A public purchase order is paid against a documented delivery, not a fast one. Dobie coordinates dry van, flatbed, final mile and white glove freight into agencies, school districts, public hospitals and public works sites, with facility access, the receiving window and the delivery paperwork settled before the trailer is loaded. Across all 50 states, from the South Texas corridor.
In short
Government freight is bought through a solicitation and paid against a document. The purchase order comes out of a bid, a state term contract or a cooperative agreement, and its delivery terms are fixed before anyone talks about a truck. Most public orders are FOB destination, which means the goods stay the vendor's risk until the receiving entity formally accepts them at the site, not until a driver collects a signature. Acceptance starts the payment clock, and a delivery receipt missing the purchase order number, the contract number or the line items as the order wrote them can stall an invoice through a full payment cycle. The money also expires. Appropriated funds lapse at the end of the fiscal year, so a delivery that lands two weeks late can arrive against a budget that no longer exists, and no one at the agency has the authority to extend it. On a public order, a clean paper trail and a receiving window cleared with the facility beat speed every time.
The cargo
What decides the load
The gist of each one here. The shipping guide has every one in full.
Public buyers do not run on a commercial calendar, they run on appropriations. The federal fiscal year closes September 30, the Texas state fiscal year closes August 31, and most cities, counties and special districts close June 30 or September 30.
Read it in full in the guideOn a commercial load the signature at the door ends the job. On a public purchase order it does not.
Read it in full in the guideMost public deliveries end at a facility with controlled access, and the access is arranged days before the truck.
Read it in full in the guideInfrastructure paid for with federal money carries domestic content rules. Iron and steel on a federal aid highway project have to be melted and manufactured in the United States, and the newer Build America, Buy America requirements reach manufactured products and construction materials on federally funded projects as well.
Read it in full in the guideClassroom and office furniture fails cosmetically, and cosmetic is enough to fail an acceptance.
Read it in full in the guideA public buyer does not audit a vendor by reading a website, it asks for a file. Dobie coordinates transportation: a vetted carrier network managed by dedicated logistics specialists, and the useful part of that model here is exactly the file it produces.
Read it in full in the guide
The numbers
Who this is for
The process
We start from the order as written: PO and contract or cooperative agreement numbers, the required delivery date, the line items, the delivery address and the facility's real receiving hours, access requirements, and whether the site has a dock, a forklift and staff on duty to receive. Any insurance certificate, affidavit or flow down clause your contract requires is put on the table here, in writing, before a load is booked.
The slot is booked with the facility, and where a gate pass or campus badging is required the driver and vehicle information goes in with the lead time that site demands. Freight that would arrive before the site can take it stages in warehousing and releases on the install sequence instead of sitting loaded on a trailer outside a closed gate.
Operating authority in force, cargo insurance current at limits that correspond to the load, and equipment that corresponds to the assignment, checked the day the truck is assigned rather than at an annual review. The driver is briefed on the gate procedure, the dock, the escort, who is authorized to sign and what has to be on the receipt.
Arrival confirmed against the window, condition documented at both ends, and the signed delivery receipt returned carrying the PO and contract numbers and the line items, so the receiving report and the invoice match on the first pass and payment is not held over paperwork.
Equipment
One purchase order often needs three of these in the same week, coordinated by one specialist instead of handed between desks.
It is coordinated the way that facility requires, which means the access request goes in before the truck is dispatched. Installations generally want the driver's full name, date of birth, a REAL ID compliant license and the tractor and trailer details submitted in advance for a visitor pass, inspect the vehicle at the gate, and may require an escort from the gate to the building. The practical rule is that the pass belongs to a named driver in a named truck, so the carrier and driver are fixed when the request is filed and never swapped quietly at dispatch. Nothing here claims a clearance or a credential held in advance. A secure port area, for example, requires a Transportation Worker Identification Credential on the driver or on an escort. If your site requires a specific credential, ask on the first call and you get a written answer.
It means the shipment is still the vendor's risk until your authorized receiver accepts it at the site, so the job does not end when a driver gets a signature at the dock. The cargo travels covered by the carrier's cargo insurance, condition is documented at pickup and at delivery, and the delivery receipt comes back carrying the PO number, the contract number and the line items. A short or damaged receiving report then gets answered with the pickup record instead of a phone call about what probably happened. Freight refused at the door is not a completed move, and on a lapsing appropriation a refusal in late August is not a redelivery problem, it is a funding problem.
Yes, and it is usually the right plan. Contract furniture and casework production rarely lines up with a district's install calendar, so the freight stages in warehousing and releases in the sequence the rooms are being set, campus by campus. Build the release schedule against summer staffing rather than a normal week: receiving hours in July are short, campuses run reduced hours or are locked for floor refinishing, and the district warehouse is often the only receiving point open in the whole district. The install window closes on the first day of school whether the trailers came or not.
The certifications, the tags, and a heads up that they matter before the load is booked. Mill certifications and heat numbers only prove Buy America or Build America, Buy America compliance while they stay matched to the material they describe, so certified rebar, pipe or guardrail is planned with the fewest transfers the lane allows and the tags stay on the bundles. Tell us whether the project engineer wants the documentation arriving physically with the load rather than by email, because that changes how the paperwork travels, not just where it gets filed.
The purchase order number, the contract or cooperative agreement number, the line items exactly as the order wrote them, the quantity received, the date, and the receiver's printed name and signature. Accounts payable is matching three documents: the order, the receiving report and the invoice. Under Texas prompt payment rules a political subdivision generally has 30 days, counted from the latest of the goods being received, the performance being completed and a correct invoice being received, and federal prompt payment works the same way off acceptance or a proper invoice. Most stalled public sector invoices are not disputes at all, they are a missing number on a bill of lading.
Only on the district's terms. Most districts require anyone on a campus during school hours to be badged and cleared through a vendor background check, and receiving gets scheduled around arrival, lunch and dismissal so a trailer is never sitting in a bus lane or a student loading zone. Deliveries also have to avoid state testing windows, when campuses restrict who enters at all. Whether a specific district's badging requirement can be met is confirmed with you before booking rather than assumed.
Support runs 24/7 and urgent transport is a defined service, so cots, tarps, palletized bottled water and shelf stable meals can be coordinated on short notice. Two things decide whether it works. The first is how early the staging site is named, because every agency in the region is chasing the same trailers in the same 48 hours and the corridor empties fast. The second is who is authorized to receive at a site that may be a parking lot with a cone line instead of a warehouse, since a receiving report still has to be signed by someone who can sign it. The internal team here with experience in refrigerated, food and hazardous materials covers the parts of an activation that are not plain dry freight, including fuel and treatment chemistry.
Same account, different method. The buyer, the PO terms and the receiving rules stay exactly as described on this page. The trailer work splits: anything past legal width, height or weight is handled as an oversized load with permits, escorts and routing, and a multi trailer install with a crane window and a fixed unloading order is handled as project cargo and planned backward from the site milestone. One dedicated specialist keeps both attached to the same purchase order so the status answer to your buyer still has document numbers on it.
That is exactly the question to ask on the first call instead of reading an answer off a web page. Nothing here claims a registration in a contracting system, a cooperative contract, a participation certification or a facility clearance. Tell us how you buy, whether that is a direct purchase order, a subcontract under a prime, a state term contract or a cooperative agreement, and you get a written answer on what exists today and what would have to be set up first.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Reviewed by the Dobie Transport logistics team
A logistics specialist reviews your lanes and comes back with pricing and capacity. Support runs 24/7.
Every carrier is vetted for operating authority and insurance, and we check the certificate before every dispatch, not once a year. USDOT 3411782 · MC 1100274
