How to read a rate confirmation

A rate confirmation is a contract. It is usually read as a price, which is why two loads at the same rate can settle hundreds of dollars apart and the difference only becomes visible weeks later.

Everything below is on the document you already have. None of it requires a phone call — it requires reading past the number in the largest font.

Three separate terms, and a weakness in any one makes the other two irrelevant:

• When it starts — free time is usually counted from the appointment, not from arrival, which matters if you are held before your window
• What it pays per hour, and whether it caps
• What evidence is required, and how quickly it must be submitted

An all-in rate and a linehaul-plus-surcharge rate are not comparable, and quoting them against each other is the easiest way to accept less than you meant to.

If a surcharge is listed separately, check what it is indexed to and how often it resets. A surcharge fixed at booking on a long run is a fuel bet you did not intend to place.

Work that is assumed rather than paid is the quietest margin leak on the document. Look for whether the rate covers extra stops, driver-assisted unload or lumper fees, pallet exchange, tarping, overnight layover, and reconsignment.

Each is a real cost in time or money. A rate that silently includes three stops and a tarp is a different rate from the same number without them.

These cover the load not going as planned, which is when the money matters most:

• Truck ordered not used — what you are paid if you arrive and there is no freight
• Cancellation — how late a load can be cancelled at no cost to the broker
• Layover — what an overnight pays when a delivery slips past the day

A confirmation silent on all three is not neutral. It means the answer is nothing.

Check the stated terms, what triggers the clock — usually receipt of a complete invoice packet rather than delivery — and what the quick-pay discount is.

Quick pay is a financing decision, not a discount. Compare the fee against what waiting actually costs you: if you are covering the gap with a factoring facility, the right comparison is against that rate, not against zero.

1. 1Does the total include a fuel surcharge, or is it linehaul only?
2. 2Detention: when it starts, what it pays, what proof it needs.
3. 3Which accessorials are assumed inside the rate.
4. 4TONU, cancellation and layover — present, or silent?
5. 5Payment terms, and what starts the clock.

Then compare the rate against your cost per LOADED mile, with the deadhead to pick it up included. That is the number that decides whether the load is work or just motion.