Editorial Policy

Carriers make real decisions from what they read here: which load to take, how to set a trailer, whether to sign a contract. This page explains how we write and check our guides and calculators so you can judge how much to rely on them.

Who writes

Guides, articles and calculators are written by Milo, working from the questions carriers bring to our dispatch desk. We don't publish anonymous content or invent authors, credentials or customer stories.

Sources

• Rules and limits come from primary sources: federal regulations on eCFR, FMCSA, FHWA, state transportation departments and courts.
• Equipment specs come from manufacturer spec sheets or rental fleet specs, with the model or source named.
• Market numbers like rates and diesel prices come from named publishers such as DAT and the Energy Information Administration, with the week or month they cover.
• Partner prices come from the partner's own published pricing.

Every sourced fact shows the source and the date we checked it. When we can't verify something, we say so or leave it out.

Examples and estimates

Worked examples are labeled EXAMPLE and use realistic but made-up numbers to show the math. They aren't customer results. Calculators show their formulas and assumptions, and results are estimates from the numbers you enter.

How calculators are checked

Every calculator's math lives in a small, separate piece of code with its own automated tests, written from hand-worked cases before the page goes live. The worked example on each tool page is checked against the same code, so the numbers in the text match what the tool shows. When a rule or a default value changes, the tests change with it.

What we don't publish

• Statistics we can't trace to a named source
• Testimonials, reviews or customer counts we can't show are real
• Promises of loads, rates or income
• Rankings paid for by the companies ranked

Updates

We review pages with numbers that change, such as fuel prices, tax rates, testing rates and partner prices, on a schedule, and update the date on the page when we change something meaningful. Rules pages are checked when the rule changes.

What we cover

We write for carriers running the equipment we dispatch: power only, dry vans, reefers, flatbeds, step decks, hotshots, car haulers, dump trucks, tankers, oversize loads and box trucks from 26 ft up. Our deepest coverage is power only, dry van and intermodal, because that's where carriers ask us the most detailed questions. We don't write for cargo van operators, since we don't dispatch them.

Commercial relationships

We sell dispatch services, and we say so. Some pages link to partners who may pay us a referral fee; those links are labeled, and the disclosure lists them. Partners don't write or approve our content, and a referral fee never decides what we recommend.

Corrections

If you find a mistake, tell us through our contact page with the page and what's wrong. We check it against the source, fix it if we got it wrong, and update the page date.