Car Hauler Lease-On — Operate an Auto Transporter Under Our MC
This page is the car-hauler lease-on explainer for Direct Fleet Dispatch. An owner-operator who already has a tractor, an open auto transporter, or an enclosed auto-transport trailer can ask to run that equipment under an authorized carrier's written lease. The page answers that lease question. It is not a hiring board, not a list of carriers taking drivers by city, and not a published pay scale.
People sometimes search this topic with the word "remote" attached, because the carrier office does not have to sit in the driver's hometown. The driving itself is not desk work. The truck is on the highway. What can be handled away from a terminal is the conversation about the lease, the paperwork, and dispatch calls. Nothing on this page promises a start time or a published rate.
The phone number published on this website, +1 682-978-8641, is the business line for this site. It is not a motor carrier's name, and this page does not invent one.
What a car-hauler lease-on actually is
Under 49 CFR Part 376, an authorized motor carrier that performs transportation in equipment it does not own does so under a written lease, aside from the interchange and exemption cases the regulation names. Section 376.11(a) says there shall be a written lease granting the use of the equipment and meeting 49 CFR 376.12. A verbal "just run under our number" arrangement is not that lease.
The lease is made between the authorized carrier and the owner of the equipment, and it is signed by those parties or their authorized representatives (376.12(a)). It has to state the time and date, or the circumstances, on which it begins and ends, and those times line up with the equipment receipts in 376.11(b) (see 376.12(b)). For the duration, the authorized carrier lessee has exclusive possession, control, and use of the equipment and assumes complete responsibility for its operation (376.12(c)(1)). That control clause does not, by itself, decide whether the driver is an employee or an independent contractor. Section 376.12(c)(4) says an independent-contractor relationship may exist when the carrier lessee complies with 49 U.S.C. 14102 and the administrative requirements that go with it.
While the lease is in effect, the carrier identifies the equipment in its service under 376.11(c) and the identification rules in 49 CFR Part 390. Unless a copy of the lease is on the equipment, the carrier keeps a statement with the equipment certifying that the carrier is operating it, naming the owner, the date and length of the lease, any commodity restrictions, and the address where the original lease is kept. The parties sign the lease. The carrier keeps a copy, and another copy rides on the equipment during the lease unless that statement is carried instead. The owner keeps a copy too (376.12(l)).
That is the same legal frame as the dry van, flatbed, and reefer lease-on pages on this site. The difference is the freight and the trailer: finished automobiles, light trucks, and vans, instead of palletized dry freight, open-deck building materials, or temperature-controlled food. The hub page for the program is lease-on.
Open transporters, enclosed trailers, and a single car
Car-hauler equipment is not one trailer. An open auto transporter stacks vehicles on an open deck. An enclosed auto-transport trailer puts vehicles inside a box so weather and road debris are not hitting the paint. A single-car tilt or wedge trailer behind a pickup or medium truck moves one vehicle. All three can be the subject of a Part 376 lease if an authorized carrier is using equipment it does not own to perform authorized transportation. Which paperwork and which license you need still depends on the weight ratings below, not on the nickname of the trailer.
The vehicles on the trailer are the cargo. Dealer trades, auction purchases, and moves from a rail ramp or port facility to a dealer are ordinary auto-transport work. A personal vehicle moved for a private customer is the same securement problem even when the bill of lading looks different. This page does not rank those lanes, does not claim a busiest corridor, and does not publish a seasonal rate swing. If a dispatcher describes where freight is actually available, that description belongs in the lease conversation, not in an unsourced map on this page.
Driveaway, where someone drives the vehicle itself instead of loading it on a trailer, is a different operation. Do not read this page as a driveaway manual. If the unit you would lease is a power unit plus a trailer that carries other vehicles, you are in truckaway territory and the securement section below is the one to read.
Open auto transporter
Vehicles ride outside. Weather reaches the cargo. Tiedowns are visible at a roadside inspection. The securement rule still keys off each vehicle's weight, not off the fact that the deck is open.
Enclosed auto transport
The trailer is a box. That protects paint. It does not repeal the securement rule. An inspector can still ask how each vehicle is restrained against forward, rearward, lateral, and vertical movement.
Single-car trailer
One light vehicle behind a smaller truck. The combination may or may not be a commercial driver's license vehicle. Read the gross combination weight test in 49 CFR 383.5 before anyone tells you a CDL is automatic.
How the cars have to be tied down
49 CFR 393.128 is the specific securement section for automobiles, light trucks, and vans that individually weigh 4,536 kg (10,000 lb) or less. Vehicles heavier than that are outside this section and must be secured under 49 CFR 393.130. The section does not set a freight rate. It sets a restraint rule.
For those lighter vehicles, the rule requires restraint at both the front and the rear to prevent lateral, forward, rearward, and vertical movement, using a minimum of two tiedowns (393.128(b)(1)). Tiedowns designed to attach to the structure of the car, light truck, or van must use the mounting points on that vehicle that were specifically designed for that purpose (393.128(b)(2)). Tiedowns designed to fit over or around the wheels must provide restraint in the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical directions (393.128(b)(3)). Edge protectors are not required for synthetic webbing at points where the webbing comes in contact with the tires (393.128(b)(4)).
A lease-on driver is the person who does that work at the pickup. The authorized carrier is still the carrier responsible for the transportation under the lease. If a vehicle on the trailer is over 10,000 lb by itself, do not stretch 393.128 to cover it. Use 393.130, and do not treat a summary on a marketing page as a substitute for the regulation.
When the driver needs a CDL, and when the truck is a CMV
Two different definitions use the words "commercial motor vehicle," and they are not the same threshold.
For a commercial driver's license, 49 CFR 383.5 defines a CMV as a motor vehicle or combination used in commerce to transport passengers or property if it is one of three groups. Group A is a combination with a gross combination weight rating or gross combination weight of 11,794 kg (26,001 lb) or more, whichever is greater, inclusive of a towed unit with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross vehicle weight over 4,536 kg (10,000 lb). Group B is a heavy straight vehicle at 11,794 kg (26,001 lb) or more. Group C is a smaller vehicle that does not meet Group A or B but is designed to transport 16 or more passengers including the driver, or is any size and is used to transport hazardous materials as that section defines them. A Class A CDL is the license for Group A. It is not a universal requirement of the phrase "car hauler." A light pickup and a light single-car trailer can fall under those numbers. A tractor pulling a loaded multi-car transporter usually will not. Check the certification labels. Do not guess from the name of the work.
Separately, 49 CFR 390.5 defines a commercial motor vehicle for the general safety regulations as a self-propelled or towed vehicle used on a highway in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property when the GVWR, GCWR, GVW, or GCW is 4,536 kg (10,001 lb) or more, whichever is greater, or when the passenger or placarded-hazmat tests in that definition are met. A combination can be under the CDL line and still be a CMV for Part 390. Driver-qualification, hours-of-service, and other parts that apply to that definition then have to be read on their own. This page does not restate those parts, because a short paraphrase goes stale and this is not a compliance manual.
Drug-and-alcohol testing under 49 CFR Part 382 follows the CDL rules' vehicle, not every cargo van on the highway. If your combination does not meet 383.5, do not assume Part 382 applies, and do not assume it does not, without reading the applicability section against the truck you will actually drive.
Public liability: the number that is actually in the regulation
49 CFR 387.9 sets minimum levels of financial responsibility. The schedule's first row is for-hire carriage in interstate or foreign commerce with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, transporting property that is nonhazardous. The minimum public liability in that row is $750,000. That figure is a federal floor for that type of carriage. It is not a quote for hauling a car, not a cargo-insurance limit, and not the amount a shipper will pay.
Other rows on the same table cover hazardous substances, oil, and other hazardous materials. Ordinary automobiles are not those commodities. Do not borrow a hazmat row to describe car-hauler insurance.
Section 376.12(j) requires the lease to state the authorized carrier's legal obligation to maintain insurance for the protection of the public under FMCSA regulations under 49 U.S.C. 13906, and to state who provides any other coverage for the leased equipment, such as bobtail insurance. If the carrier will charge any of that insurance back to the lessor, the lease has to specify the amount charged back. If the lessor buys coverage from or through the carrier, the lease has to say the carrier will provide a copy of each policy on request and a certificate of insurance with the insurer, policy number, dates, amounts and types of coverage, the cost to the lessor, and the deductible. This page does not publish those charge-back amounts. If they are not written in the lease you are holding, they are not agreed.
How compensation is supposed to be written — and why no split is printed here
Section 376.12(d) says the amount the authorized carrier will pay for equipment and driver's services shall be clearly stated on the face of the lease or in an attached addendum, delivered to the lessor before any trip starts. The amount may be a percentage of gross revenue, a flat rate per mile, a variable rate depending on direction or commodity, or another method the parties agree to. The regulation allows those methods. It does not pick one, and it does not publish a percentage for car haulers. This page will not invent one.
Section 376.12(f) says the lease shall specify that payment to the lessor shall be made within 15 days after submission of the necessary delivery documents concerning a trip. The documents required before payment are limited to log books required by the Department of Transportation and the documents necessary for the carrier to secure payment from the shipper. Payment shall not be made contingent on submission of a bill of lading to which no exceptions have been taken. The carrier may ask for more documents, but not as a prerequisite to payment. That 15-day rule is a regulatory deadline for the lease terms. It is not a claim that a settlement hits an account on a particular weekday.
When the lessor's revenue is based on a percentage of gross revenue, 376.12(g) requires the lease to say the carrier will give the lessor, before or at settlement, a copy of the rated freight bill (or, for a contract carrier, the document that contains the same information). Regardless of the pay method, the lease must let the lessor examine copies of the tariff or the other documents rates are computed from, with the limits the paragraph describes. Shipper and consignee names may be deleted.
Section 376.12(h) says the lease shall clearly specify every item the carrier may pay up front and then deduct, and how each amount is computed. The lessor gets copies of the documents needed to check the charge. Section 376.12(e) says the lease shall clearly specify who pays for fuel, fuel taxes, empty mileage, permits, tolls, ferries, detention and accessorial services, base plates and licenses, and unused portions of those items, and who is responsible for loading and unloading and what compensation, if any, is paid for that service. Overweight and oversize fines on pre-loaded, sealed, or otherwise uncontrolled loads are addressed in that same paragraph. Read it in the lease. Do not rely on a percentage a stranger quoted in a forum.
Section 376.12(i) says the lessor is not required to purchase or rent any products, equipment, or services from the carrier as a condition of entering the lease. If escrow funds are required, 376.12(k) spells out the accounting, interest, and return rules, including that the escrow fund shall not be returned later than 45 days from the date of termination. If nobody is asking you for escrow, that paragraph is still the checklist for what a lawful escrow clause would contain.
Direct Fleet Dispatch does not print a car-hauler linehaul split, a cents-per-mile figure, a weekly gross, or a "typical" settlement on this page. A dispatcher can walk through the lease that would actually be signed. Until that document states the amount, there is no amount.
Your own authority versus leasing the equipment
Neither column is a price list. The left column is you operating as the authorized carrier. The right column is the Part 376 lease described above.
| Question | You are the authorized carrier | You lease the equipment to an authorized carrier |
|---|---|---|
| What document authorizes the truck? | Your own operating authority and your own marking. | A written lease under 49 CFR 376.11 and 376.12, plus the carrier's identification on the equipment. |
| Who must state the pay? | You price the load you accepted. | 376.12(d): the amount is on the lease or an addendum before the trip. |
| When is the lessor paid? | Your own billing cycle. | The lease must require payment within 15 days after the necessary delivery documents (376.12(f)). |
| Public liability floor | 387.9 applies to you if your carriage is in that table. The nonhazardous for-hire row at 10,001 lb GVWR or more is $750,000. | 376.12(j): the lease states the carrier's public-liability obligation and any charge-back. This page does not add a second number. |
| Who ties the cars down? | The driver, under 393.128 or 393.130 as the vehicle weight requires. | The same securement rules. The carrier has assumed responsibility for the operation for the lease term (376.12(c)). |
| Can you leave? | You stop using your own authority when you choose, subject to loads already accepted. | The lease must say when it ends (376.12(b)). Read that clause. This page does not add an exit fee or a term the regulation does not state. |
Questions
Is this a list of carriers hiring drivers?+
No. There is no city list, no "near me" board, and no roster of carriers hiring. The page explains leasing auto-transport equipment to an authorized carrier under 49 CFR Part 376.
Do I automatically need a Class A CDL to haul cars?+
No. 49 CFR 383.5 requires a CDL when the combination or straight truck meets the 26,001 lb tests, or when the passenger or hazardous-materials tests in that definition are met. A heavy tractor and a loaded transporter usually meet Group A. A light truck and a light trailer may not. Read the labels on the power unit and the trailer.
What is the tiedown rule for a normal passenger car?+
If that vehicle weighs 10,000 lb or less, 49 CFR 393.128 requires at least two tiedowns, restraining it at the front and the rear against lateral, forward, rearward, and vertical movement. Structural tiedowns use the vehicle's designed mounting points. Wheel tiedowns must restrain lateral, longitudinal, and vertical movement. A vehicle over 10,000 lb is secured under 49 CFR 393.130 instead.
What insurance number can you actually cite?+
For for-hire interstate or foreign carriage of nonhazardous property in a vehicle with a GVWR of 10,001 lb or more, 49 CFR 387.9 sets public liability at a minimum of $750,000. That is not cargo insurance and not the price of the load. Any amount charged back to the owner has to be written in the lease under 376.12(j).
Why won't you publish the percentage I keep?+
Because 376.12(d) requires the real amount on the lease or an addendum, and this page will not invent a split, a per-mile rate, or a yearly gross. If someone else publishes a "typical" percentage with no source, that number is not an offer from this site.
How fast is the first load?+
There is no promised clock. Screening and a signed lease come before a trip. The regulation requires the compensation terms to be delivered before the trip starts. It does not require a carrier to have a load the same day you call.
Who pays fuel, tolls, and permits?+
Whoever the lease names. 376.12(e) requires the lease to say which party pays fuel, fuel taxes, empty mileage, permits, tolls, ferries, detention and accessorial services, and base plates and licenses. If the lease is silent, do not fill the blank from a blog.
Does an enclosed trailer change the securement rule?+
The 393.128 test is the weight of each automobile, light truck, or van, not whether the trailer has walls. Enclosure is about weather and damage. Securement is a separate duty.
What has to be on the truck during the lease?+
A copy of the lease, or the statement described in 376.11(c)(2) if the lease itself is not carried. The owner also keeps a copy (376.12(l)). The carrier identifies the equipment in its service.
Is the phone number on this page a carrier?+
No. +1 682-978-8641 is the business phone shown on directfleetdispatch.com. This page does not assign that number to a carrier name, and it does not publish an MC or DOT number.
How is this different from dispatch while I keep my own authority?+
Dispatch, as this site uses the word on its service pages, is help finding freight while you remain the carrier. Lease-on is Part 376: the authorized carrier leases your equipment and is responsible for the operation during the lease. This page is only the second product. It is not a dispatch-fee schedule, and it does not state a commission.
Where are the other lease-on pages?+
Dry van, flatbed, and reefer each have their own explainer, linked from the lease-on hub. They are the same kind of page as this one. They are not hiring boards either.
Apply for the car-hauler lease-on
The form asks about equipment and authority. It does not show a rate. A signed lease is what states compensation, under 49 CFR 376.12(d), before a trip.
Related pages
Same lease-on pattern as the other equipment pages. Internal links only.
Read the other equipment pages
Dry van, flatbed, and reefer are separate explainers. They are not substituted for an auto transporter.