Hello everyone, my name is Sean. My cousin owns a trucking company (I won't say which one so this thread cannot be misconstrued as advertising).... anyway, he currently has a few company trucks, but has recently decided to move away from that side of the business and just do dispatching and financial services for Owner/Operators... and he wants me to help out with it.

I was going to head out to the local flying-J and offer to buy any Owner/Operators there dinner for the priviledge of picking their brains on this subject... and I will probably still do that, but it should be interesting to see what kind of feedback I can get from a board like this as well.

So my question is this: Since we are just starting this up, we are not very set in our ways yet, and everything is pliable/negotiable. Do you use a dispatching service, and if so what do you like/dislike about it? What services would you like to see a company such as this offer, and what experiences have you had in the past?

Also, what do you think is a fair price to pay for such services? He is thinking about charging a $499 weekly flat fee instead of a dollar amount per mile or a percentage based system.... but he would not be offering things like insurance or lumpers pay, etc... basically just dispatching and handling the financial stuff.

Please give me your thoughts.