Rate per mile with deadhead: how to read a load posting
A posting says $3.50 a mile. Your truck is 180 miles away. The load pays less than it says, and the only question is how much less. Here is the math every dispatcher should do before picking up the phone.
Posted rate per mile vs. all-in rate per mile
Posted rate per mile is the rate divided by loaded miles. All-in rate per mile is the rate divided by loaded miles plus the deadhead to the pickup, and sometimes plus the deadhead after delivery if you are heading home. The truck burns fuel and hours on all of those miles. Only the all-in number tells you what the load pays.
The three numbers before a call
- All-in rate per mile: rate ÷ (loaded miles + deadhead miles)
- What the lane has been paying: the recent average for that origin-destination pair, so you know whether the posting is low, fair or a gift
- Profit on the load: rate minus fuel at your truck's MPG and today's diesel, minus driver pay, minus tolls
With those three, the call is short: you know the number you want, you know the number you will accept, and you know whether to pass.
A worked example
A load posts at $2,100 for 600 loaded miles: $3.50 a mile posted. Your truck is 180 miles out, so the trip is 780 miles all-in and the real rate is $2.69 a mile. If the lane has been averaging $2.90 all-in, you counter at $2,300 and have a reason to say so. If the broker holds at $2,100, you know exactly what you are giving up.
What the desk does with it
On our desk the all-in rate, the lane's trend and the profit number are on every row before anyone calls. It is the difference between a dispatcher who negotiates and one who asks. The same numbers are what our Chrome extension adds to DAT One and Truckstop for dispatchers who work the boards themselves.