Onboarding documents your dispatcher actually needs (and what a short list tells you)

The packet your dispatcher asks for tells you, in week one, whether they plan to work your truck or just take loads off a board.

A new dispatcher emails you on day one. They want your MC and your bank routing. That’s the whole list. You send it, the loads start coming, and two months later your average net per mile is lower than when you self-dispatched.

That’s not bad luck. That’s a dispatcher booking blind. They never asked for the inputs that let them plan. So they react. Reactive booking is what you were paying to escape.

A short onboarding list is a red flag, not efficiency.

Operators read a short request as professional. It’s the opposite. A dispatcher who asks for three documents is going to book against assumptions for the next 60 days. Yours and theirs. They’ll guess your reefer cycle. They’ll guess your home-time window. They’ll guess what you accept on detention.

By day 30 you’re either fixing those guesses one load at a time, or you’re eating them. Both cost money. The packet exists so the dispatcher doesn’t have to guess in the first place.

Authority and insurance: the documents that define what they can quote

MC and DOT numbers are the start, not the package. A dispatcher needs your full FMCSA authority status, your active operating authority record, and a current certificate of insurance with cargo, auto liability, and general liability limits all visible.

Limits matter. A broker on a $250K cargo load won’t tender to a truck with $100K coverage. A dispatcher who hasn’t seen your COI is quoting loads you can’t legally haul. They find out at the rate-con stage. So do you.

What goes wrong without it

Loads booked above your insurance ceiling get pulled at tender. Brokers with stricter setup desks reject the carrier packet entirely. You lose the load and the relationship. The dispatcher tells you the broker is “being difficult.” The broker is being normal. Your COI was the missing input.

W-9, ACH, and factoring info isn’t admin. It’s how you get paid on time.

The dispatcher needs your W-9, your direct ACH details for any direct settlements, and your factoring company info with NOA status. Recourse or non-recourse. Advance rate. Whether the factor offers fuel advances and at what fee.

That last part decides which brokers are workable. A factor with a 3 percent reserve and no fuel advance changes which lanes make sense in your first two weeks. The dispatcher who didn’t ask is going to book a load that puts you into a fuel deficit before delivery.

Equipment specs are not “53-foot dry van.” That’s not a spec.

Real specs include tractor model and engine, sleeper or day cab, trailer type and length, axle configuration, max payload after your typical fuel load, lift gate yes or no, and reefer continuous-cycle capability if applicable. CARB compliance matters the moment a California reload appears.

If you run reefer, the dispatcher needs to know your minimum temp, your fuel capacity on the unit, and whether you can hold continuous on a multi-stop. Without that, they’ll book a frozen load on a unit set up for produce. You’ll find out at the receiver.

Driver and CDL info isn’t HR paperwork. It’s a routing constraint.

The dispatcher needs CDL state, expiration date, endorsements (HazMat, Tanker, Doubles/Triples), and your DOT medical card status. Endorsements decide which loads even appear on your match list. A HazMat endorsement opens a lane that pays more per mile on average, per American Trucking Associations industry data.

Medical card expiry is the one operators forget. A dispatcher who didn’t log it will book a load that delivers two days after your card lapses. That’s a roadside out-of-service event waiting to happen.

Lane preferences and rate floors get written down, or they don’t exist.

This is where most onboarding fails. The dispatcher asks “where do you like to run?” on a phone call. You say something vague. They book what comes in. Three weeks later you’re arguing about a lane you never agreed to.

A real dispatcher asks for written lane preferences with rate floors per lane, home-time windows, brokers you won’t load with, and your minimum acceptable RPM by trailer type. Email it. Save it. That document is the reference when week four goes sideways.

Broker setup history saves you two weeks of dead time.

If the dispatcher doesn’t ask which brokers you’re already approved with, they’ll re-set you up from scratch with brokers who already had your packet. That’s a week of compliance back-and-forth on lanes you could have run on day three.

The list should include broker name, MC, your factoring NOA status with each, and any payment terms or detention recovery history you’ve built. A dispatcher who has that list books your first reload from a broker who already pays you in 14 days. A dispatcher who doesn’t is starting your relationship with a 45-day quick-pay fee.

If a dispatcher’s onboarding list runs longer than the operational items above, ask what each extra document is actually for before you sign anything.

Fuel card, IFTA base, and ELD access are planning tools, not surveillance.

The dispatcher needs your IFTA base jurisdiction, fuel card vendor for mile and fuel reconciliation, and read-only or shared ELD access. ELD access isn’t about watching you. It’s about HOS planning. They need to know your remaining drive time before quoting a load that requires a 600-mile run.

A dispatcher booking without HOS visibility will quote loads you can’t legally finish. You either run hot or you turn it down at pickup. Both cost you. One costs you a CSA hit.

90 days of settlements is the document most operators refuse to send.

This is the one that separates dispatchers who can plan from dispatchers who can’t. Ask the dispatcher to look at your last 90 days of settlements. They see your real net per mile. Your detention recovery rate. Your deadhead pattern. Your accessorial collection.

Without that, they’re calibrating to a generic carrier. With it, they’re calibrating to your truck. The dispatcher who looks at your settlements before booking your first load is the one who will renegotiate broker terms based on your actual detention numbers, not industry averages.

What good dispatchers ask for vs what bad ones skip

Document	Good dispatcher asks	Bad dispatcher skips
Full COI with limits	Yes, before first quote	Just MC number
Equipment specs (axle, payload, reefer cycle)	Yes, written	“53-foot van” only
CDL endorsements and medical card expiry	Logged with dates	Not tracked
Written lane prefs and rate floors	Yes, by email	Verbal “we discussed it”
Broker setup history and NOA status	Full list	Re-sets you up from scratch
Factoring terms and fuel advance	Yes, on file	Routing number only
Read-only ELD access	For HOS planning	Books without HOS visibility
Last 90 days of settlements	Yes, for calibration	Books to a generic carrier profile

Quick decision rule: when to walk before signing

• If they only ask for MC and bank routing, they’re booking blind.
• If they don’t want your settlements, they don’t plan to calibrate.
• If lane prefs stay verbal, day 30 will be a fight.
• If they skip ELD access, they’ll quote loads you can’t legally run.
• If they don’t ask about factoring terms, fuel deficits are coming.

The packet is what makes day 30 a renegotiation, not a guess.

By day 30 you’re either looking at real data or you’re looking at a month of vague impressions. The dispatcher who took the full packet is the one who can sit down at week four and walk five numbers with you. The one who only took your MC will tell you to “give it more time.”

That gap is what Logity dispatch operations runs onboarding around. Full packet in week one. Calibration against your settlements in week two. Lane and rate-floor adjustments by day 30. Not because it’s a process for its own sake. Because that’s the only way the dispatcher books your truck instead of a generic one.