What is DAT load board?

DAT is the largest freight marketplace in North America — a digital platform where freight brokers post loads and motor carriers post available trucks. For most freight brokers, DAT is the primary source of spot-market carrier capacity. Understanding what DAT is, how its products work, and what happens after you post a load is foundational to operating a modern brokerage.

DAT: origin and history

DAT was founded in 1978 in Portland, Oregon as Dial-a-Truck — a telephone-based matching service for freight and equipment. Brokers and carriers called in to list available loads or trucks, and the service dispatched matches by phone. The company was one of the earliest applications of a marketplace model in freight.

As the internet emerged in the 1990s, DAT transitioned from a phone-based service to an electronic database and eventually to a web-based load board platform. Transcore acquired DAT in 1994 and began building out the networked database infrastructure. In 2004, Roper Technologies (then called Roper Industries) acquired Transcore, bringing DAT under its umbrella of industrial software and data businesses. Roper remains the owner as of 2026.

Over the decades, DAT grew from a regional phone service into a nationwide digital marketplace. Its network now encompasses hundreds of thousands of registered carriers and tens of thousands of brokers and shippers posting millions of loads annually. The core product — the load board — has expanded into a suite of freight market data, analytics, and capacity intelligence tools.

The DAT product lineup

DAT One

DAT One is the core load board subscription product available to both brokers and carriers. Key features:

• Load and truck posting and searching across the DAT network.
• Basic lane rate information (spot market averages for major lanes).
• Carrier contact and vetting tools — phone numbers, reviews, and basic carrier status.
• Mobile app access for on-the-go searching and posting.
• Standard post volumes (number of loads/trucks that can be posted per month varies by subscription tier).

DAT One is appropriate for small to mid-size brokers who are primarily using the load board for spot capacity and do not need enterprise-level analytics.

DAT Power

DAT Power is the premium broker-focused tier with higher post volumes, more detailed analytics, and additional tools for managing carrier relationships and tracking market conditions. Key additions over DAT One:

• Higher monthly post limits — important for high-volume brokers posting multiple loads simultaneously.
• More detailed lane rate data and market trend reporting.
• Carrier performance data and more detailed carrier profiles.
• Custom alerts for load matches and rate movements.

DAT Power is the standard subscription for brokers running more than a handful of loads per day who need reliable high-volume capacity access.

DAT RateView

DAT RateView is a rate intelligence product that brokers use to price loads and evaluate carrier quotes. It provides lane-level rate data based on actual transactions from across the DAT network — spot market rates, 7-day averages, 13-week trends, and seasonal patterns for specific origin-destination pairs.

Brokers use RateView in two directions:

• Pricing to shippers: Knowing the current spot rate on a lane helps the broker quote a competitive all-in rate to the shipper while protecting margin.
• Evaluating carrier quotes: When carriers email rate quotes, RateView tells the broker whether a quoted rate is at, above, or below market. A carrier quoting significantly below market may not understand the lane or may be misrepresenting their ability to service the load.

DAT iQ

DAT iQ is DAT's enterprise analytics platform, designed for larger brokerages, asset-based carriers, and shippers who need market-level intelligence beyond individual lane rates. Features include:

• Market share analysis — understanding how your lanes compare to the broader market.
• Capacity forecasting and demand trend analysis.
• Lane-level volume and rate benchmarking against peers.
• Shipper-specific data analysis for contract negotiations.

DAT iQ is priced at the enterprise level and requires a direct sales engagement. It is not a standard subscription product and is not relevant to most SMB brokerages.

How freight brokers use DAT in their daily workflow

The primary broker workflow with DAT is:

• Receive a load tender from a shipper (via TMS, email, or EDI).
• Post the load to DAT with lane details, equipment type, pickup/delivery dates, and rate target (or a blind post with no rate shown).
• Inbound carrier emails and calls begin arriving — carriers who see the post and want to quote. A competitive lane on DAT can generate 30–50 inbound contacts within an hour.
• Broker evaluates quotes, checks carrier FMCSA status, and selects the best carrier.
• Issue rate confirmation and dispatch.

Step 3 — managing the inbound carrier contact wave — is where most of the manual time in brokerage operations is spent. Each carrier email must be read, the rate extracted, the carrier verified, and the quote compared against others. Multiply by 10–20 active loads simultaneously and it becomes the central operational bottleneck.

This is the problem Keelway's carrier email automation addresses: every inbound carrier reply is parsed automatically, the carrier's FMCSA data is pulled, and a trust score is computed alongside the rate — so the broker sees a ranked list instead of an inbox.

How carriers use DAT

Carriers — both owner-operators and fleet managers — use DAT to find loads that match their available equipment and preferred lanes. The typical carrier workflow:

• Search available loads by origin, destination, pickup date, and equipment type.
• View load details and broker contact information.
• Call or email the broker to negotiate rate and book the load.

Carriers also post available trucks on DAT — equipment that is empty or soon-to-be-empty on a given lane. This "truck posting" allows brokers to proactively search for available capacity rather than waiting for inbound responses to a load post.

DAT pricing

DAT's pricing is subscription-based and changes periodically. Current pricing is available on DAT's website. As a general reference point as of 2026:

• DAT One (basic): Entry-level subscriptions have historically been in the $35–$50/month range for brokers with standard post volumes.
• DAT Power and higher tiers: Priced higher with more post volume and analytics features; direct contact with DAT sales for current rates.
• DAT RateView: Available as an add-on or bundled in higher-tier plans; pricing varies.
• DAT iQ: Enterprise pricing; direct sales only.

DAT vs. Truckstop: the key differences

DAT and Truckstop.com are the two dominant load boards in the US. Both serve the same core function — a marketplace for loads and trucks — but they differ in network size, ancillary products, and integration ecosystem:

• Network size: DAT has historically claimed the larger network by number of registered users and daily post volume, though Truckstop has closed the gap significantly. Most high-volume brokers post to both.
• Rate data: Both offer rate intelligence products. DAT RateView and Truckstop's RMIS/rate tools draw from their respective transaction data sets. Brokers often subscribe to both to triangulate market rates.
• Carrier vetting: Truckstop offers ITS Carrier Watch and RMIS (Risk Management Information Services) as integrated carrier vetting products. DAT's carrier vetting is more limited natively but integrates with Highway and other third-party vetting tools.
• TMS integration: Both integrate with major TMS platforms. DAT has historically had broader TMS partnerships.

For a full comparison of Truckstop's product suite, see our guide: what is Truckstop.

What happens after you post a load on DAT

For a freight broker who is new to using load boards, it is worth understanding exactly what follows a DAT load post. Within minutes of posting, carriers who run the lane will see the load in their DAT search results and begin contacting the broker. Most contact arrives by email, with phone calls second.

The emails arrive in the broker's Gmail or Outlook inbox — often dozens of them, many with rate quotes buried in varied email formats: some carriers quote inline in the email body, some attach a PDF, some reply with just a phone number. The broker's job is to extract the rate from each email, check the carrier's FMCSA status, and rank the options.

That email-triage workflow — from DAT post to ranked carrier list — is exactly what Keelway automates. See how it works for brokerages or review pricing. To get started, book a demo.

Direct Freight: the third option

Direct Freight is a lower-cost load board alternative to DAT and Truckstop. It has a smaller carrier network but has a loyal user base among cost-conscious carriers and brokers who find the major platforms too expensive for their volume. Some brokers use Direct Freight as a supplemental posting destination to capture capacity not registered on the major platforms.

For most SMB brokers, DAT and Truckstop are the essential subscriptions. Direct Freight is optional and situational.