Dispatch service vs. your own dispatcher vs. doing it yourself
Every carrier runs one of three desks: the driver dispatches himself, a service does it, or a dispatcher on payroll does it. Each one is right at a different size. Here is how to tell which one you are at.
Self-dispatch: one truck, your own lanes
If you run the same lanes for the same two brokers and like the phone, self-dispatching works. The cost is not money; it is the hours. Searching the board, calling, emailing packets, chasing PODs and invoicing is a second job done from the cab. The moment you start taking the first load you see because you are tired of searching, the free option has started costing you rate.
A dispatch service: one to fifteen trucks
This is the range where a service pays for itself: you get a full desk without a salary, the desk works the boards all day while you drive, and the paperwork leaves your cab. What to watch: the service must have capacity for your trucks, must negotiate rather than forward, and must give you visibility. See how to choose one.
Your own dispatcher: when the desk needs to be yours
Around fifteen trucks, a full-time dispatcher starts to make sense: one person, your brokers, your rules, sitting next to safety and accounting. The costs people miss are the system the dispatcher runs on, the backup when they are sick, and the three months it takes a new hire to learn your lanes. Many fleets at this size keep a service as the overflow desk while they hire.
The question that settles it
How many hours a week does the person booking your loads spend on the boards? If the answer is "between other things", the freight is being found between other things too. A desk whose only job is your freight finds better freight. Whether that desk is a service or an employee is a question of size.
Whatever you choose, run it on a system you can see. A dispatcher without a board is a phone and a spreadsheet.