Glossary
What these terms actually mean here
Defined against how this platform actually works, not generic freight-industry definitions.
Equipment
- Hotshot
- Expedited freight hauled on a medium-duty pickup pulling a flatbed or gooseneck trailer — smaller, faster, and often same-day, for loads that don't need a full semi.
- LTL / FTL
- Less-than-truckload shares one trailer among several shippers' freight; full truckload gives your shipment the whole trailer. FleetBase loads are quoted as full truckload or dedicated hotshot.
- Flatbed
- An open deck with no walls or roof, loaded from the top or side instead of through trailer doors — steel, lumber, machinery, and building materials.
- Step Deck (Drop Deck)
- A flatbed with a lower rear deck, giving taller freight extra vertical clearance without exceeding legal height.
- Conestoga
- A flatbed with a retractable curtain-side cover — the load protection of a dry van with the top/side loading of a flatbed.
- Dry Van
- An enclosed box trailer loaded and unloaded through rear doors — the standard equipment for palletized, boxed general freight.
- Reefer
- A temperature-controlled trailer with an active refrigeration unit, for produce, food, and anything else that can't ride uncontrolled.
Booking & Pricing
- Deadhead
- Miles a truck drives empty to reach a pickup or after a delivery — unpaid distance carriers price into the rate they'll accept for a lane.
- Escrow
- Booking funds held by the platform until delivery is confirmed, then released to the carrier — the shipper's money isn't at risk before the freight moves, and the carrier's payment isn't at the shipper's discretion after.
- Remainder
- The balance of a booking still owed after the upfront booking fee — paid and released on delivery, or on the shipper's approval when a booking is set up with installments.
- Flat Rate
- A fixed price agreed before pickup — not a live bidding war. A load can also be posted per-mile or per-day, but there's no auction mechanic on the board.
- Instant Quote
- A market-rate freight quote generated in seconds from real government pricing indices for your specific origin, destination, and equipment type.
- Booking Deposit
- A deposit the SHIPPER pays once they confirm a carrier's offer on a board booking, held by the platform and transferred to that carrier in full at pickup, or refunded if the booking is cancelled first. It is not a platform commission — FleetBase keeps none of it, and a carrier is owed the full rate they agreed to haul for. Formerly called the "booking fee," which misdescribed it as a service charge.
- Lane
- A specific origin-state-to-destination-state freight pairing, e.g. Arkansas to Illinois — used to track real volume and typical rates on routes that actually move.
Verification & Compliance
- FMCSA Authority
- A carrier's active operating authority on file with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration — checked live against FMCSA's own records, not self-reported.
- MC Number / DOT Number
- The Motor Carrier and Department of Transportation numbers the FMCSA lookup runs against to confirm a carrier's authority, insurance on file, and safety history.
- Identity Verification
- A separate check from FMCSA authority — confirms the real person behind an account (name, date of birth, government ID) before they can book a load or post publicly.
- Government Contracts Eligibility
- The bar for the Government Contracts board: both FMCSA authority and identity verification, required together, not either one alone.
Tracking
- Live Tracking
- Real GPS position shared from the driver's tracking app or hardware for the duration of an active booking — not a manually toggled feature.
- Privacy Zone
- A radius a driver sets around a sensitive location, like home — inside it, dispatch and shippers see the zone's center point instead of the driver's exact position. It blurs, it doesn't hide.
- Control Tower
- The internal dispatch view showing every active shipment, truck, and driver ping at once — the operational counterpart to a shipper's single-load tracking link.
- Tracking Link
- A one-time link scoped to a single shipment's assigned truck, showing the live map and a chat thread with the carrier — it expires roughly 48 hours after delivery.
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