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All-in, not just linehaul

A higher paying loads dispatcher, counting every dollar on the rate con

Most carriers don't lose money on the linehaul. They lose it on what's missing from the rate con: no detention terms, no stop-off pay, a lumper fee paid out of pocket, a tarp nobody paid for. A higher paying loads dispatcher works the whole load, not just the headline number. Add the extras to an example load and watch the all-in rate climb past your floor.
5% of gross for one truck with authority older than 6 months. No income promises, just a better rate con.
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EXAMPLE
$
MI
$/MI
Add what belongs on the rate con
$2.46$0$5

Linehaul $2.46/mi, all-in $2.46/mi

$90 short of your floor

EXAMPLE amounts to show how extras add up. Real terms depend on the broker, the shipper and the load. Not a rate promise.

The rate build-up

What the gauge is telling you

Pick your equipment, type in an offer and your own floor, then switch on the extras that belong on that kind of load. The needle shows the all-in rate per mile against your floor.

Your floor is the lowest rate per mile you'll run for, counting the empty miles to reach the pickup. Know it before you look at a single offer. Without it, every load looks either great or terrible, and you end up deciding on feel.

Notice how a load that sits below the floor on linehaul alone can clear it once detention terms and stop-off pay are in writing. The reverse is just as common: a load that looks fine until you count the lumper fee you'll pay and never see again.

The amounts in the example are illustrative. Real accessorial terms change from broker to broker and load to load, which is exactly why they need to be asked for, every time.

Your floor

Work out your floor before you judge any offer

Add up a normal month of costs: truck and trailer payments, insurance, fuel, maintenance, permits, phone, ELD, factoring fees and the pay you need to take home. Divide by the miles you actually run in that month, loaded and empty. That's your cost per mile.

Your floor sits a little above it, enough to cover a bad week and a repair. Write it down and give it to your dispatcher. We use it to decide which offers are worth countering and which aren't worth your time.

  1. 1Monthly fixed costs
  2. 2Monthly running costs, fuel first
  3. 3Your take-home pay target
  4. 4Divide by total monthly miles
  5. 5Add a margin for bad weeks

Where it leaks

Where the money leaks, by equipment

Each kind of freight has its own extras that go missing. These are the ones we check on every load before it reaches you.

EquipmentWhat goes missing
Dry van and reeferDetention at busy docks, lumper fees at grocery and food warehouses, stop-off pay on multi-stop loads. On reefer, the cost of running the unit through a long wait.
Flatbed and step deckTarp pay, extra time to secure odd loads, and detention at job sites where nobody's ready to unload.
HotshotTarp pay, and short loads quoted on miles that ignore the time spent loading and unloading.
26 ft box truckLiftgate and inside delivery, extra stops on multi-drop routes, and lumpers at warehouses.
Power only, car hauler, dump, oversize, tankerWaits for the trailer or the site, permits and escorts on oversize, and wash-outs on tankers. Each needs its own line on the rate con.

The 2-hour standard

The trucking industry standard is that a driver should be loaded or unloaded and back on the road within 2 hours of arriving at a facility; time past that is detention.

Source: USDOT Office of Inspector General, report ST2018019 (2018), October 2026

What waiting costs

Detention was estimated to cut truck driver earnings by $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion a year, and carrier income by $250 million to $302 million a year.

Source: USDOT Office of Inspector General, report ST2018019 (2018), October 2026

How we negotiate

How we push a rate up without losing the load

Start from the market

Before we counter, we check what the lane has been paying. For produce, that includes USDA's weekly truck rate report, which shows per-load rates out of the main shipping areas.

Time the ask

A broker with a load that has to move today has less room to say no than one with three days to cover it. Late in the day and close to pickup is when counters work best.

Counter with a reason

Deadhead to the pickup, a tight appointment, a known slow dock. A counter-offer with a reason behind it gets taken seriously.

Get the extras in writing

Detention, stop-offs, lumper reimbursement and tarp pay go on the rate con before you see the load, so you aren't chasing them after delivery.

Source: USDA AMS Market News, SC National Truck Rate Report (FVWTRK), October 2026

Want to run the numbers yourself? Try the counter-offer calculator, the rate per mile calculator or the fuel surcharge calculator, and read our reefer rates guide.

EXAMPLE negotiation

One load, from first offer to signed rate con

EXAMPLE, not a real broker, load or rate. A dry van carrier with a floor of $2.30 a mile.

  1. 9:40 am

    A broker posts a 600-mile van load at $1,250, about $2.08 a mile once you add 50 miles to reach the pickup. Under the floor.

  2. 9:45 am

    We call. The pickup is tomorrow morning and the load has been posted since yesterday, so the broker needs a truck. We counter at $1,550, pointing to the deadhead and the early appointment.

  3. 10:05 am

    The broker comes back at $1,450 and agrees to detention after 2 hours and $75 for the second stop that wasn't in the post.

  4. 10:10 am

    The load comes to you with every term. With the stop-off pay it clears the floor. You say yes.

  5. 10:20 am

    The broker emails the rate con to you. You check the detention and stop-off lines are there, then sign.

Taken at the posted rate, the same load would have paid $200 less, and the second stop and any wait at the dock would have been free work. Nothing about that call was clever. It came from knowing the floor, reading how long the load had been posted and asking for the terms in writing.

Walk away

When to walk away from a load

Sometimes the best rate move is no load at all. Walking away keeps your floor meaningful and teaches brokers what you'll run for.

  • The all-in rate stays under your floor after a fair counter
  • The broker won't put detention or lumper terms in writing
  • The load leaves you in a market with nothing coming out
  • The appointment times don't fit your hours without cutting corners

There's one exception we'll talk through with you: a cheap load that puts you where a strong reload is waiting. Judged on its own it looks bad. Judged as half of a round trip, it can be the best move of the week. It's still your decision.

Your call, every load

You see the whole rate con before anything is booked

Every offer reaches you with the linehaul, the extras we negotiated, the miles, the weight and the appointment times. You say yes or no.

Nothing is booked until you confirm. When you say yes, the broker emails the rate confirmation straight to you, so you can check that every term we agreed is written there before you sign. If something's missing, you don't sign until it's fixed.

Our fee is a percentage of the gross on that rate con, which means we earn more only when you do: 5% for one truck with authority older than 6 months, 7% for newer authorities, 26 ft box trucks and hotshots, and 4% for fleets of two or more trucks. No setup fee, no minimum. See every detail on the pricing page.

Better rates: straight answers

Q01What is a good rate per mile?
The one that clears your own cost per mile with room to spare, counting the empty miles to reach the load. That number differs for every truck, lane and season, so a figure from a forum is a poor guide. Work out your floor first, compare offers against it, and look at the all-in rate including extras, not only the linehaul.
Q02Can a dispatcher raise my rates?
A dispatcher can't change the market, and no honest one will promise a set income. What a good one can do is counter weak offers, time the search, pick lanes with better reloads, and get detention, stop-off pay and lumper reimbursement written on the rate con. Over a month, those habits usually add up to more than a single big load.
Q03Should detention be on the rate con?
Yes. If detention terms aren't on the rate confirmation before you sign it, collecting later becomes a favor instead of an agreement. Look for the free time, the hourly rate, any cap and what proof the broker needs, such as in and out times on the bill of lading. We ask for these terms before a load reaches you.
Q04Should reefer fuel be paid separately?
Some shippers and brokers pay for reefer unit fuel on long waits or extended runs, but most spot rates are quoted all-in. If the load means a long wait at the shed or a multi-day run with the unit on continuous, it's fair to ask how the rate covers that fuel. We raise it in the negotiation, before you say yes.

Get the whole rate, not just the linehaul.

Apply in about 2 minutes. Every load is your call.

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