lumper fees and tarp pay.
4. If the rate doesn't clear your floor, decline politely and leave the door open. Brokers remember carriers who know their numbers and deliver.

Working with freight brokers

Brokers arrange transportation for shippers and pay carriers to haul it. A handful of good brokers can supply much of a small carrier's freight.

Your carrier packet usually includes your operating authority letter, a W-9, a certificate of insurance naming the broker as certificate holder, and the signed broker-carrier agreement. If you factor, include your notice of assignment.

Read the broker-carrier agreement. Watch for clauses on payment terms, quick-pay fees, fines for late delivery, cargo claim handling, and back-solicitation restrictions that limit you from working directly with the broker's shippers.

Know your rights. Under 49 CFR 371.3, brokers must keep a record of each brokered transaction for three years, including the compensation they received and the freight charges collected, and each party to the transaction has the right to review that record. Since January 16, 2026, FMCSA also suspends a broker's authority if its required $75,000 financial security falls below that amount and is not replenished within seven calendar days, which helps protect carriers with unpaid freight bills.

Step-by-step: vetting a broker before you book

1. Look up the broker on FMCSA's SAFER Company Snapshot at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov and confirm broker authority is active.
2. Compare contact details. Does the phone number, email domain and address you were given match the official record or the broker's own website? Call back on the number you find independently.
3. Check credit and days-to-pay through your load board or factoring company.
4. Read the rate confirmation carefully. Confirm the legal name, MC number, pickup and delivery details, rate, accessorials and payment terms.
5. Be suspicious of red flags: urgency, rates far above market, last-minute changes to pickup location, requests to pay someone up front, or instructions to communicate only by text.
6. Never share account credentials or PINs. FMCSA's fraud alerts document phishing sites impersonating SAFER, the FMCSA Portal and Motus, aimed at carriers.

Your factoring company's credit check is a second line of defense. See freight factoring explained for how factors vet customers.

Building direct shipper freight

Direct shippers are manufacturers, distributors, growers and retailers that hire carriers themselves. They usually pay more than the broker-to-carrier rate, but they choose carriers carefully.

How to approach them:

• Start with what fits your equipment and home base. A flatbed carrier near steel or building supply yards, or a reefer carrier near produce or food processing, has a natural target list.
• Find the right person: shipping manager, logistics coordinator or plant manager, not a general inbox.
• Lead with reliability. A one-page carrier profile with lanes, equipment, safety snapshot, insurance limits and references beats a generic sales pitch.
• Offer a trial load and over-communicate: check calls, ETA updates, photos of the load secured.
• Ask for the next lane once you have delivered well. Many contracts start with one consistent lane.

Expect direct shippers to ask about your insurance limits, safety record and how long you have had authority. Many want a track record first, which is why load boards and brokers carry new carriers through the first months.

From experience. In every business I've built software for, from Shopify stores to a clinic in Malaysia, the systems I build push the same boring habits: answer fast, deliver when you said you would, and send updates before anyone asks. Trucking is no different, and a simple shared tracker of every customer and conversation makes those habits stick.

Weekly freight routine for a new carrier

• Review last week's revenue per total mile against your rate floor
• Rank brokers by pay speed, communication and rate
• Plan next week's lanes and target backhaul markets
• Make five direct shipper contacts in your target segment
• Follow up with every customer you hauled for, asking for the next load
• Check your SAFER snapshot and insurance status for accuracy

Freight-finding checklist

• [ ] Break-even cost per mile calculated, including empty miles
• [ ] Rate floor set for loaded miles
• [ ] At least one paid load board with credit and days-to-pay data
• [ ] Carrier packet ready: authority, W-9, COI, notice of assignment if factoring
• [ ] Broker vetting process written down and followed every time
• [ ] Broker scorecard tracking pay speed, communication and rates
• [ ] Target list of 25 direct shippers matching your equipment and region
• [ ] One-page carrier profile ready to send
• [ ] Customer tracker with every load, contact and follow-up date

Next steps

• Calculate your rate floor this week, before your next load search.
• Write a five-step broker vetting checklist and use it for every new broker.
• Build a list of 25 local shippers that match your equipment, and contact five per week.
• Review how to start a trucking company in the US to make sure your compliance basics support customer onboarding.
• If you want help setting up simple CRM and dispatch tracking for a small fleet, reach out through our advisory service.

Sources

• ATRI, 2026 Operational Costs of Trucking release: https://truckingresearch.org/2026/07/new-atri-report-details-accelerating-costs-and-low-profitability-despite-cuts/
• 49 CFR 371.3, Records to be kept by brokers (eCFR): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-371/subpart-A/section-371.3
• FMCSA, Broker and Freight Forwarder Financial Responsibility Rule: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/broker-and-freight-forwarder-financial-responsibility-rule-overview-and-compliance
• FMCSA, Fraud Alerts: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/fraud-alerts
• FMCSA, Insurance Filing Requirements (broker $75,000 security): https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/insurance-filing-requirements

Keep reading