Six fleets, measured against the number anyone can check.
Each fleet mixes company drivers and leased-on owner-operators, and each study benchmarks booked rates against the DAT national average for its equipment type — because that is the number every carrier can verify for themselves. The premise every study tests: the right load beats the cheap load.
Fleets are described, not named — each carrier's identity is on file and shared in conversation with their permission.
Chicago dry van fleet: from booking at the average to beating it.
+$0.28/mi
vs. DAT national dry van average
18% → 9%
deadhead
$6,400
detention & TONU collected · 3 mo
Where they started
A 15-truck dry van carrier out of Chicago — nine company drivers, six leased-on owner-operators — booking off the boards at whatever posted. Their average sat right around the DAT national number, which sounds fine until you count what surrounded it: five-hour waits at distribution centers nobody warned them about, TONUs eaten without a fight, and cheap backhauls that burned $5.31/gal diesel to move freight that barely covered the fuel.
What changed
NeuroHaul's dry van team took the whole fleet in May. The first change wasn't the rate — it was the load. Our dispatchers price the whole load, not the posting: a $2.60 load with a drop-and-hook and a reload beats a $2.75 load into a facility that averages four hours at the dock. Detention history, broker payment record, and reload odds get weighed before anyone calls the driver.
LTL and partials, which the carrier never had bandwidth to work, now fill return legs that used to run empty. Company drivers get pre-planned weeks with home time protected; owner-operators approve every load and keep their rate floor.
Track & trace runs on all fifteen trucks, and the carrier opted into the After-Hours desk on top of standard dispatch — the office stopped fielding “where's the truck” calls entirely, day or night.
| Metric | Before | DAT national avg | With NeuroHaul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booked linehaul avg (Dry Van) | $2.21/mi | $2.32/mi | $2.60/mi |
| Deadhead | 18% | 16.7% (ATRI avg) | 9% |
| Avg hours at shipper / load | 3.8 | — | 1.6 |
| TONU & detention collected | $0 | — | $6,400 |
| Partial / LTL revenue per month | $0 | — | $9,800 |
- Dispatch — dry van desk
- Driver recruiting
- Track & trace
- After-Hours desk
- Detention & TONU enforcement
- LTL / partials desk
/ The Stack on This Account /
The same engagement runs the fleet's CDL driver funnel — exclusive leads, AI-screened, worked into their hiring pipeline by the recruiting side of the Growth Engine — so the seats the desk plans a week around stay filled. Nine company-driver seats are only an asset while someone is in them.
“We used to think booking at the average meant we were doing fine. Their team showed us the average includes every truck that sat five hours at a dock for free. Three months in, we're above the number, our drivers are home when promised, and I haven't argued a TONU myself once.”
Open-deck fleet: the right load, verified before the driver commits.
+$0.31/mi
vs. DAT national flatbed average
21% → 10%
deadhead
1 in 50+
loads with dims/tarp surprises · was 1 in 8
Where they started
Sixteen open-deck trucks — ten company drivers, six owner-operators — losing money in the gaps between loads. The postings looked fine; the reality didn't. Wrong tarp calls, over-height surprises mid-lane, and brokers who posted step deck freight at flatbed money. One in eight loads hit a dims or securement problem that cost hours, and the empty return legs after one-way premium freight ate the premium.
What changed
Every load is verified before it reaches a driver: dims, weight distribution, legal height, tarping, securement, ramps. If it doesn't clear, the driver never hears about it. Our open-deck dispatchers — 10+ years each — recognize which broker actually knows their freight and which one is guessing, and their standing relationships with the major flatbed brokerages mean the good freight calls us first.
Step deck stopped being sold at flatbed rates. The desk prices the trailer's capability, holds the number, and plans the week as a loop — deck freight out, partials or step deck back — so the premium load no longer costs an empty return to get it. Company drivers run pre-planned weeks; owner-operators approve everything and watch their settlements climb.
Six months in, the relationship work is paying compound interest. The same broker reps who once posted and hoped now call the desk by name with repeat freight, and the first standing weekly lane offer is on the table — the kind of steady, better-margin freight that only comes to carriers a rep trusts to show up clean, on time, every time.
| Metric | Before | DAT national avg | With NeuroHaul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booked linehaul avg (Flatbed/SD) | $2.71/mi | $2.83/mi | $3.14/mi |
| Deadhead | 21% | 16.7% (ATRI avg) | 10% |
| Loads hit by dims / tarp issues | 1 in 8 | — | 1 in 50+ |
| Detention & TONU collected · 6 mo | $0 | — | $11,900 |
| Revenue per truck / week | $6,050 | — | $7,300 |
- Dispatch — open-deck desk
- Load verification (dims / securement)
- Detention & TONU enforcement
- Partials desk
Indiana reefer carrier: cold chain priced like cold chain.
+$0.27/mi
vs. DAT national reefer average
19% → 9%
deadhead
0
claims & rejections · was 3 in prior period
Where they started
A 12-truck Indiana reefer outfit — seven company drivers, five owner-operators — hauling temperature-controlled freight at nearly dry van economics. Produce-season brokers talked them down, detention at cold docks went unbilled, and three claims in the prior period came from set-point and pulp-check details nobody confirmed at booking. The equipment was premium. The dispatch wasn't.
What changed
NeuroHaul staffed the account with reefer specialists — dispatchers with 10+ years in cold chain who know what a protect-from-freeze load in January and a produce reload out of a hot market are each actually worth. Set-points go on the rate con, pulp protocol reaches the driver before the shipper does, and reefer hours and fault codes get read in transit, with service planned into the week instead of around a breakdown.
Broker selection is the sales pitch in action: a reefer sitting four hours at a cold dock or running a marginal-rate lane at $5.31 diesel loses more than any posted rate saves. The desk's relationships across the major reefer brokerages get first calls on freight that never hits the boards.
NeuroHaul's maintenance department backs the dispatchers — flagging service windows off reefer hours and fault codes so units reach the shop on schedule, not on a hook. The carrier also added the After-Hours desk, which watches loads delivering at 4 AM so the owner doesn't have to.
| Metric | Before | DAT national avg | With NeuroHaul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booked linehaul avg (Reefer) | $2.49/mi | $2.65/mi | $2.92/mi |
| Deadhead | 19% | 16.7% (ATRI avg) | 9% |
| Claims / rejections | 3 (prior period) | — | 0 |
| Detention collected · 5 mo | $0 | — | $8,200 |
| Unplanned reefer downtime days | 9 | — | 2 |
- Dispatch — reefer desk
- Fleet ops — maintenance performance
- After-Hours desk
- Detention enforcement
/ The Stack on This Account /
The maintenance thread is fleet-ops discipline doing its job inside a dispatch engagement — fault codes read correctly, service windows planned off reefer hours, dispatch coordinating with the shop directly. Downtime days went from nine to two because the schedule found the shop before the breakdown did.
“We ran reefers and got paid like vans. Their dispatchers knew cold chain better than anyone we've had in the building — set-points, pulp checks, which brokers pay for the trailer. Zero claims in five months and the rate's above the national number. Our nights are quiet now.”
Twenty trucks, two trailer types, one plan that uses both.
+$0.26/mi
blended, vs. DAT national averages
17% → 8%
deadhead
93%
truck utilization · was 79%
Where they started
Twenty trucks split between reefer and dry van — twelve company drivers, eight owner-operators — dispatched as two separate problems by an in-house room that never had time to plan either. Reefers chased produce when van freight next door paid better after fuel; vans ran cheap backhauls past reefer freight nobody checked. Utilization sat at 79% and the owner spent every evening on the phone.
What changed
One NeuroHaul pod took all twenty in May and planned them as one fleet. The week is built every Thursday: reefer and van freight priced side by side per lane, after fuel — because a “better” reefer rate that deadheads 120 miles at $5.31/gal diesel is a worse load, and our dispatchers catch that before booking, not after settlement.
Brokers get chosen, not accepted. Payment history, detention record, and double-brokering checks run before every rate con, and the desk's relationships with the major brokerages on both trailer types keep the calendar full without touching the bottom of the boards. Company drivers get planned weeks and protected home time; owner-operators approve every load.
The carrier added the After-Hours desk in week one — a night crew with long years in this business that can work any issue to resolution, with the owner's approval on anything that matters — and the evening phone calls came off his plate for good.
| Metric | Before | DAT national avg | With NeuroHaul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booked avg — Reefer trucks | $2.50/mi | $2.65/mi | $2.90/mi |
| Booked avg — Dry Van trucks | $2.22/mi | $2.32/mi | $2.59/mi |
| Deadhead (fleet) | 17% | 16.7% (ATRI avg) | 8% |
| Truck utilization | 79% | — | 93% |
| Owner evening hours on dispatch | 2–3 / night | — | 0 |
- Dispatch — mixed pod
- Fleet ops — utilization planning
- Weekly pre-planning
- Broker vetting
- After-Hours desk
/ The Stack on This Account /
Fourteen points of utilization is an operations number, not a booking number. The Thursday plan — both trailer types priced per lane after fuel, reloads pre-booked — is the fleet-ops playbook running inside the dispatch desk, which is what "three services, one team" means in practice.
“They look at my reefers and vans as one fleet and pick whichever freight actually pays after fuel. Nobody ever did that math for us before. Three months in, utilization is up fourteen points and I eat dinner with my family. That's the whole review.”
Nine trucks, two months: proof doesn't need a year.
+$0.25/mi
vs. DAT national dry van average
20% → 10%
deadhead
Wk 1
first detention check ever collected
Where they started
A nine-truck Texas dry van fleet — five company drivers, four owner-operators — where the owner dispatched between everything else and paid for it in the numbers: booking below the national average, one truck in five miles running empty, and never once billing detention because there was never time to document it. The trucks worked hard. The freight didn't.
What changed
The NeuroHaul desk took the fleet in June and the first detention invoice went out in week one — arrival and departure documented, two hours free, billable after, collected. That habit alone was worth more than a rate bump: time at a dock is money, and the desk treats it that way on every load.
Load selection did the rest. Our dispatchers skip the posting that pays ten cents more into a facility that holds trucks half a day, and take the load with the drop-and-hook and the reload — because the right load beats the cheap load, every week, on math anyone can check. LTL partials now ride the return legs. Company drivers got planned weeks for the first time; owner-operators keep full approval. After-hours and track & trace run on all nine trucks.
Two months is a short window — that's the point. The gap between booking at the average and booking right shows up on the very first settlements.
| Metric | Before | DAT national avg | With NeuroHaul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booked linehaul avg (Dry Van) | $2.18/mi | $2.32/mi | $2.57/mi |
| Deadhead | 20% | 16.7% (ATRI avg) | 10% |
| Detention collected · 2 mo | $0 (never billed) | — | $3,100 |
| Partial / LTL revenue · 2 mo | $0 | — | $7,600 |
| Revenue per truck / week | $4,900 | — | $5,950 |
- Dispatch — dry van desk
- Detention enforcement
- LTL / partials desk
- Track & trace
- After-Hours desk
“Two months. That's all it took to see it. First detention check I've ever cashed came in week one, the rate's above the national average, and my trucks quit running empty half the way home. Should've done this the day they opened.”
Seven months on the desk: open-deck freight with zero write-offs.
+$0.33/mi
vs. DAT national flatbed average
22% → 9%
deadhead
$0
bad-debt write-offs · 7 months
Where they started
Fourteen open-deck trucks — eight company drivers, six owner-operators — with strong equipment and a weak calendar. Winter construction lulls left step decks parked; when freight came back, it came through brokers nobody vetted, and the prior year ended with two unpaid invoices written off. Deadhead ran 22% because one-way freight was booked one way, with hope covering the return.
What changed
Our longest-running open-deck engagement to date, onboarded in NeuroHaul's first January. The desk's flatbed specialists planned around the season instead of against it — construction, machinery, and steel freight sequenced into loops, partials closing the gaps, step decks priced at step deck money and held there through three counters when a broker opened at the floor.
Broker discipline is why the write-off line reads zero. Credit, authority, and double-brokering checks clear every booking — including the household names — and detention and TONU get pursued and collected, not absorbed. Track & trace and the after-hours desk cover every load; drivers, company and owner-operator alike, get treated with the respect of people whose time is the product.
Seven months of clean pickups, clean deliveries, and straight communication built something the spot board can't: a reputation with the reps. That reputation is now the growth engine — two lanes have moved from spot postings to dedicated weekly freight at better margins, and the desk is chasing the next contract rounds with NeuroHaul's marketing team working the same push from the shipper side. Steady lanes mean the carrier can add trucks against demand it can see, and grow naturally as that demand gets bigger — instead of gambling on the boards.
| Metric | Before | DAT national avg | With NeuroHaul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booked linehaul avg (Flatbed/SD) | $2.66/mi | $2.83/mi | $3.16/mi |
| Deadhead | 22% | 16.7% (ATRI avg) | 9% |
| Detention & TONU collected · 7 mo | $0 | — | $13,400 |
| Bad-debt write-offs | 2 (prior yr) | — | 0 |
| Revenue per truck / week | $5,900 | — | $7,250 |
- Dispatch — open-deck desk
- Marketing — shipper-side contract push
- Broker vetting & credit checks
- Detention & TONU enforcement
- Track & trace
- After-Hours desk
/ The Stack on This Account /
Dispatch built the reputation one clean load at a time; the marketing side of the Growth Engine converts it — working the shipper push behind the same contract rounds the desk is chasing. Dedicated lanes are won twice: on the road, and in the inbox of the rep who awards them.
“Seven months, every invoice paid, and now two dedicated lanes we never could have landed on our own. They built our name with the reps one clean load at a time, and the steady freight followed. Thank you, NeuroHaul dispatch team, for the great work and the professionalism — this desk runs our freight better than we ever ran it ourselves.”
What did the work, on every account.
The right load beats the cheap load. A truck sitting at a shipper, eating a TONU, or hauling bottom-board freight at $5.31/gal diesel loses more than a stronger rate ever earns — and it takes experienced dispatchers to see that before the booking, not after the settlement.
Specialists by asset type
Dispatchers with 10+ years in the business, staffed by trailer type — dry van, reefer, flatbed and step deck — no learning curve on the carrier's dime.
Trained broker & load selection
Payment history, detention record, and reload odds weighed before booking, backed by standing relationships with nearly all major brokerages.
Trust built with broker reps, on purpose
Clean loads and straight communication turn spot postings into repeat freight, then dedicated weekly lanes and contract rounds — steadier revenue, bigger margins.
Rates benchmarked against DAT
Every account measured against the national average for its equipment, re-priced weekly so recurring lanes never drift below market.
Company drivers and owner-operators, both done right
Planned weeks and protected home time for company drivers; full load approval and rate floors for owner-operators.
Weekly pre-planning
The driver's week built Thursday for Monday, reloads pre-booked, deadhead planned out before it happens.
Detention & TONU enforced
Documented, billed, pursued, and collected on every account, starting week one.
After-Hours desk (add-on)
A night crew with long years in this business — any overnight issue worked to resolution, with your approval on every decision that matters.
Track & trace on every load
Check calls, live updates, and proactive ETAs to brokers and receivers, so your office never fields a “where's the truck” call.
Maintenance literacy
Fault codes read correctly, service planned into routing, dispatch coordinating with the shop directly.
Drivers treated with dignity
No forced dispatch, no pressure booking, no blame for delays outside a driver's control.
Stop hauling at the floor.
Performance-based dispatch: rate negotiation backed by live market data, lane-density planning, detention enforced, and a 24/7 desk. No contracts, no forced dispatch — you pay only when you haul.
Selected: Dispatch. We start booking loads at your number, not the floor.
Prefer to talk? Call (464) 266-4411 — real dispatchers, 24/7.
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