Counter-offer calculator: know your number before you dial

Why you need a number before the call

Most bad rates get accepted in the middle of a phone call. The broker names a price, you're tired, the truck is empty, and the number sounds close enough. Without a figure in front of you, there's nothing to measure the offer against except how much you want to be loaded.

This counter-offer calculator gives you two numbers before you dial. The minimum is what the load has to pay to cover your costs on every mile, including the empty ones to the pickup. The target is the minimum plus your margin, and it's the number you open with. Anything between them is a judgment call. Anything under the minimum costs you money to haul.

How the minimum and target are calculated

First, add the loaded miles and the empty miles to the pickup. That's the trip you'll actually drive. Then multiply your cost per mile by those total miles to get the minimum. Multiply again by one plus your margin to get the target. Both round up to the next whole dollar, because a counter of $1,030.40 sounds odd on the phone.

The calculator also shows your floor as an all-in rate per mile, meaning the target divided by total miles. That's the number to compare any posting against. A posting's rate per loaded mile looks better than its all-in rate, because it ignores the empty miles. The floor doesn't.

• EXAMPLE

  EXAMPLE LOAD

  500 loaded, 60 empty to pickup

  Cost per mile is $1.60 and the target margin is 15%. Total miles are 560. The minimum is $896 and the target is $1,031, about $2.06 per loaded mile and $1.84 all-in. The broker posts $950. That covers costs but not margin, so the call is: counter at $1,031 and settle no lower than you decided before the call.

Where your cost per mile comes from

Everything here depends on one number, so it's worth getting right. Your cost per mile is all your costs for a month divided by all the miles you drove that month, loaded and empty. That includes fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance, the truck payment, permits, your phone and ELD, and any fees you pay on loads. If you pay yourself a set amount, include it, so the margin is real profit.

If you don't know your number yet, the trucking cost per mile calculator works it out from your monthly bills. Once you have it, save your floor to My Numbers from the result card, and every calculator on this site starts from it.

Reading the result: take, counter or pass

• +Take. The posted rate already clears your target. Check the broker on FMCSA's public records and the load details before you book.
• +Counter. The rate covers your costs but not your margin. Counter at your target with a short reason, like the empty miles or a tight appointment.
• +Counter hard or pass. The rate is under your costs. Counter once at your target. If the broker won't reach your minimum, pass and keep looking.

A pass isn't a failure. It's the calculator doing its job. A load under your minimum loses money on every mile, and a truck that hauls cheap freight all week can end the week behind. The one exception is a short load that repositions you into a much stronger market. Our guide on cheap loads to reposition covers how to judge that over two loads.

How to negotiate shipping rates on the phone

Knowing your number is half of negotiating. The other half is how you say it. Brokers negotiate rates with carriers all day, and the calls that work tend to follow the same short pattern.

• +Ask questions first. Pickup and delivery times, live or drop, weight, extra stops, detention terms. Each answer can be a reason for your number.
• +Open at your target, with one reason. "I can do it for $1,031. I'm 60 miles out empty." Short and specific works better than a speech.
• +Leave room, then stop. If they come back lower, you can meet partway, but decide your lowest number before the call, never during it.
• +Be ready to say no. The broker has other trucks, and you have other loads. A polite pass keeps the door open for the next one.

For more on the back and forth, including what to say when a broker says the rate is firm, see our guide on how to negotiate freight rates. If you use rate tools on top of the boards, our freight rate software guide covers what they show and what they don't.

Let a dispatcher make the call

Our dispatchers run this math on every load before they pick up the phone, counter above your floor and bring you the result. You approve each load, and the broker sends the rate confirmation straight to you. Our fee is 5% of gross for one truck, with no setup fee. See how we work with owner-operators.

If your equipment runs on its own pricing logic, the hotshot rate calculator adjusts for smaller loads and longer empty runs, and the broker margin check estimates how much room the broker has on a load.