Regional dispatch service for drivers who want to sleep at home
Not every driver wants three weeks out. Our regional dispatch service plans loops that start and end near your yard, so you sleep at home more nights and keep enough miles to make the truck pay. Local or regional, you set the radius and the nights out, and you say yes or no to every load.
One month, three ways to run it
Local, regional and over the road are not official categories. They are a trade between miles and nights at home, and every carrier draws the lines a little differently. Here is one EXAMPLE month, done three ways.
Switch between the schedules. The calendar marks every night at home, and the card shows the EXAMPLE miles and the trade-off. Your own numbers will differ with your lanes, your equipment and the season.
HOME-NIGHT CALENDAR · EXAMPLE FOUR WEEKS
- Nights at home
- 12 / 28
- Miles, EXAMPLE
- 8,200
What it gives you: Every weekend at home and one mid-week night in your own bed, with enough miles to keep the truck earning.
What it costs you: Fewer miles than OTR, and loads that have to start and end inside your region.
This EXAMPLE schedule has 12 of 28 nights at home and about 8200 miles.
The pattern that usually surprises drivers is how much home time a well-planned regional week gives back for a fairly small cut in miles. The catch is the planning. A regional week only works if Thursday's load ends near home, which means Monday's load was booked with Thursday in mind.
Local work brings its own rules. If you stay within 150 air miles of your work location and are released within 14 hours, the short-haul exception can replace logs, which suits many local runs. Regional runs that sleep away from home use the full hours of service rules.
POSTED: eCFR, 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1) · checked Oct 2026
How we plan regional loops
A regional loop is a chain of loads that leaves your area and comes back to it on a schedule. This is how we build one:
Draw the region
You tell us your home base, how far you will go and the nights you want at home. That becomes the box we book inside.
Book the way out early
The first load out of your area is often the easiest to find. We book it before the week starts.
Think two loads ahead
Every load is chosen for where it leaves you as much as for what it pays.
Book the way home first
The load that brings you home is the hardest one. We look for it early in the week, not on Thursday afternoon.
Keep the empty miles short
A regional loop with long deadhead between loads is an OTR week in disguise. We plan to avoid it.
Tell you when it will not work
Some weeks the freight will not line up. We say so early and give you the choice: an extra night out, a shorter week, or a lower rate home.
EXAMPLE
An EXAMPLE regional week, day by day
- Monday: out of Charlotte at 06:00 with a load booked last Thursday, delivering in Columbia by noon. Reload to Atlanta that afternoon.
- Tuesday: Atlanta delivery, then a reload north to Knoxville. The night is at a truck stop on I-75 we know usually has space.
- Wednesday: Knoxville to Greensboro. Close enough to home for a night in your own bed, so the plan sends you home Wednesday evening.
- Thursday: the Charlotte to Richmond load, and the short reload home that was booked on Monday. Home by night.
- Friday to Sunday: off. The first load of next week is already lined up.
EXAMPLE only. Real weeks move with the freight, and some weeks the way home is harder to find. When it is, we tell you early.
Parking on regional runs
Regional drivers still sleep out a few nights a week, and those nights tend to fall in the same places: the truck stops and rest areas inside your region. That is an advantage. After a few weeks, we know which stops fill early on which nights and which ones you like, and we plan around them. A regional plan should rarely leave you hunting for a space at 21:00.
We also plan the mid-week night home when it fits. If a delivery ends within reach of your yard with hours left, we would rather send you home than park you 40 miles away.
Which one fits you?
Local
You want to be home every night, your area has steady short-haul freight, and you are fine with fewer miles and more stops.
Regional
You want weekends at home and a night or two midweek, and you are willing to sleep out a few nights for the miles.
OTR
You like long runs and long stretches at home in between, and the miles matter more to you than the nights.
To plan your region, we need your home base, the furthest you will go, the nights you want at home, your equipment, and any states or cities you would rather avoid.
Local truck dispatch
Local work is a different job again. The truck comes home every night, the days are made of shorter runs and more stops, and the freight comes from local shippers, distribution centers, drayage and final-mile work as much as from load boards. Local dispatch is about keeping the truck busy from start to finish of the day and lining up tomorrow before you park tonight.
Local freight is thinner in some areas than others, and we will tell you honestly what your area looks like. If it is thin, widening the radius by a little, or adding one night out a week, often makes a big difference.
Day cabs fit local and short regional work well, and plenty of the drivers we talk to run one for exactly that reason. If you run a day cab, tell us, and we never pitch a load that needs a night in the truck. If you run a sleeper but want to be home most nights, we treat the sleeper as a backup for the odd late delivery, not as the plan, and we tell you before any load that would need it.
For more on how a dispatcher protects home time, read our guide to dispatch, home time and parking.
Want longer runs instead? Our OTR dispatch page shows how we plan multi-week trips.
Regional and local work pay the same tiers as everything else we dispatch: 7% while the MC is new, 5% for one truck after month 6, and 4% per truck for two or more. Details on the fees and terms page.
Local truck dispatch questions
What is regional truck dispatch?
Dispatch that keeps your loads inside a region around your home base, so you are home more often than on over-the-road runs. You set the region and the nights out. We plan loops that leave your area and bring you back on schedule, booking each load with the next one, and the trip home, in mind.
Can a dispatcher keep me home every night?
Sometimes, if your area has enough local freight for your truck. Home every night means local work, which usually means fewer miles and more stops. We will tell you honestly what your area looks like, and if it is thin, show you what one or two nights out a week would add.
How far is regional trucking?
There is no official distance. Many carriers mean a few hundred miles from home, or a group of neighboring states, with the driver home on weekends or a couple of nights a week. What matters is your version: how far you will go, and how many nights you want at home. We plan to that.
Does regional pay less than OTR?
Often regional weeks have fewer miles than OTR weeks, so gross can be lower, but rates per mile on shorter runs can be higher, and you spend less on the road. It depends on the lanes and the season. We never promise a rate. We show you each load's numbers so you can judge the trade yourself.
YOUR YES. YOUR RATE CON.
Keep me home more nights
You confirm every load before it is booked. The rate confirmation is sent directly to you.
LOAD OFFER · EXAMPLE
from your dispatcher
Charlotte, NC to Richmond, VA
- Miles
- 290
- Rate
- $900
- Per mile
- $3.10
- Pickup
- Thu 06:00
- Delivery
- Thu 13:00
Last load of a regional week. Delivers by 13:00, and a short reload back toward Charlotte puts you home on Thursday night, as planned on Monday.
Your call. Nothing is booked until you say yes.