get dot authority without a truck to start dispatching?

im a former broker for 10 years who is in a different line of work now and would like to start dispatching for several drivers to make some side income. i applied for dot authority a few days ago thinking (one day) i would like to buy a truck and start a company. but due to time and money, its been backburned for a bit. so i figured i would start dispatch.

will the DOT grant me authority without a truck? i have the dot number but no equipment or insurance. or should i buy a small van just to get my authority instated?

and does this help at all with trying to be a reputable dispatch company?

what are steps i should take to get the ball rolling? I know DAT and Truckstop like the back of my hand but where i find owner/ops to call besides loadboards?


ANY help appreciated.

 

How do you manage to find freight and connect carriers as a broker? Is there a "shippers" forum or listings that you look through and make calls to secure shipments prior to contacting carriers?

There's quite a bit of problems with double brokered freight, how do you avoid that headache?

 

Dispatching doesn’t need dot or Mc as all loads will be booked under the carriers DOT,


Now.

if you plan on getting loads off the load board and then rebrokering them to carriers that’s called double brokering.

 

I've seen a lot of people recently advertising "independent dispatcher" services. Where is the line between being a dispatcher and a broker? It seems like if a "dispatcher" is working with and finding loads for multiple carriers, isn't that really being a broker who is double-brokering freight?

 

no because the loads are booked directly with the carrier under the carrier dot/mc, dispatching is basically back office work for a % of the load. Usually around 5-10%


Double brokering is you booking a load under your own dot/mc and rebrokering it to carriers. While the original broker thinks Carrier A is on their load it’s actually Carrier C.

 

Ah, ok. That makes sense. Thanks!

 

No, you have to have active insurance to get active dot authority

 

Yeah a lot of owners are burned by these things, I get at least five calls a week from people wanting me to use their dispatch service and the first thing after they do their selling crap is this … what do you have to really offer me that has direct customers behind your service?

you know I never get an answer.

 

Greed in the end gets 99.9999% of them and end up using your dot/mc to double broker.

 

That's why I stopped looking into that type of business. The FMCSA is setup to deal with Carriers, Brokers, and Drivers. Everything else is in a grey area. Dispatch Service seems like a business you can get into for pretty small cost, say under $5k, but if something goes bad with the freight and lawsuits are filed it seems it could be too dangerous. There are a lot of YouTube videos on the subject, but it also seems most of those videos are of the "Hey I just started doing Dispatching and I expect to makes lots of money". There seems to be a lot of "buy my course on how to be your own Dispatch Service" videos as well. There doesn't seem to be as many "This is my 7th year running a Dispatch Service and here's how you can do it to." It smells a lot like the 1980s & 1990s late-night TV courses on how to get rich in real estate.