Full truckload rates: how FTL pricing works

How much is a full truck load?

There's no single honest answer, and any page that gives one without a lane, a date and a source is guessing. A full truckload from one city to another can cost very different amounts in different weeks, and two lanes of the same length can be priced far apart because one has plenty of trucks heading that way and the other doesn't.

What can be explained is how the price is built and what moves it. Full truckload shipping rates usually come as a rate per mile or a flat price for the load, with a fuel surcharge and accessorials on top or rolled in. The shipper's price includes any broker margin. The carrier's price is what the truck is actually paid. Both follow the same forces, covered below.

When we publish market figures on this site, they come with their source, period and date. Our guide to truckload spot rates covers where national averages are published and how to read them.

What moves FTL rates

• +Lane direction. Areas that ship out more freight than they receive pay more on outbound loads. The return trip, the backhaul, usually pays less. Carriers price the strong direction to cover the weak one.
• +Length of haul. Short loads pay more per mile because loading, unloading and waiting take the same time whatever the distance. Long loads pay more in total but less per mile.
• +Equipment. Dry vans are the most common and usually the cheapest. Reefers cost more because of the unit, fuel for it and the risk to cargo. Flatbeds and step decks pay more for securement, tarps and fewer available trucks.
• +Notice and urgency. Loads booked days ahead tend to price lower. Same-day and next-morning pickups pay more, sometimes much more.
• +Season and events. Produce seasons, holiday retail, quarter-end pushes and severe weather pull trucks into some lanes and leave others short. See our freight seasonality calendar.
• +Market balance. When loads outnumber trucks, rates rise across the board. The load-to-truck ratio is one measure of this.
• +Fuel. Diesel prices feed straight into fuel surcharges and into how carriers price their costs.
• +The freight itself. Heavy, fragile, high-value, hazmat or hard-to-load freight costs more to move.

Length of haul: why rate per mile isn't flat

Every load has fixed time at each end: getting to the shipper, checking in, loading, paperwork, and the same at delivery. On a 150-mile load, that time can be as long as the drive. On a 1,500-mile load, it's a small share. So short loads need a higher rate per mile just to pay for the day, and long loads can pay less per mile and still earn more for the truck overall.

The table is an EXAMPLE, not a market rate. It shows why comparing a short load's rate per mile with a long load's is misleading. Compare what each load earns for the time it takes, and what it leaves after costs. The load profitability calculator shows both per mile and per hour.

Contract vs spot full truckload rates

Most full truckload freight in the US moves under contracts: agreed rates on regular lanes, often set once a year in bids. Spot rates are prices for one load, set that day. Contract rates move slowly and lag the market. Spot rates jump with every swing in supply and demand.

When spot rates are well above contract rates, carriers are tempted to turn down contract loads to chase better spot freight, and shippers see more rejected tenders. When spot rates fall below contract, contract freight looks valuable and carriers compete for it. The gap between the two is one of the clearest signs of where the market is in its cycle. Our freight market update tracks it with sourced figures.

FTL rates by equipment

Each trailer type has its own market, with its own rates and its own seasons. A strong reefer market in produce season can coincide with a soft dry van market, and flatbed rates often follow construction and manufacturing more closely than retail.

• +Dry van. The largest pool of freight and trucks. Rates tend to move with retail and consumer goods. Our guide to van freight rates goes deeper.
• +Reefer. Higher rates, with costs to match: the unit, its fuel, and claims risk. Seasonal swings are larger.
• +Flatbed and step deck. Pay for securement skill, tarps and the specialized equipment. Demand follows building, energy and machinery.
• +Power only. The carrier brings the tractor and the shipper or broker supplies the trailer. Rates reflect that the carrier isn't paying for a trailer.

If you're shipping a full truckload

To get an accurate FTL quote, give the full details up front: pickup and delivery addresses, dates and windows, equipment type, weight, pallet count, commodity, and anything special like temperature, tarps, hazmat or multiple stops. Missing details lead to higher quotes as carriers price in the risk, or to extra charges later.

You can lower your cost by giving more notice, offering flexible pickup windows, loading and unloading quickly, and paying on time. Carriers remember shippers whose docks waste their day, and price accordingly. If your freight is small enough that you're unsure about a full trailer, the freight class and density calculator helps you compare with LTL, and our guide to full truck load services covers how FTL is booked.

If you're hauling full truckloads

For a carrier, the FTL rate that matters is the one that pays your truck. Start from your cost per mile: all your costs over all your miles. A load is worth taking when its rate, divided by every mile it makes you drive including the empty miles to the pickup, clears that cost plus your margin.

Two habits make the biggest difference to what you earn. The first is countering: posted rates are opening offers, and a clear number with a reason, like the empty miles or a tight appointment, often moves them. The second is planning the next load before you deliver, so you pick loads into areas where the reload is strong and close. A slightly lower rate into a busy market can beat a higher one into a dead end.

If you can't find loads that clear your floor, the problem is usually lanes, timing or the market for your equipment that season, not the load board. Our page on what to do when you can't find loads goes through the common fixes.

The costs hiding inside an FTL rate

A full truckload rate looks like one number, but it has to cover more than the drive. For the carrier, it pays for the empty miles to reach the pickup, the hours at the shipper and receiver, fuel, tolls, the truck and trailer, insurance and the driver's time. For the shipper, it can also include the broker's margin and any risk the broker is pricing in.

That's why accessorials matter so much in full truckload. Detention pays for waiting past free time. Layover pays for a lost day. A truck ordered not used payment covers a cancelled load. Stop pay covers extra pickups or deliveries. When those terms are missing from the rate confirmation, the carrier absorbs the cost, and a good-looking rate turns ordinary. Our accessorial charges calculator turns those terms into invoice lines.

Where carriers see full truckload rates

Most owner-operators meet full truckload rates on load boards, where brokers post spot loads with a rate or a request to call. Those postings are the most visible FTL prices in the market, and they move daily. Our guide to how load boards work explains how to read a posting field by field, and why the posted rate is a starting point.

Other FTL rates never reach a board: loads a broker offers by phone to carriers they trust, contract lanes priced for a year, and dedicated freight paid weekly. Those rates are usually steadier, and they're where carriers with good service records tend to earn more over time.

How to read a full truckload rate quickly

• +Find the basis. Per mile or per load? Fuel included or separate? Which miles?
• +Add the empty miles. Divide the total by loaded plus empty miles for the all-in rate.
• +Check the time. Appointment windows, live load or drop, and stops decide how long the load takes.
• +Check the terms. Detention, layover and any accessorials should be on the rate confirmation.
• +Check where it leaves you. A load into a strong market sets up the next one.