We make dispatch software for bulk hauling. The numbers here come from trucks dispatched on Tread, and the stories come from customers.
All customers on Tread, July to October 2026. Demo and test accounts excluded.
What does a dump truck dispatcher do?
- Take orders from customers, foremen, and plants, with the material, tons or loads, pickup, and drop-off.
- Line up trucks for tomorrow: your own drivers, owner-operators, and sub-haulers.
- Send each driver the job, the pit or plant, and the start time.
- Watch the first hour closely and replace trucks that do not show.
- Move trucks between jobs when a plant goes down or a site slows.
- Collect every ticket and hour so billing can invoice and pay drivers.
The hard part is not any single step. It is doing all six for dozens of trucks while the phone keeps ringing.
What does a dispatch day look like?
- The afternoon before. Orders for tomorrow come in. The dispatcher matches trucks to jobs, confirms hired trucks, and sends start times.
- Early morning. Trucks head to the pit or plant. The first hour shows who is running and who is not.
- Mid-morning. Jobs speed up or stall. Trucks move between jobs, and new orders arrive for today.
- Afternoon. Last loads go out. The dispatcher checks that every load has a ticket and every driver has hours.
- End of day. Tickets and hours go to billing. Tomorrow’s orders are already waiting.
An aggregate broker’s 6 am: The trucks go out at 6. By start time, about 1 in 5 isn’t at the pit. The ops lead told us they need to know which ones by 7, so the office can call in replacements.
What a hauler told us: Every truck started its app at 5 am and hit the plant gate at the same time, and some didn’t load until 7:30. Staggering trucks every 15 minutes keeps the line moving.
How many loads does a dump truck haul in a day?
The median truck on Tread runs 4 loads per working day, and the busiest 10% run 8 or more.
Loads per day is the number dispatchers plan around, and it swings with the work. What moves it:
- Haul distance. A short run to a nearby site turns more loads than a long run across town.
- Time at the plant or pit. A line at the scale costs every truck behind it.
- Time at the drop. Waiting on a paver or a spreader slows the whole cycle.
- Start times. Trucks that arrive together wait together.
Track loads per truck by job, not only by day. A job that runs well below its usual count has a problem worth a call.
Who hauls the loads?
- Owner-operators: about half of all loads
- Other carriers: the rest of the outside loads
- The dispatching company’s own trucks
About 8 in 10
Loads on Tread hauled by trucks the dispatching company does not own. Owner-operators haul about half of all loads, and other carriers haul the rest of the outside loads.
88%
Of companies on Tread dispatch both their own trucks and hired trucks. More than half rely on hired trucks for most loads.
All customers on Tread, July to October 2026. Demo and test accounts excluded.
That changes what a dispatch tool has to do. Hired trucks need the job, the location, and the ticket flow your own trucks get. Some drivers will not install another app, so a text option matters. See how that works in dump truck dispatch software.
How often does the plan change?
About 1 in 6
Jobs on Tread are booked or changed on the day they run.
All customers on Tread, July to October 2026. Demo and test accounts excluded.
Same-day orders and no-shows are normal in this work. Plan for them:
- Confirm hired trucks the day before, and watch who actually arrives.
- Send changes to the driver’s phone, not only over the radio.
- Keep a short list of trucks you can call on the day.
- Record why a job changed, so billing knows what to charge.
Long days still have limits. Local haulers often use the short-haul exception in 49 CFR 395.1(e). Check how it applies to your drivers before you plan a long day.
How are arrivals and tickets recorded?
63%
Of arrivals on Tread are stamped automatically by geofence.
All customers on Tread, July to October 2026. Demo and test accounts excluded.
A geofence is a boundary drawn around the pit, the plant, or the job. When the driver’s phone crosses it, the arrival or departure gets a time stamp, with no tap from the driver.
The ticket is the other half of the record. Scales are tested against NIST Handbook 44, and the scale ticket sets the quantity you bill. The Federal Highway Administration describes how e-ticketing tracks materials tickets on public work.
What customers tell us about ticket numbers: A ticket number is not an ID. Two plants can print the same number on the same day, so a duplicate check has to compare plant, date and tons too.
Whiteboard, group text, or dispatch software?
| Tool | What works | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Whiteboard or spreadsheet | Free, and everyone in the office can see it | Drivers cannot see it. Changes depend on someone calling every truck. |
| Group text and phone calls | Every driver already has a phone | Nothing ties a message to a load, so tickets and hours get rebuilt later. |
| Dispatch software | One board for every truck, with the job on the driver’s phone | It only helps if hired trucks can use it too, and if tickets land on the same load. |
Comparing products? Read our dump truck dispatch software comparison.
A dump truck dispatch checklist
- Every order has material, quantity, pickup, drop-off, and start time.
- Hired trucks are confirmed the day before.
- Start times are staggered so trucks do not stack up at the plant gate.
- Someone watches the first hour and has replacement trucks ready.
- Changes go to the driver’s phone, not only the radio.
- Every load has a ticket before the driver goes home.
- Duplicate tickets are checked against plant, date, and tons, not only the ticket number.
- Approved loads go to billing the same week.
Where Tread fits
Tread is dump truck dispatch software for material producers, bulk haulers, and civil contractors. What it does for a dispatch day:
- Drag and drop, click to assign, or bulk assign trucks on one board, for your own drivers, owner-operators, and sub-haulers.
- Drivers can get a job request by text and reply YES or NO. No app is needed for that step.
- Live location and geofenced arrival and departure from the Tread driver app, on the phones drivers already carry.
- AI reads printed and handwritten scale and material tickets from a photo and returns the ticket number, date, quantity, unit, material, and truck.
- Tread flags potential duplicate tickets (same ticket number on the same order) for review.
- Approved tickets and hours become driver and vendor settlements, with overtime and prevailing-wage rules applied, and a settlement PDF you can email.
Tread is software only. We don’t broker trucks, we don’t own trucks, and we don’t share your trucking relationships.
How we got these numbers
- The figures on this page come from Tread production data. They are percentages, ratios, and medians only.
- All customers on Tread, July to October 2026. Demo and test accounts excluded.
- Stories are what customers told us, retold without names. They are not results Tread measured.
- Outside sources are listed below. Last checked October 9, 2026.
- Federal Highway Administration, e-Ticketing. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/everydaycounts/edc_6/eticketing.cfm
- NIST Handbook 44, Specifications and Tolerances for Weighing and Measuring Devices. https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/nist-handbook-44-current-edition
- eCFR, 49 CFR 395.1, Scope of the hours-of-service rules, including the short-haul exception. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-III/subchapter-B/part-395/section-395.1