How to find new trucking authorities to dispatch for

Every week, hundreds of new carriers across the US get their operating authority from the FMCSA. Most of them own one or two trucks, have no customers yet and are paying insurance every month. That makes a carrier with a new authority the most likely person to say yes to a dispatcher. Here's how to find them early and work them well.

Where new authorities come from

A new carrier applies for operating authority, the application is published in the FMCSA Register, and after a short protest period the authority is granted once the FMCSA has the carrier's insurance and process agent filings. From then on, the carrier's record shows an active authority with a grant date. That date is what you sort by.

The FMCSA publishes these records in its open datasets every weekday. You can see the weekly totals for your area on our new trucking authorities by state pages.

A simple daily routine

1. Pull the newest first. Each morning, list the carriers granted in the last week or two, in the states you dispatch from, newest at the top.
2. Filter to who you can help. Leave out carriers with no phone, fleets bigger than you want to take on, and equipment you don't book.
3. Skip what's already been worked. Check your team's record first so nobody calls a carrier a teammate called yesterday, or one that's already a customer.
4. Call, then record the outcome right away. No answer, call back, interested, not interested. Set a follow-up date for every "call back".
5. Come back on the right day. Most new carriers need two or three conversations. The follow-up is where the deal is.

Timing matters

New carriers hear from a lot of dispatchers in their first weeks. Being early, polite and specific stands out: say where you can get them loads and what you charge, then follow up when you said you would. Carriers whose authority is a few months old can be good prospects too: they've seen how hard it is to get loaded alone.

Getting the contact details right

Phone numbers on new authorities are usually current, because the carrier filed them weeks ago. Emails are trickier: filing services often put their own address on the record, so the same email appears on many carriers. Check whether an email is shared before you rely on it. And always honor a request not to be contacted again.

Doing it without the busywork

You can build this from the raw FMCSA files, but they change daily and need cleaning. HaulBloom gives you the newest authorities in your states every morning, with phones cleaned and agent emails flagged, one shared list where everyone sees who called whom, a call sheet that takes outcomes on keys 1 to 5, and follow-ups that come back on the right day. For the background on what's in the data, see the guide to FMCSA carrier data.