How to play
You run dispatch for a small trucking company with three trucks and three company drivers. Time runs in 15-minute steps; pause whenever you like. Your job is the real dispatcher’s job: keep every truck loaded, legal and profitable, and keep the drivers from quitting.
- Pick a truck on the map or in the list, then open the Load board. Each load shows its lane, miles, rate, pickup and delivery appointments, the broker and their credit, and for your truck the empty miles to get there (deadhead), the all-in rate per mile, the trip margin and the legal ETA.
- Book it at the posted rate, or ask for more. A broker may say yes, meet you partway, refuse, or give the load to someone else. Your reputation helps.
- Run the clock. Drivers drive, take breaks and sleep by the rules on their own. The game pauses when a truck is empty or something needs an answer.
- Look after drivers. They want miles (2,400 or more a week), home time when promised, and no surprises. A driver who stays unhappy puts in notice.
The hours-of-service rules
Trucks follow the US federal rules for property-carrying drivers, and the planner uses them for every ETA:
- 11 hours of driving at most after 10 hours off duty.
- 14-hour window: no driving after the 14th hour since coming on duty, even if some of it was spent waiting at a dock.
- 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving.
- 70 hours on duty in 8 days; 34 hours off in a row resets it.
Waiting at a dock after the appointment counts as on-duty time and burns the 14-hour window. That’s why slow shippers hurt: the first two hours are free, then you bill detention and pay the driver for the wait.
Money
- Revenue is booked when a load delivers. Brokers pay in 21 to 52 days. Factoring (on at the start) pays you the next day for a 3% fee, which most new carriers need to stay afloat.
- Costs: diesel (about 6.4 miles a gallon), driver pay per mile, wear and repairs, and every truck’s daily lease and insurance, rolling or not.
- Operating ratio is costs divided by revenue. Under 95% is a healthy carrier; over 100% is losing money.
- Fall below the $30,000 credit line and the bank closes you down.
Tips
- Short loads pay more per mile, but long ones keep the wheels turning. Watch the margin and the time the truck is tied up.
- Some markets are hard to get out of. Miami and Denver have few outbound loads; Los Angeles, Laredo, Chicago and Atlanta have plenty. A cheap load out of a strong market can beat a rich one into a dead end.
- Pre-plan: a truck can hold its next load while it’s still running this one.
- A rate that looks too good, from a broker with credit D and a four-month-old authority, often never gets paid. Factoring companies won’t buy those invoices.
- Service trucks before they’re overdue. Worn trucks break down more and fail inspections.
Questions
Is it realistic? The rules, the paperwork and the problems are modelled on the real job; the numbers are rounded and the companies and people are made up.
Where is my company saved? In this browser, on this device. Closing the tab keeps it.