One load, start to finish

Before the first load: your operating profile

After your invitation, you set up your company, add your trucks and fill in your operating profile: fuel economy and diesel price, truck payment, insurance and other fixed costs, maintenance reserve, and how you're paid. That last part covers own authority or leased on, the carrier's percentage, dispatch and factoring fees, and driver pay. You also set your own profit floors: the least you'll accept per mile and per hour. You do this once. Every analysis uses it, and you can change it at any time.

Each value is marked actual, estimated, verified or unknown, so you can see how much of a report rests on real numbers. Your first load analysis lists what to have ready.

1. Enter the offer

On the Analyze page, paste the offer as the broker sent it into Fast Offer Mode and press Parse Offer:

Dallas, TX to Memphis, TN
Pickup: Tuesday 8:00 AM
Loaded miles: 452
Deadhead: 96
Weight: 38000 lbs
Rate: $1150
Trailer: Dry Van
Commodity: General Freight

KRYSTAL fills in the load form and reports what it found: here, the route, rate, loaded miles, deadhead, weight, pickup time, commodity and equipment. It puts the original text in the load's notes so you can check it against the form. If it couldn't read something, it says so in a parser note. You can also skip the paste and type the load in by hand.

2. Check the assumptions

Before you analyze, look over what KRYSTAL will use. On this load:

• Rate: $1,150 went into linehaul. If the broker split out fuel surcharge or accessorials, put those in their own fields so all of the pay is counted once.
• Miles: 452 loaded and 96 deadhead from Waco, TX. These are the miles you entered, and the report says so.
• Waiting time: the form starts at 3 hours. This shipper and receiver are usually quick, so it was changed to 2.
• Broker rating and outbound market: these start at 4.0 and 50. Set them from what you know. Here the broker stays at 4.0 and Memphis gets 60 out of 100 for reloads.
• Round trip, multistop, tolls: none on this load. If a load has a return leg or extra stops, tick the box and fill in the miles and pay. A load with those left unknown can't get a BOOK verdict.
• Truck and freight: pick the truck if you have more than one, and confirm the trailer type and commodity. Cities and states have to be valid before KRYSTAL will save the analysis.

3. Read the result

KRYSTAL answers NEGOTIATE. After fuel, maintenance, fixed costs, the factoring fee and the driver's own pay, the load nets $147.51: $0.27 a mile and $12.33 an hour over 12.0 hours. That's under this operator's floors of $0.40 a mile and $20 an hour. The rate that clears both floors is $1,241.76, so KRYSTAL suggests countering at $1,250.

Ask for $1,250. At least $92 more is required to meet your configured profit floors (8.0% above the current offer).

Below the verdict, the report breaks down profit, time, every cost, risk and opportunity. See every section explained.

4. Choose the next action

• BOOK: the load meets your numbers as offered. Book it with the broker as you normally would.
• NEGOTIATE: call the broker with the counter. If they accept $1,250, the load clears both floors. The negotiation guide covers what to say.
• PASS: the gap is too big or something essential is unknown. Move on to the next offer.

KRYSTAL does not book the load for you. You make the call and do the booking with the broker. Then, on the Value Meter page, record whether you booked or passed and the rate you finally agreed. Only a booked rate you enter counts as more revenue; a suggested counter never does.

5. After delivery: record what happened

When the load is paid, open Record Outcome and enter what it actually paid and cost: revenue collected, fuel, tolls, other costs, waiting and total hours, what you finally kept, days to pay, and whether you found a reload. KRYSTAL puts that next to its estimate. Your own broker reliability, lane scores and reload odds are built from these records. How to record completed loads.