📋 Your Numbers
Enter your all-in cost per mile, the deadhead share, your margin, and the loaded miles for the lane. The tool returns your effective cost per loaded mile, a rate floor, a target rate, and the lane total at that rate.
Your total cost per mile across all miles run, loaded and empty.
Enter a cost per mile greater than 0.
Share of total miles that run empty (0 to under 100).
Deadhead must be 0 or more and under 100.
The margin you want on top of the break-even rate floor.
Margin must be 0 or more.
Paid (loaded) miles for the lane, used for the lane total.
Enter loaded miles greater than 0.
Estimates only. This calculator provides estimates for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, or business advice. Results are based solely on the values you enter.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How is the effective cost per loaded mile calculated?
The tool takes your all-in cost per mile and spreads it across loaded miles only, by dividing it by one minus the deadhead percentage. If a quarter of your miles run empty, every loaded mile has to carry its own cost plus a share of the empty miles, so the effective cost per loaded mile is higher than the raw cost per mile.
What is the difference between the rate floor and the target rate?
The rate floor is the effective cost per loaded mile — the point where the lane breaks even after deadhead, with no margin. The target rate adds your chosen margin on top of that floor. Both are per loaded mile; the lane total multiplies the target rate by the loaded miles for the trip.
Is the target rate a recommendation of what to charge?
No. The target rate simply applies the margin you entered to your own cost figures, so you can carry a number into a conversation. What a lane actually pays depends on the market, the lane, equipment, and the relationship. The figures here are estimates for your own planning only.
Running dispatch like an operator?
Dispatcher Command keeps your per-mile costs, rate floors, target rates, and lane economics in one workspace. Free to calculate. Built for dispatchers.
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