Spot rate
A spot rate is the price agreed for a single load at current market conditions, as opposed to a contract rate fixed in advance for a period.
Last reviewed · by the Fleetchart team
Spot rates move with the balance of available freight and available trucks in a given lane and week. They rise when capacity is tight and fall when it is loose.
Small carriers run predominantly on spot freight, which means revenue varies week to week while fixed costs do not. Knowing your break-even lets you judge quickly whether a soft market rate is worth running or worth sitting out.
For example, say your cost per mile is $2.10. A spot load on a soft week pays $2,000 for 1,000 miles, or $2.00 a mile, so running it loses 1,000 × $0.10 = $100. The next week the same lane pays $2,600, or $2.60 a mile, and leaves $2,600 − $2,100 = $500.
Sitting still is not free either. If $0.90 of your $2.10 is fixed cost that runs whether you drive or not, your running cost is $1.20 a mile. The $2.00 load still pays $2.00 − $1.20 = $0.80 a mile toward those fixed bills, which is $800 over 1,000 miles that you would not get by sitting.