Counter-offer calculator

How the calculator works

Every good counter-offer starts with a number you worked out before the call. The calculator builds three of them from your own cost.

Cost of the run. Your cost per mile times every mile the load makes you drive: the loaded miles plus the deadhead to the pickup. If you haven't worked out your cost per mile yet, use the trucking cost per mile calculator first.

Floor. The cost of the run, grossed up for any fee taken from revenue. If a dispatcher charges 5%, a load has to pay your cost divided by 0.95 for you to keep the full cost. Below the floor, the load loses money.

Target and counter. The cost plus your margin, grossed up the same way. The counter is the target rounded up to the next $25, a clean number to say on the phone.

Each figure is shown as a total and per loaded mile, because brokers talk in loaded miles while your costs run on every mile. If you enter the broker's offer, the calculator shows how far it sits from your counter and warns you when it's below the floor.

Worked example

Example

Miles

600 loaded + 60 empty

Cost per mile

$1.80

Floor

$1,251 ($2.08/mi)

Target at 20%

$1,501

Counter with

$1,525 ($2.54/mi)

Broker offers

$1,500

The broker's $1,500 sits well above the floor and just under the target, so it's a workable load. Counter at $1,525 and settle anywhere above $1,501 to keep your full margin, or take $1,500 knowing it's a dollar short of target. Change the deadhead to 200 miles and the floor climbs to about $1,516: the same offer now loses money, which is the whole point of counting empty miles.

Making the call

A few habits make the number work:

• Know the lane. Check what similar loads pay this week before you call. Our guides to flatbed rate per mile and flatbed shipping rates explain what moves open-deck rates; for other trailers, the national averages on our rate per mile calculator give context.
• Ask about extras before the rate. Detention terms, tarp pay, stops and layover change the real value of a load. Price them in or get them on the rate con. For open deck, the flatbed rate calculator adds tarp pay and securement time.
• Counter once, clearly. State your number and why: deadhead, timing, the lane. Then let the broker answer.
• Get it in writing. Whatever you agree, check the rate con matches before you sign. The rate confirmation checker lists the lines to look for.

Keeping your inputs honest

The counter is only as good as the cost per mile behind it. Recalculate it when diesel moves, when insurance renews or when your miles per month change, because fixed costs spread over fewer miles push your cost per mile up. Use the cost across all the miles you drive in a month, loaded and empty; the calculator adds this load's deadhead separately, so don't count it twice.

Margin is a business choice. A higher margin protects you in slow weeks and pays for the repairs your cost per mile doesn't capture; a lower one wins more loads. A useful habit is to keep one floor that never moves and let the target flex with the market and the lane.

What good and bad results mean

An offer above your target is a good load on paper; check the reload out of the delivery area before you celebrate. An offer between the floor and the target covers costs but not your full margin; it can still be worth it in a slow week or as positioning. An offer below the floor loses money on every mile, and only makes sense if the next load out is strong enough to cover the loss.

This is the same discipline a dispatcher should bring to every call: negotiate to your numbers, not to the broker's first offer, and never book below your floor without asking you. Our fee is a percentage of loads you approve; see dispatch pricing.