How do I run power only loads?

Chapter 01

What is power only, and what do I sign before the first load?

Power only means you bring the tractor and the driver, and a shipper, a broker or a load program supplies the trailer. Before the first load, you sign two kinds of paper. The rate confirmation sets the pay for the load. The trailer interchange agreement sets the rules for the trailer. It says who pays for damage and for repairs on the road, and what insurance you must carry. It also says what each late day costs, and where and when the trailer goes back. Read the second paper as closely as the first.

Amazon puts it in one line on its own page: “You bring the truck, we provide the trailer.” It says the carrier is responsible for the truck and the driver. The trailer and its cargo are managed by the shipper (Amazon Relay’s power only page). That is what owners mean when they search for power only trucking. It sounds easy. The details that matter are in the paperwork.

Here is how it looks in real life. Say you run two tractors and no trailers. Your authority is a little over a year old. One Monday, a broker offers you a power only load. A loaded dry van waits at a shipper’s yard outside Dallas. It must be dropped at a receiver’s yard in Memphis by Wednesday noon. You have already checked the broker. That step has its own page: how to check a broker before taking a load.

With the rate confirmation, the broker sends a trailer interchange agreement. Big programs use one too. J.B. Hunt’s guide to its own power only program tells carriers to “sign the Trailer-Interchange Agreement if needed” (J.B. Hunt’s page).

The federal rules use the word interchange too, but for one case only. A carrier receives a trailer from another carrier to continue hauling the same shipment (the rule’s definitions). In that case the rules want a written agreement, signed by both sides. It must describe the trailer and the points where it changes hands. It must also say how the trailer will be used and what is paid for its use (the rule on interchange). If your trailer belongs to a shipper or a program rather than to another carrier, this rule may not fit your load at all. We found no federal rule that decides who pays for a trailer damaged in a power only load. The agreement you sign decides it.

So you sit down with it at lunch on Monday and look for five answers. First, who pays if the trailer is damaged while you have it, and up to what amount. Second, who pays for a flat tire, a dead light or a brake repair on the road, and whose road service your driver must call. Third, what insurance you must carry for the trailer. Fourth, how many free days you get, and what each day after that costs. Fifth, where and by when the trailer goes back, and what paper proves you returned it. If any answer is missing, ask the broker in writing before you book. An answer on the phone is hard to prove later.

Some programs also make a new authority wait. Amazon Relay says your MC must be active for at least 180 days before you haul with it (Amazon Relay’s insurance page). Do you run a pickup or a box truck rather than a tractor? Then the loads are different, so read how to find the right loads for a non-CDL truck.

Chapter 02

What insurance do I need to pull someone else’s trailer?

You need the coverage your agreement asks for, and you need to know what your own policy really pays for. The federal minimum insurance covers public liability, which means injury or damage you cause to others (the rule on minimum insurance and its definitions). It names no coverage and no amount for a trailer you pull for someone else. Programs and brokers ask for their own coverage for that trailer, often called trailer interchange coverage. Amazon Relay asks carriers running a semi for $50,000 of it (Amazon Relay’s insurance page).

The same page is dated February 13, 2026. It also lists $100,000 in cargo coverage and $1,000,000 in auto liability for each occurrence (Amazon Relay’s insurance page). The cargo matters in power only too. The trailer comes loaded, and the freight inside is in your care until the drop.

Back to your load. The broker’s agreement asks for trailer interchange coverage and a certificate from your insurer sent to the broker. That afternoon you call your agent. You ask three questions, and you ask for the answers by email. Does my policy pay for damage to a trailer I do not own? Up to what amount? Does it cover the trailer only while it is hooked, or also while it sits dropped in a yard? If the answer to the first question is no, the agent can quote you the coverage. Do not book the load until the certificate has reached the broker.

When owners search for power only insurance requirements, this is the answer they are after, and it is not one number. The amount is set by each agreement, and it changes from one broker or program to the next. We could check only Amazon Relay’s own page. Articles quote other amounts for other programs, but we could not confirm them at the source, so we leave them out. Read the number in your own agreement, and compare it with what your agent puts in writing.

What if a trailer is damaged in your care and no insurance covers it? Then the agreement decides what you owe, and you pay it yourself. That is why the pickup paper and the photos in the next step matter so much. They help establish which damage was already there.

Chapter 03

What do I check before I hook the trailer, and who pays if it breaks?

Check the trailer as if it were your own, because the rules treat it that way once you hook it. Before driving, the driver must be satisfied that the brakes and the trailer brake connections work. The same goes for the lights, the tires, the wheels and the coupling (the rule on what the driver checks). The trailer must also have passed its yearly inspection within the last 12 months, with the proof on it (the rule on yearly inspections). Who pays for a repair on the road is set by your agreement.

Tuesday, six in the morning. Your driver reaches the shipper’s yard. The guard hands him a paper with the trailer number and the seal number. Yards call it different names, such as a gate pass or an interchange receipt. He checks that the trailer number matches the paper and the bill of lading. He checks that the seal is whole and that its number matches the bill of lading too.

Then he walks around the trailer before he hooks it. He looks at the tires for cuts, bulges and low air, and at the wheels. He hooks the air lines and the light cord and checks that every light works. He looks at the landing gear, the doors, the walls, the roof as far as he can see, and the kingpin. The federal equipment rules set standards for the brakes, the lights and the tires of every trailer on the road (the federal equipment rules). A defect found in the yard costs a phone call. The same defect found by an officer can lead to a violation.

Next he looks for the proof of the yearly inspection. It is usually a sticker or a decal on the trailer. The rule lists what it must show (the rule on yearly inspections). That is the date of the inspection, who keeps the full report, which trailer it is, and a statement that it passed. A State inspection counts for 12 months from the last day of the month it was done. The rule says a carrier “must not use” a vehicle without that proof, and here the carrier is you. If an officer asks for the full report, your company must get a copy from whoever did the inspection (the rule on inspection records). So ask the broker who will send it, before you need it.

Say the sticker is there, but the driver finds a tear in the right side wall and a dead marker light at the back. He does not hook yet. He writes the tear on the pickup paper and asks the guard to sign next to it. He takes photos of each side, each corner, the tires, the seal and the tear. The phone keeps the date and time on each photo. Then he calls the broker about the light. The yard’s shop fixes it in twenty minutes, and he notes the fix on the paper too.

On the road, the agreement decides who pays. Say a trailer tire goes flat near Texarkana. Before your driver calls any road service, he calls the number in the agreement. If the agreement names a vendor, he uses that vendor. If you pay a road service on your own, you may have to argue to get the money back. If it is the tractor that breaks down, that repair is yours. The steps are in what to do when your truck breaks down far from home.

At the end of the day, a driver who found a defect writes a report on each vehicle he drove, the trailer too. So the flat goes on Tuesday’s report. A defect that affects safety must be fixed before the trailer runs again. The report is kept for 3 months (the rule on driver reports). Since March 23, 2026, the rules say plainly that this report can be made and kept in electronic form (the February 2026 rule).

Now say an officer inspects the truck in Arkansas on Wednesday morning. The report goes to your company, the carrier operating the vehicle (the rule on roadside reports). FMCSA builds its safety scores, which most people call CSA scores, from the violations on roadside inspections (FMCSA’s scoring manual). So a bad tire on someone else’s trailer can count against you. If the officer puts the trailer out of service, it cannot move until the repair is done. For a carrier still in its new entrant period, moving it before that repair fails the safety audit, even once (the audit failure rule). The whole audit is in our guide to the new entrant safety audit.

After the inspection, your company has 15 days to sign on the report that every violation was fixed (the rule on roadside reports). By then the trailer may be back with its owner, so get the owner’s repair record before you sign. Since July 22, 2026, you send the signed form back only if the State asks for it (the June 2026 change). Either way, you keep a copy for 12 months. If a violation on the report is simply wrong, you can dispute it: how to challenge a violation in DataQs.

Chapter 04

How do I return the trailer so no bill follows me?

Return it where and when the agreement says, and prove its condition at the drop the same way you did at pickup. Take photos of every side, the tires and the doors. Get a signed drop record, or the yard’s gate record with the time. Send copies to the broker the same day. If you are late, the agreement says what each extra day costs. If you keep the same trailer for weeks, federal rules make you keep maintenance records for it too.

Wednesday, ten forty in the morning. Your driver reaches the receiver’s yard in Memphis, well before noon. The guard gives him a door or a spot. He parks the trailer, lowers the landing gear, and unhooks the air lines and the light cord. Then he takes the same photos as on Tuesday: each side, each corner, the tires, the doors and the tear that was already there. He asks the guard to sign the drop paper with the time and a note of any damage. If nobody is there to sign, his photos and a message to the broker right away are the proof. That evening you send the pickup paper, the drop paper and the photos to the broker. You also save them in one folder under the load number.

Three weeks later, the broker emails you a bill for the torn side wall. You open the folder. The tear is on the pickup paper, signed by the guard, with photos from Tuesday morning. You send them back with a short note, and in this story the broker drops the bill. Without that folder, it would be your word against theirs.

Some programs give you the same trailer for weeks. The rules make a carrier keep maintenance records for each vehicle it controls for 30 days in a row (the rule on maintenance records). For a trailer you do not own, the record must name who supplied it. It also shows which inspections and repairs are due and which were done. The rule says to keep these records for 1 year, and for 6 months after the trailer leaves your control. A trailer you pull for one or two days does not reach that threshold, but the pickup and drop papers are still worth keeping.

Is power only worth it? We cannot tell you what it pays. Rates change every day, and we found no official figures. But we can tell you where the money leaks. It leaks through a tear nobody wrote down, a late return, a road repair nobody approved and a trailer nobody checked. Two rules changed this year. Since March 23, 2026, the rules say plainly that the driver’s report can be electronic. Since July 22, 2026, the signed roadside form goes back only when the State asks. There are also things we could not check: the terms inside each broker’s own agreement, and the insurance amounts of programs other than Amazon Relay. Check those terms in your own documents before working with each new broker.

Want someone to find power only loads for your trucks and check the broker before you book? Here is what we offer.