What Is a TONU in Trucking? Truck Order Not Used, Explained
You booked the load, you turned down other freight, your driver deadheaded forty miles to the shipper — and the load canceled. In trucking, that’s when the phrase TONU comes out. If you run trucks, you need to know how to bill one. If you’re a broker or shipper, you need to know when you […]
Freight Broker vs. Dispatcher: What’s the Difference?
Freight broker vs. dispatcher confuses everyone new to trucking — including plenty of people already working in it. Both find loads. Both take a cut. Both spend their day on the phone. But they sit on opposite sides of the table, answer to different parties, and operate under completely different legal frameworks. Hiring the wrong […]
Dry Van vs. Reefer: Which Trailer Is Right for Your Freight?
Dry van vs. reefer is one of the first equipment decisions a new carrier makes, and one of the most common mode questions shippers ask when their product doesn’t obviously need refrigeration. The two trailers look similar from the outside; the economics inside are very different. Here’s the honest comparison — costs, rates, workload, and […]
What Does Drayage Mean? Definition, Costs, and How It Works
Ask five people at a port what drayage means and you’ll get five overlapping answers. The simple version: drayage is the short-haul trucking that moves containers between a port (or rail ramp) and a nearby warehouse, yard, or customer. It’s usually the shortest leg of an international shipment — and pound for pound, one of […]
What Is Freight Class? NMFC Classes Explained (With Chart)
If you ship LTL, freight class is the single biggest lever on your rate — and the single most common source of surprise charges. Get the class right and your quotes hold. Get it wrong and the carrier reclassifies your shipment, the invoice jumps, and you’re disputing a bill instead of running your business. Here’s […]
Demurrage vs. Detention: The Difference and How to Avoid Both
Few line items make an importer’s blood pressure spike like demurrage and detention. They sound interchangeable, they both mean “you’re paying for time,” and they can both snowball from a few hundred dollars into five figures on a single container. But they are different charges, triggered at different points, and you avoid them in different […]
How to Write a Trucking Business Plan That Banks Take Seriously
Most trucking business plans are written once, shown to nobody, and never opened again. That’s a wasted opportunity — because a good trucking business plan isn’t a school assignment, it’s the operating math of your company: what it costs to run your truck, what you must earn per mile, and how you’ll survive the first […]
Power Only Trucking Explained: How It Works and Who Should Use It
Power only trucking is one of the fastest-growing segments in the truckload market — and one of the smartest entry points for owner-operators who own a tractor but not a trailer. Instead of hauling your own equipment, you provide the “power” (the tractor and driver) and pull trailers that belong to someone else: a shipper, […]
Factoring for Trucking Companies: How It Works and When It Makes Sense
Cash flow kills more trucking companies than rates do. You haul the load today, you buy the fuel today, you make the truck payment this week — but the broker pays you in 30 to 45 days. Factoring for trucking companies exists to close that gap, and for many new carriers it’s the difference between […]
What Is a Lumper Fee? A 2026 Guide for Carriers and Shippers
If you haul or ship food, beverage, or retail freight, sooner or later you’ll hit a receiver that uses lumpers — and you’ll be asked to pay a lumper fee before your trailer gets unloaded. For new carriers, that first invoice at the dock can be a shock. For shippers, lumper charges are one of […]