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RescueLoad

    Author

    Maurice Holt

    Maurice Holt writes and reviews the freight guides, free tools and templates on RescueLoad: 29 guides and 27 tools so far. The beat is the part of a load that happens off the highway: dock time, the paperwork that proves it, freight class, claims, and the terms printed on a bill of lading.

    The pages are written for owner-operators and small fleets first, and for small shippers who want straight answers. You can learn more about the desk behind them on our about page.

    What the guides cover, and what they leave out

    The guides answer the questions a carrier runs into between pickup and payment: when detention starts and how to prove it, who pays a lumper, what a clean bill of lading looks like, how density turns into a class estimate, and how long you have to file a cargo claim. Small shippers get the basics too, with a plain note that we dispatch carriers and don't ship freight.

    They don't give legal or tax advice, predict freight rates, or rank companies that pay us. Where a decision needs a lawyer, an accountant or the carrier's tariff, the guide says so.

    New here? Three good places to start: what detention is and when the clock starts, the documents that get a load paid, and how freight class is estimated.

    How Maurice checks a guide

    • Every rule is read in its source text, such as the U.S. Code, the eCFR or an FMCSA page, and linked with the date it was checked.
    • A number that can't be traced to a named source stays out of the guide.
    • Illustrative loads, times and documents are labeled EXAMPLE, and freight class is always called an estimate.
    • Each page shows the month of its last review, and reader corrections are checked against the source.

    The full rules are in our editorial policy.

    Guides by section

    Every guide below, grouped the way the freight guides library is.

    At the dock

    Paperwork

    Cube and class

    Claims

    Freight terms

    Shipping basics

    Freight agent

    Free tools