The story
In 1958, Monroe 'Moe' Jubitz opened Fleet Leasing, Inc., a truck leasing and maintenance company in Portland, Oregon. Jubitz later expanded the company to provide fuel, food, and accommodations to truckers on the road, creating Jubitz Truck Stop.
The trucking industry was deregulated in the 1970s, encouraging independent truck drivers and small companies to find extra loads rather than returning empty. Jubitz noticed drivers hanging around his truck stop after the usual meal and shower, hoping to find a load. He decided to start signing up brokers and shippers who needed freight hauled from Portland.
Before this service, truck drivers seeking loads left handwritten notes on a bulletin board at the Jubitz Truck Stop for those brokers and shippers. Jubitz began posting available loads on a monitor at the truck stop, charging drivers a fee for the phone number of the company wanting to move freight.
in 1978, Jubitz's son, Albin Jubitz, founded Dial-A-Truck as a subsidiary of the Jubitz Corporation. By the 1980s, DAT monitors were located in hundreds of truck stops around the country, with thousands of truck drivers and shippers subscribing to the load board services. Dial-A-Truck was relabeled DAT Services in 1989. In 2001, the DAT Network was used to mobilize trucks in support of the relief efforts in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
From Wikipedia’s article on DAT Solutions, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4