Rate per mile
Also called RPM, $/mile
Rate per mile is the load's total pay divided by its miles, and it is the standard way carriers compare one load against another.
Last reviewed · by the Fleetchart team
The arithmetic is simple — total rate divided by miles — but the inputs decide whether the answer is useful. Dividing by loaded miles only will flatter a load that required 200 miles of deadhead to reach. Dividing by all miles run tells you what the truck actually earned per mile turned.
Rate per mile is a revenue measure, not a profit measure. A load at $3.00 per mile through congested metro areas with a long unpaid wait can leave less behind than a $2.40 load that loads and rolls.
Used properly it is a screening tool: it tells you quickly which loads are worth a closer look, and your cost per mile tells you which ones are worth taking.
For example, say a load pays $2,400 for 800 loaded miles, and the pickup is 200 empty miles away. On loaded miles it pays $2,400 ÷ 800 = $3.00 a mile. On all 1,000 miles the truck turns, it pays $2,400 ÷ 1,000 = $2.40. If your cost per mile is $2.00, the load leaves $2,400 − $2,000 = $400, not the $800 the loaded number suggests.