Lease On With Our Motor Carrier Authority

You operate your tractor under our active FMCSA motor carrier authority instead of your own. Your truck displays our DOT and MC number, runs on our cargo and liability insurance, and is covered by our lease agreement under 49 CFR Part 376. You keep ownership of your equipment; we provide the authority, the loads, and the back-office.

The most common reasons: your own MC is in the FMCSA 12-month new-entrant period (which restricts certain freight, shippers, and insurance options), your authority is suspended during a compliance review, your authority was revoked and you need income while you reapply, you don't want to carry the $12k–$20k annual insurance cost a solo OO pays, or you simply want someone else handling IFTA, 2290, BOC-3, and annual UCR filings. Leasing on solves all of that with one contract.

Yes. We require a Class A CDL, a current DOT medical card, and enrollment in the FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse. We run the MVR and PSP reports as part of onboarding — standard for any carrier.

Most drivers are approved within 24–48 hours of application and running their first load inside 5–7 days. That window covers MVR, PSP, drug screen (if you're not already in a consortium that reports to Clearinghouse), and signing the FMCSA-compliant lease agreement. If you already have a clean file ready, we move faster.

Our standard program is 6 months with automatic month-to-month renewal after that. FMCSA's minimum for a written lease is 30 days, but carriers and owner-operators both benefit from a longer term so rates stabilize and we can commit to your lanes. Drivers typically stay 6–12 months — some go permanent, some leave for their own MC when it's ready.

Yes. Our lease has a 30-day written-notice cancellation clause for both parties — that's required by 49 CFR 376.12. You won't be trapped. If your own authority comes back online and you want to run solo, we'll release you at the end of the notice period with no exit fee as long as settlements are current.

We have company trailers available on a weekly lease for drivers who don't own one — currently dry van and flatbed both. If you already own your trailer, you run it and we don't charge trailer rent. If you lease from a third party, we'll work around whatever your arrangement is.

We carry the primary auto liability ($1M minimum), cargo insurance ($100k minimum, higher on specialized loads), and general liability required by FMCSA for active carriers. Drivers pay a weekly settlement deduction that covers their portion of occupational accident insurance, non-trucking (bobtail) liability, and physical damage on the tractor if you want it. Exact weekly deduction is quoted during onboarding based on your equipment and loss history.

Drivers are paid on a percentage of the load's gross revenue. We settle weekly. Each settlement statement breaks out the load detail, gross pay, and all deductions line by line — you can reconcile to the rate confirmations yourself. Exact percentage depends on equipment (flatbed pays a higher split than dry van because rates per mile are higher) and whether you run your own trailer. A dispatcher will walk you through your specific numbers before you sign.

All 48 contiguous states. Our authority covers interstate for-hire freight anywhere in the lower 48. We have freight density in the Southeast, Texas, the Midwest industrial belt, the Northeast, and California, with lighter volume through the Rockies and Great Plains. You'll tell us your preferred lanes during onboarding and we'll book accordingly.

Currently domestic US only. Cross-border freight requires separate FAST/C-TPAT certifications and bond filings that we don't offer under the lease-on program.

We prefer late-model tractors (roughly 2018 or newer) because they pass DOT inspections cleaner and shippers with strict equipment policies accept them. Older trucks can still qualify if they pass our pre-lease inspection and don't trigger shipper rejections on your lanes. Send photos + VIN during application and we'll give you a straight answer.

You can still lease on with us. FMCSA doesn't prohibit a driver with a revoked authority from operating under another carrier's MC — it only prohibits the revoked entity from continuing to run as a carrier. That said, we'll ask about the revocation reason during application. Safety-related revocations get a harder look than administrative ones (late UCR filing, lapsed insurance, missed biennial update).

Yes. Many of our lease-on drivers treat this as a bridge — they run under us for 6–12 months while fixing their authority, then go solo again. We'll return your driver file and any paperwork we hold when you leave.

No. Dispatch is when you keep your own authority and someone else finds you loads — they don't carry insurance, they don't hold your authority, they charge 5–10% of gross as a service fee. Lease-on is operating under our authority entirely. If you want dispatch-only (keeping your own MC), see our dispatch service page instead. Very different product.