How the calculation works
The calculator compares one week two ways:
- Today: loaded miles × your current rate per mile.
- With a dispatcher: loaded miles × the rate you expect, minus the dispatch fee (a percentage of that gross).
- Rate gain after fee = with-dispatcher gross − fee − today's gross. This can be negative if the rate doesn't rise enough.
- Hours back, valued = hours a week you spend on load boards and broker calls × what an hour of yours is worth.
- Net per week = rate gain after fee + hours back. Multiplied by the weeks you run, it gives the yearly figure.
- Break-even rate = current rate ÷ (1 − fee), the rate at which the fee is exactly covered.
Fuel and fixed costs are the same with or without a dispatcher for the same miles, so they are left out. If a dispatcher also cuts your empty miles, that is a further gain this calculator doesn't count.
A worked example
EXAMPLE
Made-up carrier and rates. Not a promise of any rate.
Here a 15-cent rate improvement more than covers the 5% fee, and the hours back are worth more than the rate gain. Put a smaller improvement in, say 5 cents, and the cash side turns negative; the hours then decide it.
What a good and a bad result look like
- Positive on the cash line alone: the dispatcher pays for themselves in rate, and the hours are a bonus.
- Negative on cash, positive overall: you are buying time. Worth it if those hours become driving, rest or home time you value.
- Negative overall: at these numbers, keep booking yourself, or look for a dispatcher who can show you a higher rate on your lanes.
Be skeptical with the expected rate. Use a small improvement first; a dispatcher who can't beat your current rate by more than the fee on your lanes isn't worth hiring for the rate alone.
Other things the fee buys
Rate is not the only line a dispatcher moves. Detention and layover claims filed with timestamps, fewer empty miles because the reload is planned, and carrier packets and paperwork handled all have value. Some of it shows up later, in a cleaner quarter: miles organized for the IFTA return, where how rates move each quarter matters too (see IFTA fuel tax rates history), and load records ready for settlements if you run drivers (see trucking payroll software).
For the fee itself in dollars and per mile, use the dispatcher fee calculator; to check a single offer, the load profitability calculator. Our own fee is 5% of gross for one truck with no setup fee, and every load is offered to you first. See how dispatch for owner-operators works, or apply.
Questions about this calculator
How do I know if a dispatcher is worth the fee?
Compare your week with and without one. With a dispatcher, your gross at the rate they book minus their fee, against your gross today. Then add the value of the hours you no longer spend on boards and calls. If the total is positive, the fee pays for itself.
What are typical dispatch fees in trucking?
Percentage-based dispatchers commonly charge a single-digit to low double-digit share of each load's gross, and some charge a flat weekly fee or a fee per load. Compare the fee together with what it is charged on, setup fees, minimums and contract terms.
What rate increase do I need to cover a dispatch fee?
Divide your current rate by one minus the fee. At $2.20 a mile and a 5% fee, the break-even is about $2.316, or 11.6 cents more. Any increase above that is profit, before counting your time.
How should I value my time?
Use what that time would otherwise earn or mean to you. If the hours on the boards would be driving, value them at what a loaded hour earns. If they would be sleep or home time, set the number yourself. The calculator shows the result with and without that value.
Written by
Updated October 2026. Every rate and date on this page has its source and the date we checked it. How we research