What to check on a rate confirmation before you take the load

Nine things on a rate confirmation decide what the load actually pays: the rate and whether fuel is inside it, detention and how many free hours, TONU, layover, who pays the lumper, reefer fuel on a reefer load, how many days until you get paid, what quick pay costs, and any fine or penalty clause. Every one of those is a dollar figure, not fine print. Read them before you say yes, because after the truck rolls you have no room left to ask.

If you are leased on, your carrier signs the rate con and you see the settlement. Ask for a copy of the rate con anyway when a load goes sideways. Detention and TONU live on that page, and you cannot argue for money that was never on it.

The rate, and whether fuel is inside it

A broker quotes one of two ways. All-in means one number, fuel included, no separate line. Linehaul plus fuel surcharge means two numbers, and you need to know the schedule that produced the second one.

All-in is not worse. It is just harder to read. A good-looking all-in rate in a $6 diesel week can be a poor linehaul rate wearing a fuel surcharge as a hat. Before you judge a rate per mile, back the fuel out of it and look at what is left.

A common surcharge schedule is (average diesel price minus a base of about $1.25) divided by an assumed 6 miles per gallon. That gives cents per mile. Whatever schedule you use, use the same one every time so your numbers compare week to week. If the terms are new to you, the fuel surcharge page in the glossary walks through it.

Also check the miles on the rate con against your own routing. Brokers sometimes use short miles. You burn the real ones.

Detention, TONU, and layover — what is usual

These three cover the time the load costs you when nothing is moving. Here is what shows up on most rate cons that have them at all.

Term	Common	Thin	Missing
Detention	$50/hr after 2 free hours	$30/hr after 3 free hours	not on the page at all
TONU (truck ordered not used)	$150 or more	$100	nothing if they cancel after dispatch
Layover	$200 a day	$150 a day	nothing

Free hours matter as much as the rate. Two free hours at $50 beats three free hours at $50 by a full hour of pay on every wait that runs past three. Detention also usually needs proof: in and out times on the bill of lading, signed, sometimes with a check call. If the rate con says you must notify the broker before the free time runs out, that is a real condition and they will enforce it. Set a phone alarm at the dock. More on how it is counted is on the detention page.

TONU is the one people forget until they are sitting at a shipper with a canceled load. If the rate con says nothing, you have no claim for the miles you already drove.

Lumpers, reefer fuel, and the fees nobody mentions

Who pays the lumper should be one sentence on the page. Usual: you pay it, get a receipt, and the broker reimburses it at cost with the invoice. Watch for a cap, like "lumper reimbursed up to $150", on a grocery warehouse that charges $300.

On a reefer load, look for a reefer fuel clause. Most rate cons do not have one, which means the fuel your reefer unit burns comes out of your pocket. A reefer unit burns roughly a half gallon to a gallon an hour running. On a two-day load that is real money.

Then read the penalty language. Common ones: a fee for a late delivery, a fee for a missing or late BOL, a fee for no reefer download, a charge for a rejected load. A late fee that is a flat $250 is one thing. A late fee written as "all damages" is open-ended, and you should ask them to cap it or strike it.

Last, the pay terms. Net 30 is standard. Some brokers run net 45. Quick pay should cost 3 percent or less. At 5 percent you are paying a lot for three weeks.

What this load really pays, line by line

This is an example with round numbers. A reefer load, 462 loaded miles, $1,150 all-in. Detention $30 an hour after 2 hours. No TONU line. No reefer fuel clause. Net 30. Diesel that week averages $6.53.

The headline number:

• $1,150 ÷ 462 mi = $2.49 a mile all-in

Now back the fuel out using the schedule above:

• ($6.53 − $1.25) ÷ 6 mpg = $0.88 a mile
• 462 mi × $0.88 = $406.56 of that $1,150 is fuel
• $1,150 − $406.56 = $743.44 linehaul
• $743.44 ÷ 462 mi = $1.61 a mile linehaul

That is a different-looking load than $2.49.

Now the reefer unit. Say it runs 10 hours at roughly 0.8 gallons an hour:

• 10 hr × 0.8 gal = 8 gallons
• 8 gal × $6.53 = $52.24 that nobody on this rate con pays for
• $743.44 − $52.24 = $691.20, or $1.50 a mile

Now the wait. You sit 4 hours at the receiver:

• 4 hr − 2 free hr = 2 paid hours
• 2 hr × $30 = $60
• At the usual $50 an hour: 2 hr × $50 = $100
• The thin detention rate costs you $40 on this one load

And if the broker cancels you after dispatch, this rate con pays $0 where $150 is usual.

If you take quick pay at 3 percent to avoid waiting 30 days:

• $1,150 × 0.03 = $34.50
• $1,150 − $34.50 = $1,115.50

So the load is $2.49 a mile on the page, $1.61 after fuel, $1.50 after the reefer burns its own fuel, and there are two holes in it worth $40 and $150 that one phone call might close.

What you owe your driver does not change

None of the above changes the driver's pay. The driver is paid off the load the way your sheet says, whatever the broker did or did not put on the rate con. On this example, at 70 cents a mile with a $50 live load and $15 an hour detention after 2 hours:

• 462 mi × $0.70 = $323.40
• Live load: $50.00
• Detention: 2 hr × $15 = $30.00
• Total driver pay: $403.40

The $52.24 of reefer fuel and the $40 of detention you did not get are your problem, not the driver's. That is exactly why you read the rate con before the truck rolls and not after.

The checklist to run before you say yes

Run these down the page. It takes two minutes.

• Rate: all-in or linehaul plus fuel? Back the fuel out and look at the linehaul per mile.
• Miles: do theirs match your routing?
• Detention: dollars per hour, how many free hours, what proof they want, who you have to call and by when.
• TONU: is there a number? If not, ask for $150.
• Layover: $200 a day is usual. Is it on there?
• Lumper: who pays, is it capped, do they need the receipt.
• Reefer: is reefer fuel paid, and does it say continuous run or start/stop?
• Pay terms: net 30 or net 45, and what quick pay costs.
• Fines: any flat fees, and is anything written open-ended.
• Names and numbers: correct carrier name, MC, load number, pickup and delivery appointment times.

What to ask the broker to add, in writing, on the rate con itself — not in a text message: detention at $50 an hour after 2 hours, TONU $150, layover $200 a day, lumper reimbursed at cost with receipt, reefer fuel paid or the run mode stated. A broker is far likelier to add one before you accept than after the truck is loaded. If you want the same list in a form you can work through load by load, there is a rate con review walkthrough in the help pages.

Start this week

Pull the last three rate cons you ran and find the detention line on each one. Write down the rate and the free hours. Then look at your last load that sat four hours and figure what you got versus what $50 after 2 hours would have paid. That number is what one phone call before dispatch is worth, and it is the same call every time.