DAT load board alternative for finding shippers? Use both.
awardlanes isn't a load board. It shows the USDA contracts behind loads that haven't been posted yet: the food vendor, its plant, each destination city and the delivery window, copied from USDA's award notices.
See the USDA lanes in your states
862 USDA food-award lanes touch Texas as of Nov 7, 2026. 228 of them opened their delivery window this week. Open the Texas lanes
Every lane links to USDA's own page. 30 of 30 random lanes rebuilt from USDA's files on Nov 6, 2026.
What each one shows
A load board
- Loads that a shipper or broker has posted, with rates and carriers [source 1].
- A load shows up once someone posts it.
- Plans are priced per month, and some per user [source 1] [source 2].
awardlanes
- USDA's food-purchase awards as lanes: vendor, plant city, destination cities, quantity and delivery window, each linked to the USDA page it came from [source 3].
- 7,982 lanes with deliveries still due as of Nov 7, 2026, from 94 award notices and 209 vendors [source 4].
- 6,256 of the 8,355 findings have a delivery window that starts later, so you see them before the window opens [source 4].
- No posted loads, no carrier search and no rates.
Prices and what you get, side by side
Prices as each tool's own page showed them on the date we fetched it. We didn't buy any of them; check the page before you decide.
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DAT One
$159 / $319 / $449 per month [source 1]
The page does not say whether this is per user.
- What it does
- Load board: posted loads, rates and carriers.
- For USDA award lanes
- Shows a load once someone posts it. It doesn't show USDA's award (vendor, plant, destinations, window) before that.
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Truckstop load board (broker)
$109 / $239 / $369 per user/month [source 2]
Plus fees and taxes.
- What it does
- Load board: posted loads and carriers.
- For USDA award lanes
- Shows posted loads, not the USDA award behind them.
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Truckstop Shipper Hub (add-on)
$99 / $199 per month [source 5]
Requires an active Load Board subscription.
- What it does
- A database of shipper records with search, added to the load board.
- For USDA award lanes
- General shipper records. Its page does not mention USDA or government awards.
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FreightBrokerLeads.ai
$99 / $299 per month [source 6]
- What it does
- Shipper records with contacts and lane-corridor search.
- For USDA award lanes
- A list of who might ship, not a dated contract with lanes. Its page shows no USDA data.
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LaneRadar
Pay per lead, from $99 per lead [source 7]
- What it does
- Leads ranked by triggers such as a new facility, funding, hiring or an import spike.
- For USDA award lanes
- Its triggers don't include USDA or procurement awards.
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HigherGov
$500 / $2,500 per year [source 8]
- What it does
- Federal award records: vendor, amount and dates.
- For USDA award lanes
- No destination cities or per-line delivery periods; those are only in USDA's own award files.
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USDA's portal, by hand
Free [source 3]
- What it does
- The original award notices (PCA PDFs), Bid Array spreadsheets and solicitations.
- For USDA award lanes
- It's all there, but in PDF tables. A Texas list means reading 77 award notices and 1,606 PDF pages (as of Nov 7, 2026) [source 4].
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awardlanes
$299 per month per brokerage, up to 3 states, all users
14-day free trial, no card. Our price is new; see pricing.
- What it does
- USDA food-award lanes for your states, each linked to its USDA page, as a weekly email, a web list and a CSV. USDA food-award lanes for your states, each linked to its USDA page, as a web list and a CSV, updated every week.
- For USDA award lanes
- That's all it does. It has no posted loads, carriers or rates, so keep your load board.
When to use each
- A load board when you have a truck to fill or a posted load to cover this week.
- awardlanes when you want to reach a food vendor before its delivery window opens. USDA's award names the vendor, the plant and every destination; you call the vendor, not a post.
- Both because they don't overlap. An award is not a load: the vendor may already have a carrier, and USDA can change or cut a contract [source 9].
The price line
DAT One broker plans are $159–$449 a month and show loads once they're posted [source 1]. awardlanes is $299 a month per brokerage and shows USDA's contract lanes, usually before the delivery window opens [source 4].
"Usually before": 6,256 of 8,355 findings (75%) as of Nov 7, 2026 have a window that starts later.
Questions brokers ask
How much does DAT One cost?
DAT's load-boards page listed DAT One broker plans at $159 (Express), $319 (Select Broker) and $449 (Office Broker) a month when we checked it on Nov 7, 2026. The page does not say whether this is per user.
Does awardlanes replace a load board like DAT?
No. awardlanes has no posted loads, no carrier search and no rates. It lists USDA food-award lanes for your states (vendor, plant, destinations and delivery window, each linked to its USDA page), so you can pitch the vendor before a load is posted. Use both.
Is a USDA award a load I can book?
No. An award is USDA's contract with a food vendor, not a tender. The vendor may already have a carrier, and USDA can change or cut a contract. We leave out lanes whose contract value moved by more than 10%.
Who pays the freight on a USDA food award?
When the award notice says "f.o.b. destination", the vendor delivers at its own expense (FAR 52.247-34, part of USDA's master solicitation MSCP-D). We say so only when the notice says it for that commodity: 5,674 of 8,355 findings as of Nov 7, 2026. When it doesn't, we don't guess.
Do other brokers see the same lanes?
Yes, they can. The awards are public records, and we don't sell lanes to one broker only. What you pay for is the time saved and the weekly alert. What you pay for is the time saved.
See your states before you decide
Open the sample with no sign-up, or start the trial and get next week's lanes by email. Open the sample with no sign-up, or start the trial for your own states.
Sources
- DAT One: dat.com/load-boards, fetched Nov 7, 2026
- Truckstop load board (broker): truckstop.com/product/load-board, fetched Nov 7, 2026
- USDA WBSCM public procurement portal (award notices, Bid Arrays, solicitations)
- awardlanes data snapshot as of Nov 7, 2026: counts of the engine's published findings, each copied from USDA's award notices (PCA), Bid Arrays and solicitations
- Truckstop Shipper Hub (add-on): truckstop.com/product/shipper-hub, fetched Nov 7, 2026
- FreightBrokerLeads.ai: freightbrokerleads.ai, fetched Nov 7, 2026
- LaneRadar: laneradar.com/best-freight-lead-sources, fetched Nov 7, 2026
- HigherGov: highergov.com/pricing, fetched Nov 7, 2026
- USDA AMS Master Solicitation for Commodity Procurement (MSCP-D), effective Sep 18, 2025