Is This Load Worth Taking?
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A load is worth taking when its net revenue per mile clears your cost per mile with margin left. Net RPM is gross revenue minus tolls, fees and fuel, divided by loaded plus deadhead miles. The rate on the board tells you almost nothing until you’ve run that.
The two-minute version
Net RPM = (Gross − Tolls − Fees − Fuel) ÷ (Loaded Miles + Deadhead Miles)
Then: is that bigger than your cost per mile?
Worked on a real example: $2,600 gross, 1,000 loaded miles, 200 deadhead, fuel at $0.55/mile, $40 tolls:
- Total miles: 1,200
- Fuel: $660
- Net revenue: $2,600 − $660 − $40 = $1,900
- Net RPM: $1.58
Against a $1.80 cost per mile, that’s a loss: on a load posted at $2.60 gross RPM.
Five things that change the answer
Origin deadhead. The most common omission and usually the largest. Miles to the pickup are miles you pay for.
Where it leaves you. A good rate into a market with no outbound freight costs more on the next leg than it made on this one. Ask what leaves there.
Detention exposure. A load into a facility known for four-hour waits costs half a day you could have run elsewhere. Detention pay rarely covers that. Ask whether it’s FCFS.
Whether the rate is linehaul or all-in. Comparing one load’s linehaul against another’s all-in is how you talk yourself into a bad load.
Hours. A load you can’t legally deliver on time isn’t a load.
When a load below your floor is still right
One case: repositioning. A backhaul covering fuel and basic costs is often worth taking if it moves the truck into a market with better outbound freight. The comparison is the backhaul plus the next headhaul, against running empty plus that same headhaul.
400 empty miles costs perhaps $300 with no revenue. A $700 load over those same miles is revenue against costs you’d have paid anyway. Poor rate, good decision.
Do it on every load, not the ones you have time for
The math takes two minutes. On twelve loads a week, that’s twenty-four minutes you don’t have during a driving day, which is why in practice it gets done on the loads that look questionable and skipped on the ones that look fine.
The ones that look fine are where the losses hide.
Where Hey Bubba! fits
Hey Bubba! is an AI back-office automation platform for fleets. Every load is screened on net revenue per mile, including origin deadhead, fuel and tolls, against your cost per mile, before it’s pursued. Loads that don’t clear your floor don’t reach you.
Frequently asked questions
Calculate net revenue per mile (gross less tolls, fees and fuel) over loaded plus deadhead miles, and compare it to your cost per mile.
Yes. Excluding it overstates every load, consistently and in the same direction.
Only relative to your cost per mile. It’s profitable at $1.60 and a loss at $2.10.
When it repositions the truck into a better market and the two-load total works.
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