When building a trucking company, how can anyone know if a trip is profitable? How can you know how much profit per load a trucker is making?
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Profit per load is what is left over after you subtract every cost of hauling that load — fuel, tolls, maintenance, insurance, permits and the empty miles you run to get to it — from what the load pays. It starts with cost: know your expenses per loaded mile before you agree to haul anything.
There are a few ways to attempt to figure it out.
- Cost per mile
- Revenue per week
- Expenses per month
And using those numbers, try to figure out if a load works for you – or takes money out of your pocket.
Which Loads Actually Make You the Most Profit?
Have you ever analyzed your trips? Figured out which load is the most profitable?
It’s easy to assume that the best-paying loads are cross-country. Maybe – but probably not because of the backhaul. Get a good load that pays a great price to ship 2,000 miles – but not to have anything to bring back and suddenly it’s not a trip of 2,000 miles – it’s a trip of 4,000 miles at half the pay. Or, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a load or two to bring you back close to home. Plenty of long distance drivers do exactly that.
Deadhead miles are the miles you drive with an empty trailer, usually between delivering one load and picking up the next. They burn fuel and hours without earning a dime, so they belong on the bill for the load that caused them. A backhaul is the return load you pick up so those miles pay instead of running empty. This is also why your cost per mile has to cover empty miles, not just loaded ones.
What if that assumption isn’t true? What if the best paying loads are shorter trips?
How do you figure that out? You have to use Trucker Stats™.
Trucker Stats™ Profit Per Load Reports
In the past, we’ve talked about cost per mile or revenue per week. But it’s time to get down to the basic numbers. What’s it cost to take a load across the country? Is the profit for the load enough to cover the deadhead miles back?
One easy metric is to know the cost per mile for your rig to haul a load. This number is an average of several different factors – the monthly business costs (divided by 12) and the cost of the fuel and the expenses of the trip (tax deductible and not tax deductible) and the quarterly IFTA taxes and…
Did your eyes just roll when you saw that? Us too. That’s why we developed TruckingOffice PRO Trucker Stats™ reports. That formula is one report away from your fingertips.
Using exactly the same data, you can get the same information per load. Any load. Then you can determine if that long-haul cross-country trip is working for you.
Your Goal Is Profit, Not Miles
You need your numbers to know what’s making you profitable and what isn’t. So you need the tools to dive deep into your data to make those critical decisions for the future of your trucking company. That’s why TruckingOffice PRO is the tool you need. Trucker Stats™ from TruckingOffice PRO show you the truth about your trucking company. Quick Books can’t – the trucking industry is too complicated and Quick Books isn’t designed to create the reports truckers need. Truckers need TMS – trucking software – to handle the complicated formulas for determining profits.
Profit Per Load FAQ
What is profit per load in trucking?
Profit per load is the money left after you subtract every cost of hauling a load from what that load pays. Those costs include fuel, the trip expenses (tax deductible and not), a share of your monthly business costs, and your quarterly IFTA taxes. Until you know your cost per mile, you cannot know whether a load actually made you money.
What are deadhead miles?
Deadhead miles are the miles you run with an empty trailer between delivering one load and picking up the next. They burn fuel and hours of service without earning revenue, so they have to be charged against the load that caused them. A 2,000-mile load with a 2,000-mile empty return is really a 4,000-mile trip at half the pay.
What is a backhaul in trucking?
A backhaul is the return load you pick up after a delivery so the miles heading home pay instead of running empty. Plenty of long-distance drivers line up a load or two to bring them back close to home. Without a backhaul, a well-paying long haul can quietly turn into a losing trip.
Are long-haul loads more profitable than short hauls?
Not automatically. It is easy to assume the best-paying loads are cross-country, but that often stops being true once you account for the backhaul. Shorter trips can be the more profitable ones. The only way to know is to run the numbers on each load instead of assuming.
Can QuickBooks calculate profit per load?
No. QuickBooks is not designed to create the reports truckers need, because the trucking industry is too complicated for it. You need trucking software that handles the formulas for cost per mile, IFTA and per-load profit. TruckingOffice PRO Trucker Stats™ reports produce those numbers from data you have already entered.
TruckingOffice Trucking Management Software
TruckingOffice offers trusted tools for the solo trucker or the fleet builder. We’ve got affordable TMS trucking software that handles everything, including automatic rate con load entry. TruckingOffice PRO with TruckingOffice ELog makes your life easier and managing your business smoother by helping you handle your tasks better and faster:
- dispatches
- routing
- invoice generation and tracking
- expense management
- IFTA and IRP
- maintenance
- Trucker Stats™– reports to show the state of your trucking business.
Combined with the TruckingOffice Electronic Logging Device, you’ve got what you need to build a successful trucking business – even from the cab of your truck.
Contact us today to try TruckingOffice PRO‘s free trial to help you avoid loads that cost you money to deliver and to discover what equipment is the most profitable for you.
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