Carrier planning tool
Truck load profit and break even calculator
A load’s headline rate does not show what the whole trip costs. Compare loaded and empty miles, fuel, the dispatch fee and other costs you enter. The result shows remaining revenue for your review, not your business’s net profit.
Your truck. Your inputs.
Compare a load with the costs of the whole trip.
The starting numbers are an illustrative example, not market rates or an earnings forecast. Replace them with your own estimates. Results update as you type and stay in this browser.
Load cost estimate
Box Trucks · 7% dispatch fee
Box Trucks · 7% dispatch fee. $1,110.00 remains after entered costs. Break even load pay is $806.46 for those costs only.
- Total trip miles
- 900
- Empty miles share
- 11.11%
- Gross per loaded mile
- $2.50
- Gross per total mile
- $2.22
- Load pay entered
- $2,000.00
- Dispatch fee (7%)
- $140.00
- Revenue after dispatch fee, before operating costs
- $1,860.00
- Estimated fuel (150 gal)
- $600.00
- Other costs entered
- $150.00
- Remaining after entered costs
- $1,110.00
- Remaining per total mile
- $1.23
- Remaining per trip hour
- $55.50
- Break even load pay for entered costs
- $806.46$0.90 per total trip mile
This is not net profit. Insurance, truck payments, maintenance, driver pay, factoring, taxes and other expenses are excluded unless you include them in other trip costs. Percentage based costs beyond dispatch need a separate calculation. Break even covers only the costs entered, with the same dispatch percentage.
All entered load pay is treated as fee bearing. If your dispatch agreement excludes some charges or uses a different revenue base, calculate that fee separately; this estimate does not model the difference.
Illustrative example
A $2,000 load with 100 empty miles
Equipment: Box Trucks · Dispatch fee: 7%
Suppose a load pays $2,000 for 800 loaded miles, plus 100 empty miles. At 6 MPG and $4 per gallon, the 900 mile trip uses an estimated 150 gallons and $600 in fuel. The 7% dispatch fee is $140. With $150 of other costs entered, $1,110 remains.
The headline rate is $2.50 per loaded mile. Including deadhead lowers gross revenue to $2.22 per total mile. The remaining amount is about $1.23 per total mile, or $55.5 per hour if the trip takes 20 hours. These figures still exclude any costs you have not entered.
For that same trip, $806.46 in load pay covers the $750 of entered fuel and other costs after allowing for the 7% dispatch fee. That is a cost recovery estimate for this worksheet, not a suggested market rate or a profitable quote for your business.
How the calculator works
- Total trip miles
- Loaded miles + empty / deadhead miles.
- Gross revenue per total mile
- Load pay ÷ total trip miles.
- Estimated fuel cost
- Total trip miles ÷ miles per gallon × fuel price per gallon.
- Dispatch fee
- Full agreed load pay × the published equipment percentage. This assumes all entered pay is fee bearing; a separate dispatch billing base is not modeled.
- Remaining after entered costs
- Load pay − dispatch fee − estimated fuel cost − other trip costs.
- Break even load pay
- (Estimated fuel cost + other trip costs) ÷ (1 − dispatch percentage as a decimal). The quote is rounded up to the nearest cent; calculated fees and fuel costs are rounded to cents.
Fuel use assumes one average MPG across loaded and empty travel. Idling, reefer fuel and route specific costs must be included in your own estimates or other trip costs. Changing trip hours changes the hourly comparison; it does not automatically add driver pay.
Use the numbers in your next load decision.
Evaluate a freight rate
Compare the whole trip, the delivery appointment and the next realistic pickup before accepting.
Read the detailsReview empty miles
Plan pickup distance and reload options without treating an unbooked backhaul as confirmed revenue.
Read the detailsConfirm the dispatch fee
Check the published equipment rate and agree the billing base and service scope before starting.
Read the detailsStart with your truck and your lanes
Talk through your operation.
Tell us your equipment, current location and preferred lanes. We will review service fit and explain the dispatch fee before you start.