Finding Loads as a New Carrier: Load Boards, Factoring, and Your First Freight

Your authority says “Authorized.” Your insurance is filed. Your truck is ready. Now you need freight.

This is where many new carriers discover that having authority and having revenue are two different things. The truck payment doesn’t care that brokers won’t return your calls because your authority is 12 days old.

Four things must be working the day your authority activates

A load board account. This is where the freight lives.

A carrier packet ready to send. Every broker asks for it before booking a single load. Delay here means days your truck sits.

A factoring account. Unless you have cash to cover 30-90 days of expenses while waiting for broker payments.

A fuel card. Saves $2,000-$5,000/year on your single largest expense.

Set all of these up during your 21-day waiting period. Don’t wait for activation day.

Load boards: which ones matter

No budget: Trucker Path (free) and Amazon Relay (free). Hundreds of thousands of loads daily between them.

$49-$99/month budget: Add DAT Standard or Enhanced. The volume and broker credit scores are worth it.

Most brokers won’t work with you for 90 days

This exists because double-brokering fraud now costs the industry over $800 million annually and remains the top freight fraud. Brokers got burned and responded with authority age minimums.

How to survive the gap

Trucker Path has fewer authority age restrictions. Many carriers book loads within days of activation.

Amazon Relay accepts new authorities. Rates aren’t premium, but loads are steady and payment is reliable.

Small regional brokers are more willing to onboard new authorities with a clean SAFER page and professional communication.

Dispatch services at 5-7% of gross keep your truck moving through existing broker relationships. Think of it as paying for access during the first 90 days. Transition to self-dispatch once you’ve built market knowledge — staying past 6 months turns a bridge into a crutch.

The restriction is temporary. By 90 days, most mid-size brokers onboard you. By 6 months, the major ones open up.

Factoring: get paid now instead of in 60 days

Brokers pay net-30 to net-60. Some take 90 days. Factoring closes the gap.

1. Complete load, get signed paperwork
2. Submit invoice to your factoring company
3. Receive 85-95% of invoice within 24 hours
4. Broker pays the factor 30-90 days later
5. Factor sends you the balance minus their fee

Example: $3,000 load at 2% factoring rate. You get $2,700 within 24 hours. Factor collects $3,000 from broker in 45 days. Factor sends you $240 (remaining balance minus $60 fee). Your total: $2,940. Cost of getting paid 44 days early: $60.

Recourse factoring: Lower rates (1-3%), but if the broker doesn’t pay, you owe it back. Non-recourse: Higher rates (2-5%), the factor absorbs the loss. Most new carriers choose non-recourse — they can’t afford to eat a $3,000 loss.

Watch the contract. Hidden fees (ACH, wire, processing), minimum volume requirements, and early termination penalties ($3,500-$5,000+) are common. Read every word before signing.

Your carrier packet opens the door to every load

Have 20+ packets pre-assembled in PDF. When a broker asks, send it within 5 minutes. Every hour of delay is a load going to another carrier.

The broker-carrier agreement deserves attention. Payment terms, damage liability, insurance requirements, dispute resolution, offset clauses. Don’t sign without reading. If terms exceed net-45 or include aggressive offset clauses, negotiate or walk away.

Never book a load without knowing your cost-per-mile

Running unprofitable loads kills more new carriers than bad equipment or compliance violations.

Step 1: Calculate your monthly expenses (fuel, truck, insurance, maintenance, factoring, permits, everything). Divide by total monthly miles. That’s your CPM.

Step 2: Compare to the load rate. Load pays $2.50/mile, your CPM is $1.31: profit $1.19/mile. Load pays $1.20/mile: you lose $0.11 on every mile.

Step 3: Include deadhead. A 500-mile load at $2.50/loaded mile with 200 miles of deadhead: $1,250 gross / 700 total miles = $1.79/total mile. Still profitable at $1.31 CPM, but not the $2.50 you saw on the board.

Never evaluate a load by loaded rate alone. Total miles divided into total pay is the real number.

Double-brokering fraud targets new carriers specifically

Double-brokering is now the top freight fraud, costing the industry over $800 million annually. Between 2021 and 2022, fraud incidents surged 400 percent. The problem has only intensified since then, with cargo theft reaching 3,600+ incidents in 2024 and the average stolen load value doubling to over $330,000.

Red flags

• Rate suspiciously above market
• Pressure to book immediately
• Contact phone doesn’t match broker’s SAFER record
• Email domain doesn’t match the company
• Bill of lading shows a different carrier name
• Zero negotiation on your rate

Protect yourself

1. Verify every broker on FMCSA SAFER before accepting
2. Check broker credit on DAT or Truckstop
3. Call the broker’s registered phone number, not the one from the posting
4. Confirm email domain matches the registered business
5. Use factoring companies that vet brokers for you
6. Report fraud to the load board and FMCSA

Five minutes of verification protects you from a $3,000-$10,000 loss.

Your first 90 days, sequenced

Days 1-7: Activate load boards, send carrier packets, activate factoring and fuel card. If using dispatch, confirm loads are ready.

Days 7-30: Start hauling. Revenue matters more than perfect rates right now. Submit invoices to your factor immediately. Track every expense.

Days 30-60: More brokers willing to onboard. Evaluate whether dispatch is still worth the cost. Identify profitable lanes.

Days 60-90: Most mid-size brokers available. Transition to self-dispatch if ready. Your CPM should be calculated from real data, not estimates.

The first 90 days are survival, not optimization. Get the truck moving, get cash flowing, learn the market. Optimize later.

Where RMS fits in

Your Certificate of Insurance is one of six documents in your carrier packet. Every broker checks it before booking. If your coverage has gaps or your BMC-91 isn’t showing active on FMCSA, you don’t get the load.

We insure thousands of trucking companies. We know exactly what brokers look for on a COI. If you need new authority insurance that gets you hauling on day one, we can help.