Check call
Also: Check-in call · Tracking call · Status call
A check call is a phone call a broker or dispatcher makes to a driver during a load to learn where the truck is, whether it is loaded, and when it will arrive; a typical brokerage makes two to four per load per day, and most of them reach voicemail.
The check call exists because brokers sell certainty to shippers and buy it from carriers. The shipper wants to know the truck will make the appointment; the broker finds out by calling the driver.
The call itself is simple, four questions long, and the same every time: where are you, are you loaded, what time will you be at the receiver, anything I should know. The problem is the volume and the hit rate. A dispatcher handling forty loads makes the same call a hundred times a day, drivers ignore unknown numbers while driving, and a call that goes to voicemail has to be made again in an hour.
Three things have changed the check call in the last decade. ELD-based tracking through visibility platforms gives location without a call, for carriers who share it; owner-operators and small fleets often do not. Driver apps promise the same but depend on the driver installing and opening one per broker. Text-based tracking sends the driver a link that shares location with one tap, which most drivers will do because it costs them nothing, and reserves the call for the drivers who do not respond.
Whatever the method, the output a broker actually needs is the same: a place, a time, a stage, and an ETA compared with the appointment window, written down where the shipper can see it. A check call that is not recorded is a call that will have to be made again.
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Updated September 11, 2026 · All terms