Broker Transparency Won’t Fix Trucking. Break-Even Will.

Jan 6
1 min read

People keep saying broker transparency will fix trucking.

Nope.

You can know exactly what a broker makes and still haul freight below your own break-even. Transparency doesn’t stop bad decisions. Knowing your numbers does.

This spreadsheet is built to remove excuses and reduce every load to one question:

Do the miles on this load clear your break-even after revenue and expenses are accounted for?

If yes, take it. If no, don’t.

That’s the fix.

What You Enter (and Where)

You only enter data in one place:

REV&EXP tab

Fill out one row per load in the green cells (rows 5–16).

You’ll enter the core trip info:

Revenue (REV)
Total expenses (EXP)
Fuel amount + gallons
Miles + days
Driver wages

Then you can optionally break out expenses into categories like:

Tires
Parts/tools
Other repairs
In-house/out-house maintenance
Tractor/trailer items
Tractor/trailer payments
Tractor/trailer insurance payments

You enter dollar amounts. The spreadsheet does the math.

What You Don’t Have To Do

You do not have to:

Convert per-ton freight
Convert per-bushel grain
Guess power-only profitability
Calculate detention/TONU math manually
Build formulas

The workbook already normalizes everything into dollars, miles, and time, so you can compare loads consistently.

Why This Beats the Transparency Argument

Broker transparency focuses on what the broker made.

This focuses on what you made.

If you haul loads that don’t clear your break-even, the broker’s margin doesn’t matter. You’re still losing.

When enough carriers stop taking unprofitable freight, rates correct themselves. Not through internet arguments.

Through math.

Download It Free

We’re providing the blank spreadsheet free so carriers can make decisions based on numbers, not opinions.

Use it. Improve your business.