DAT One Load Board
Review & 10% Off
The honest 2026 guide for owner-operators. All five carrier tiers priced, a real comparison, and a discount most drivers never find.
If you just got your CDL and you’re working out where the loads come from, this is where most new owner-operators get stuck. The wrong board means weeks of searching, deadhead miles eating your margin, and rates so thin you wonder why you bought the truck.
We’ve trained CDL drivers across 49 states for years, and the question every graduate asks in their first 90 days is the same: which load board actually works?
Our answer is DAT One — and through this page you get 10% off your first year.
One thing to clear up first. Most “DAT pricing” articles online still quote tier names DAT retired years ago — “Power Select,” “Pro Premium,” a $45 Express carrier plan. None of those exist in 2026. Some articles list the cheapest plan at $145 when it’s actually $59. If you’ve been putting off a subscription because of a number you read somewhere, the real entry price is probably lower than you think.
List price and the price through our partner link. The 10% holds for your first 12 months on active accounts in good standing.
- 500 searches & posts/mo
- Load counts by state
- LaneMakers (basic)
- No lane rate data
- Everything in Standard
- 15-day lane rates
- Van, reefer, flatbed
- 2 search tabs
- Everything in Enhanced
- 7-day lane rates
- TriHaul routing
- Preferred & blocked companies
- Canadian loads
- DAT Assurance support
- Everything in Pro
- Best available lane rates
- 10 search tabs
- Market Conditions tool
- Everything in Select
- Contract lane rates
- LaneMakers (premium)
- Multi-user workgroups
Mobile app included on every plan. Broker plans priced separately — Express $159, Select Broker $319, Office Broker $449.
Applied at checkout through our partner link — no promo code. That’s $5.90 a month back on Standard up to $33.90 on Office, and it’s tied to the link, so going direct to DAT won’t apply it.
This is the most expensive mistake we see. A new box truck operator reads a load board article, assumes they need the tier everyone recommends, and pays $169 a month for rate benchmarking on lanes they aren’t running.
DAT built a plan for you specifically. Their own words for Standard: “Recommended for Owner-Operators Hauling Partial Loads (Box Trucks/Sprinter Vans).” $59, or $53.10 through our link.
You get 500 searches and truck posts a month, load counts by state so you can see which markets have outbound volume, and the mobile app. What you don’t get is lane rate averages — and those benchmarks are built around full truckload lanes anyway.
Start on Standard. Move up when rate data would genuinely change a decision you’re making — usually when you shift into full truckload freight. When you do upgrade, your account, broker relationships and history all carry over.
$53.10/mo for your first year
More than 1.35 million loads posted every business day. If the freight exists, it’s on DAT — no other board is close on volume.
Dry van, reefer, flatbed, hot shot, power-only, plus box truck and cargo van. Starting small before upgrading? There’s freight for you on day one.
Lane rate averages from actual broker-to-carrier transactions, not asked rates. You know what a lane pays before you pick up the phone. Enhanced and above.
Suggests triangular routes that pay better than a standard backhaul, cutting the empty miles that quietly eat your margin. Pro and above.
Set your lane, equipment and rate floor. You’re notified the moment a matching load posts — and on a good lane, the first call wins it.
Company reviews and credit scores across the network, so you can check whether a broker pays before you haul for them. DAT Assurance payment support on Pro and up.
Why carriers choose DAT
Straight from DAT’s own partner materials. Our independent take is below — including where we’d tell you to spend less than they would.
More than 1.35 million loads posted every business day. If the freight exists, it’s on DAT.
Connect with vetted brokers and shippers you can rely on.
See average spot market rates for the lanes you search, so you can negotiate the best deal.
Save your favourite searches and get notified the second a matching load hits the board.
Automatically find better routes that pay more than a standard return trip, reducing empty miles and keeping every leg profitable.
The 10% is real money, but it’s not the reason to subscribe. The rate data is.
- Pro at $152.10/mo across 30 loads is about $5 a load
- On a 900-mile load that’s roughly six tenths of a cent per mile
- Negotiating five cents a mile better on those loads is about $1,350 a month
- Knowing a lane averaged $1,950 when you’re offered $1,650 is the whole product
The subscription clears itself on roughly one renegotiated load a month. Everything past that is margin — but only if you actually use the rate data.
DAT vs Truckstop
DAT leads on total load volume and rate data depth. Truckstop is genuinely strong on flatbed and hot shot specifically, and it’s often cheaper at entry tiers. Plenty of established operators run both. Starting with one on dry van or reefer? DAT.
DAT vs 123Loadboard
123Loadboard costs less and works as a supplement. DAT has far more freight on every major lane. If budget is the constraint, DAT Standard at $53.10 is usually the better answer than a competitor’s entry tier.
DAT vs Amazon Relay
Relay is free but only shows Amazon’s own freight. Worth having open alongside anything else — it’s a supplement, not a primary board.
DAT vs free boards
Free boards are fine for filling a gap. They don’t have rate benchmarks or broker credit depth, and those two things are what change how much you get paid.
The honest bottom line: if you’re running full truckload freight regularly, DAT usually pays for itself within the first month. If you’re running partial loads in a box truck, start on Standard and don’t let anyone sell you the $169 plan yet. Full comparison here.
Drivers coming out of CDL school have no industry relationships. No broker knows your name. No shipper has you on a preferred list. Nearly every load in your first six months comes from a board.
That makes the board you pick the operating system for your business, not a small choice.
Graduates who get on DAT early consistently report finding their first load in days rather than weeks, building broker relationships sooner because the volume creates more touchpoints, and avoiding the rookie mistake of taking the first rate offered.
We recommend it in our post-graduation material. There is a commission — disclosed at the bottom of this page — and it’s the same recommendation we’d make without one. That’s also why the box truck section above tells you to spend less.
You book the load, run it, deliver. Then you wait 30 to 60 days for the broker to pay. That gap is what kills new authorities — not a shortage of freight.
Factoring closes it. You submit the paperwork, the factor pays within a day, and they collect from the broker. DAT Outgo is the one we point graduates toward — same DAT login, no long-term contract, and a rate match guarantee against your current factor.
DAT Outgo factoring — integrated with DAT One
Read our full Outgo review first if you want the honest comparison against Apex, RTS and TBS.
How much does the DAT load board cost?
Which plan does a box truck operator need?
Can a brand new CDL driver use DAT?
Does DAT have box truck loads?
How does the 10% discount work?
Is DAT better than Truckstop?
Is DAT worth the price?
Does DAT include a mobile app?
I’m leased to a carrier — do I need a board?
What do broker plans cost?
The load board is one half. Cash flow is the other. Plus everything else a new owner-operator needs in year one.
The other half of the cash flow equation. Outgo pays your invoices within a day instead of waiting 30–60 for the broker. Same DAT login, no long contracts.
Read the Outgo review →Full tier-by-tier breakdown with the ROI math, what each plan includes, and the questions worth asking before you sign.
See the cost breakdown →Hazmat, CDL A, CDL B, Passenger, School Bus. Submitted to the FMCSA registry within 24 hours. Under 2 hours. Accepted in 49 states.
Stop running on free boards
From $53.10 a month with our partner discount. The network the rest of the industry runs on.
Get 10% off DAT One →DLA Academy is an FMCSA-registered ELDT and hazmat training provider with 49-state coverage. We recommend DAT in our post-graduation material because it’s the same recommendation we’d make without a commission — which is also why the box truck section above tells you to buy the cheaper plan.
Disclosure: DLA Academy is a DAT and DAT Outgo affiliate partner. We earn a commission when you sign up through our links, at no additional cost to you — and the 10% discount comes from that partner link. Pricing shown is DAT’s published carrier pricing as of September 2026 and may change; confirm current rates on DAT’s site before purchasing. We are not affiliated with Truckstop, 123Loadboard or Amazon Relay — those references are for comparison only.