Popular Trucking Terms series - F
Hey Dispatch University Dispatchers, Possibly, the most common thing I've been told by new dispatchers is that they don't have any experience. And, that they really want this. Our course covers everything we need to know to get started, up and running in a very short time. It is not uncommon to be making money in a matter of weeks. I want to do my part too. So, I thought of these terms that may help us all get more familiar with the dispatching and trucker lingo. Let me know if you like it. We're going to do it one alphabet at a time. This is the next one. The F's. I ask that you add any others that begin with F that you think are missing. F 1. Feeding the bears – Getting pulled over for a traffic violation. 2. Fifth Wheel – 1) Horseshoe-shaped coupling device used to attach trailers to the tractor. 2)The way tractors and trailers are connected. The fifth wheel accepts a trailer’s kingpin and supports the front end of the trailer. 3. Flatbed – An open trailer used for carrying construction materials and equipment and other objects of unusual size and shape. 4. Flat Rate – A flat rate to do some work versus the standard rate × mile or rate × unit. 5. Fleet Owner – A fleet owner is someone who owns multiple trucks and contracts drivers (who may or may not be employees) to haul freight under their company name. 6. Floor Load – Boxes stacked on the floor requiring someone to LOAD & UNLOAD all the boxes (hire a LUMPER for the job) – no pallet. 7. FMCSA – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Regulates the US commercial trucking industry. 8. Forced Dispatch – When the company dispatcher assigns a load, customer, and delivery time to a driver, and the driver must take the load or suffer consequences (such as being forced to wait around several hours or another day for another load, or even being fired). 9. Four-Wheeler – Any vehicle that isn’t a tractor-trailer rig. 10. Fuel Surcharge – When fuel prices are higher than normal, customers usually pay a surcharge to cover this overage. A fuel surcharge is an extra fee added to a freight bill when fuel prices are high. It helps carriers cover fuel cost increases without changing the base rate of the load. This keeps pricing fair and transparent, showing that the rate hike is due to rising fuel costs—not general price inflation. 11. Fuel Tax – 1) If a truck travels 350 miles across a state, the company’s FLEET AVG MPG is used to decide how much fuel was burned in that 350 miles. If you do not buy enough fuel in that state, you OWE fuel tax. If you bought more than enough, you get a refund. 2) Fuel tax is a state-by-state fee based on how much fuel a truck should have used while driving through a state. If the carrier didn’t buy enough fuel in that state, they owe money. If they bought more than needed, they get a refund. It’s calculated using miles driven per state and fleet average MPG, often automated using software integrations.