How the multi-stop calculator works
The idea is simple: an extra stop is extra working time, so it should pay at the same hourly rate as the rest of the load. The calculator first works out what your target rate per mile earns per working hour on the linehaul itself, driving plus the first pickup and final delivery. Then it prices each extra stop at that hourly rate for the time the stop takes.
- Linehaul hours = miles ÷ average speed + pickup and delivery time
- Your hourly rate = target rate × miles ÷ linehaul hours
- Fair stop pay = your hourly rate × time per stop
- Fair total = target rate × miles + extra stops × fair stop pay
- Per hour = total ÷ (linehaul hours + stop time)
A worked example
A 26 ft box truck is offered $1,200 for a 400-mile route with three extra stops at $50 each. Each stop takes about an hour. The carrier's target is $2.50 a mile, and the first pickup and final delivery take two hours together.
- Offered total
- $1,350
- Fair stop pay
- $100
- Fair total
- $1,300
- Per hour
- $104
Here the linehaul is generous enough to carry thin stop pay: the offer beats the fair total by $50. Cut the linehaul to $1,000 and keep $50 stops, and the route falls $150 short. That's the moment to ask for more per stop, using the fair stop pay figure as your reason.
Reading your result
Look at two things. First, the gap between offered and fair totals: a negative gap means you're paid more than your target, a positive one is how much to ask for. Second, the per-hour figure. Multi-stop routes eat hours, and hours are limited by your logs and your week. If the per-hour number sits well under what your other loads earn, the route is a poor use of the day, whatever the per-mile number says.
Time per stop is the input most carriers guess too low. Count check-in, waiting for a door, unloading, paperwork and getting back on the road. If a receiver is known for slow docks, plan for it, and make sure detention terms cover every stop, not only the last one.
Multi-stop loads by truck
26 ft box trucks run the most multi-stop work: regional distribution, food service and retail routes with liftgate deliveries. Reefers deliver to several grocery stores or warehouses on one trip, often with lumper fees at each. Dry vans pick up and drop partial loads that share a trailer. Each has its own extra costs per stop, so set the time per stop to match your work.
Partial loads and extra stops
Partial and LTL freight often brings extra stops with it: two or three shippers sharing a trailer, each with its own pickup or delivery. Each partial pays separately, so add the linehaul from every partial into the offered amount and count every stop beyond the first pickup and last delivery. The same fair-pay logic applies: the combined trip should pay your target for the miles plus your hourly rate for the extra stops.
When to pass on a route
Pass when the gap is large and the broker won't move, when stops are spread across a congested metro at rush hour, or when the final stop leaves you far from any reload. A route that pays your target per mile but drops you in a dead market at 6 pm can cost more than it earns once tomorrow's empty miles are counted.
Getting stop pay right
- Ask how many stops there are and where, before agreeing a rate.
- Agree stop pay per extra stop, in writing on the rate con.
- Make sure detention applies at every stop, with its own free time.
- Get each stop's in and out times signed, for detention and for your records.
Our dispatchers ask for these terms before a multi-stop load reaches you, and you see the full stop list before you say yes. The broker sends the rate con straight to you. Our fee for 26 ft box trucks is 7% of gross and 5% for one tractor-trailer with authority older than 6 months. See box truck dispatch and reefer dispatch.