What is a freight rate card?
A freight rate card is the price list a transport company gives its customers: a price for a full truckload in each distance band, and often a price per pallet for loads that share a truck. A rate card built on your own costs lets sales quote in minutes, and shows which quotes lose money before the truck leaves.
The calculator turns one truck's monthly costs into a fixed cost per working hour and a running cost per kilometer. It then prices a trip with its empty return and handling hours, builds a rate card by distance band, and converts each band into a per-pallet rate with a minimum charge.
Why price from cost per km and per hour?
- Two clocks run on every load: fuel, maintenance and tires grow with kilometers; driver pay, truck payments and insurance grow with time. A per-km rate alone underprices loads with long waits.
- Empty kilometers are paid by someone: a one-way load that returns empty costs almost twice its loaded distance in running costs.
- Wide bands hide losses or lost quotes: a band priced at its upper limit overcharges short loads in it; one priced at the middle loses money at its upper end.
- Pallet prices depend on fill: a per-pallet rate only covers the truck if you sell enough positions on an average run.
What inputs do you need?
| Input | Where to find it | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed costs per month | Payroll, finance or lease schedule, insurance policy, permits, overhead allocation | Use depreciation if you own the truck outright. |
| Working days and hours | Trip records and timesheets | Count hours you can sell, after maintenance days and idle days. |
| Fuel use and price | Fuel cards, tracking data, the pump price | Measure over a full month of loaded and empty running. |
| Maintenance and tires per km | Workshop invoices ÷ kilometers | A twelve-month average smooths out large repairs. |
| Empty return and handling hours | Trip records, waiting time at sites | Use the lane's real pattern, not the best case. |
| Pallet positions and fill | Trailer floor plan, past shared runs | Fill is the share of positions you actually sell. |
How is the freight rate calculated?
Cost base
The split follows the line items in the American Transportation Research Institute's Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: driver wages and benefits, fuel, truck and trailer payments, insurance, repair and maintenance, tires and tolls. Time-based items go into the hourly cost and distance-based items into the per-km cost.
Full-truck price for one trip
The margin is profit as a share of the price. A 15% margin is a markup of 15 ÷ 85 = 17.6% on cost; mixing the two is a common pricing error.
Rate card and pallet rate
Sources
- American Transportation Research Institute, Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2026 Update, A. Leslie and D. Murray, July 2026 (cost line items per mile). Source: TRID record.
- Transport Topics, Truck operating costs rose 3.4% in 2025, ATRI finds, 17 July 2026 (line items with the largest increases: tolls, repair and maintenance, driver benefits, tires). Source. Last reviewed 21 October 2026.
The calculator uses no market rates or cost figures from these sources; every amount is yours. Prices are before VAT.
Worked example: a heavy truck, a 350 km load
The defaults are examples; replace them with your own figures.
- Fixed costs of $5,600 a month over 26 days of 10 hours give $21.54 an hour. 35 L/100 km at $0.48 a liter is $0.168 a km; with $0.08 for maintenance and tires the running cost is $0.248 a km.
- A 350 km load with a 60% empty return drives 560 km. At 60 km/h that is 9.3 hours, plus 3 hours of handling: 12.3 hours.
- Cost: 560 × $0.248 = $139 running, plus 12.3 × $21.54 = $266 of time: $405. At a 15% margin the price is $476, or $1.36 per loaded km.
- On the rate card, 350 km falls in the 300–500 km band, priced at 500 km: $647, $171 more than the exact price. A narrower band would quote closer.
- For shared loads, 24 positions at 70% fill sell 16.8 pallets a run, so a pallet in the 300–500 km band costs $38.53. Six pallets cost $231, 36% of the full truck; from 17 pallets the customer should pay the full-truck price.
How to read your results
- Cost per km vs cost per hour: if the hourly cost is large, short loads with long waits are where you lose money; charge for waiting.
- Price per loaded km by band: it falls with distance because the handling hours spread over more kilometers. Short bands need a minimum charge.
- Band price vs exact price: a large gap means the band is too wide for that lane.
- Pallet rate: it only holds at the fill you entered. Lower fill on a lane needs a higher rate or fewer shared runs.
How to price better
- Find return loads: every point of empty return you remove lowers the cost of the next quote. Check the return leg with the Truck Trip Cost Calculator.
- Charge for waiting: agree free time at each site and a rate per extra hour.
- Review fuel monthly: fuel is often the largest running cost; update the price or add a surcharge clause.
- Check margins after the trip: log real kilometers, hours and costs per load in the Load and Lane Profitability Workbook.
Assumptions and limits
The calculator averages one truck: the same consumption loaded and empty, one speed and one fixed cost per hour for every load. Fixed costs are spread over the hours you enter; if the truck works fewer hours, each hour costs more. Tolls, permits for specific loads, escorts, overnight allowances and border costs need to be in your inputs or added to the quote. Pallet rates assume pallets of one size and weight within the truck's payload. Market rates, competition and customer terms are not in the calculation. All defaults are examples.