Most small transport companies lose money on loads without knowing it. The fix is simple: know what one kilometre costs you, then make sure every quote covers it - including the kilometres you drive empty.
Add up one month of costs for one vehicle, then divide by the kilometres it drove that month.
| Cost | What to include |
|---|---|
| Fuel | All fill-ups for the month |
| Tyres and maintenance | Services, repairs, tyres (spread big costs over the months they last) |
| Driver | Wages, overtime, sleep-out and meal allowances |
| Vehicle | Finance or rent, insurance, licences, tracking |
| Overheads | A fair share of office, phone, software and accounting |
Cost per km = total monthly cost / total km driven (loaded and empty). Do this per vehicle size - a car, a 1-ton van and a 34-ton truck have very different costs.
A load is not just pickup to drop-off. Count three legs: the empty run from your depot to the pickup, the loaded run, and the empty run back. If you only price the loaded leg, the empty legs eat your profit.
Short jobs still take time to load, wait and offload. A minimum charge protects you on short trips, and a per-stop charge covers multi-drop work.
Price = (all kilometres x cost per km) + stop charges, then add your profit margin. Never go below the minimum charge.
Fuel prices change faster than your rates. Agree a base fuel price with each customer and a fuel surcharge that moves with the pump price, so you are not paying for fuel rises yourself.
Compare what you charged with what the load actually cost in fuel and kilometres. Loads that keep losing money show you which customers or routes to reprice.
worxTMS works out the empty run out, loaded run and empty run back for every load, prices it from your distance rate sheet per vehicle size (with minimum and per-stop charges), adds your fuel surcharge, and shows the fuel cost and money left after fuel on every load. It works in km or miles and any currency. Free 30-day trial.