The loads
Only the first three columns are needed. Extras are detention, lumper, layover or fuel you bill the shipper and pay the carrier. Days default to 30 for the shipper and your carrier-pay setting below. Lines starting with # are ignored.
Your costs
Enter your loads, then click the button.
Result
Every load, net of what it really cost
| Load | Revenue | Gross | Gross % | Float | Net | Net % | Quote at least | Pay carrier at most |
|---|
Per mile
| Load | Shipper $/mi | Carrier $/mi | Gross $/mi | Net $/mi |
|---|
Where the margin goes
Things to check
How it is calculated
Revenue is the shipper rate plus extras you bill; carrier cost is the carrier rate plus extras you pay. Gross profit is the difference. Float is the carrier cost times your annual cost of capital times the days between paying the carrier and being paid by the shipper, divided by 365. Factoring and reserve are percentages of revenue; commission is a percentage of gross profit. Net is gross minus those and your per-load overhead.
Because net profit is a straight-line function of the two rates, the quote-at-least and pay-at-most columns are solved exactly: requote or repay a load at those figures and it lands on your target net margin.
Not modelled: fuel surcharge structure, deadhead, accessorial disputes, carrier fall-off and re-brokering costs, contingent cargo insurance and claim amounts, customer credit limits, state or federal registration costs, taxes, and your actual contracts. Unverified against any brokerage's books; checked only against hand arithmetic and invented loads.
Common questions
How do I calculate freight broker margin?
Margin is what the shipper pays minus what the carrier is paid, divided by what the shipper pays. A $2,650 shipper rate and a $2,250 carrier rate is $400 gross profit, a 15.1% gross margin. Net margin then subtracts what each load really costs you: the interest on carrier money you front until the shipper pays, factoring fees, a claims and bad-debt reserve, overhead and any rep commission.
What is a good freight broker margin?
It varies by lane, mode and customer, and the tool does not know your market, so it does not say. Set your own target net margin and it shows which loads miss it and what rate would have hit it. Many brokers find the loads that look fine on gross margin are the ones slow-paying shippers turn unprofitable.
Why is my net margin so much lower than my gross margin?
Because the carrier is usually paid in days and the shipper in 30 to 60 or more. For the gap you are lending the carrier cost at your cost of capital. Add a factoring fee, a reserve for claims and uncollectable invoices, per-load overhead and rep commission, and a thin gross margin disappears.
How do I price a load to hit a target margin?
Enter the load and your target net margin. The tool solves the shipper rate that leaves exactly that margin after every cost, and separately the highest carrier rate you can pay and still hit it if the shipper rate is fixed. Both are exact, not estimates, because net profit is linear in the two rates.
Does slow-paying shipper terms really change what I should quote?
Yes. Net 60 instead of net 30 doubles the days you carry the carrier's money. At a 10% cost of capital that is about 0.8% of the carrier cost on a $2,000 load, a real share of a 10% gross margin. Enter the days each load takes to collect and see it per load.
Do accessorials count?
Enter detention, lumper or layover you bill the shipper in one column and what you pay the carrier for the same things in the next. Both go into revenue and carrier cost, so a load that looks fine on line haul but loses on unbilled extras shows up.
Is my load data uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything is calculated in this browser tab. Nothing is sent to a server and the tool does not store your loads. It works offline once the page has loaded.