How KRYSTAL calculates a load

Miles and time

Total miles

total miles = loaded miles + deadhead miles + return miles (when a return leg is known)

Every per-mile figure is divided by total miles, never by loaded miles alone. Sample: 452 + 96 = 548 miles. The report also says where the miles came from. Today that is the miles you entered.

Trip hours

trip hours = total miles ÷ average speed + expected waiting hours

The average speed is 58 mph for loads delivering in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia, and 55 mph everywhere else. If you enter the real door-to-door time, that replaces the estimate. Trip hours cost the load; they are not an hours-of-service check.

Trip days

trip days = trip hours ÷ 14, or ÷ 24 when you entered real elapsed time, and never less than 1.

Estimated hours are working hours, so 14 count as a day. Real elapsed time is calendar time, so 24 do. A load that takes a few hours is still charged one full day of fixed costs.

Revenue

Gross revenue

gross revenue = linehaul + fuel surcharge + accessorials + separately paid return leg + stop pay

Everything the load pays, counted once.

Adjusted revenue

adjusted revenue = gross revenue + trailer option value

Only different from gross when you enter days a trailer stays available to you and what it earns a day. KRYSTAL counts 18% of that possible earning. Most loads have none.

Operator revenue and the carrier's percentage

KRYSTAL doesn't show a separate operator-revenue figure. The carrier's percentage, dispatch fee and factoring fee are each worked out on gross revenue and counted as costs, so profit comes out the same. How percentages and settlements work.

Costs

Total expenses are the sum of these lines, the same lines as the report's Cost Breakdown:

• Fuel = total miles ÷ your mpg × your diesel price.
• DEF = 6.5 gallons per 1,000 miles at your DEF price, or $3.79 a gallon if you haven't given one. If you cost DEF per mile, that rate is used instead; if you enter it as a monthly cost, it's part of fixed overhead instead.
• Maintenance reserve = total miles × your maintenance reserve per mile.
• Tire wear = total miles × your drive and steer tire cost per mile (each set's price ÷ its life in miles), or $0.04 a mile until you enter them. Depreciation = total miles × your replacement or depreciation reserve, or $0.08 a mile until you enter one. A reserve entered per month is part of fixed overhead instead, and then nothing is charged per mile.
• Fixed overhead = your fixed costs per day × trip days. Weekly, monthly and yearly costs are turned into a daily figure: (weekly + monthly ÷ 4.33 + yearly ÷ 52) ÷ 7. Sample: $3,750 a month is $123.63 a day.
• Tolls = what you entered for this load.
• Operating profile costs = everything else in your profile: driver pay, carrier percentage, dispatch and factoring fees, per-mile reserves and costs, per-load deductions, per-day costs such as per diem, per-hour costs, fuel additives per gallon burned, and fuel burned off the road (idle and APU gallons per hour over the hours the truck isn't driving, reefer gallons per hour over the whole trip, at your diesel price).

Driver pay

Driver pay can be per mile, per day, per hour or a percentage of revenue, and is part of operating profile costs. If you drive your own truck, enter what you pay yourself. Leave it out and every profit figure is before the driver is paid. In the sample, the driver's $0.65 a mile comes to $356.20.

Profit

True net profit (estimated net)

true net profit = adjusted revenue − total expenses

It is an estimate made before the load runs. What you actually kept is recorded separately when the load is done. Sample: $147.51.

Margin

profit margin = true net profit ÷ adjusted revenue × 100

Per mile and per hour

cost per mile = total expenses ÷ total miles · net per mile = true net profit ÷ total miles · net per clock hour = true net profit ÷ trip hours

Net per hour is what the load pays for the time it ties up your truck. Sample: $12.33 an hour over 12.0 hours.

Break-even revenue

break-even revenue = total expenses: the rate at which the load neither makes nor loses money.

The decision

Minimum acceptable rate

minimum acceptable rate = total expenses + the larger of (your net-per-hour floor × trip hours) and (your net-per-mile floor × total miles) − any trailer option value

It comes only from your costs and your floors, never from market or competitor rates. Sample: $1,241.76.

Suggested counter

The minimum acceptable rate rounded up to the next $50, so it is never under your minimum. Sample: $1,250.

Verdict

• BOOK: net per hour and net per mile both meet your floors, and the risk score is 70 or more.
• NEGOTIATE: it falls short, but needs 25% more or less, and the risk score is 55 or more.
• PASS: anything else. Also always PASS when a round trip's return miles, a multistop load's stop count or stop pay, or a critical route restriction is unresolved.

Risk score

Starts at 100 and loses points for each of these:

• picking up or delivering in a state you've listed as one you avoid: 35
• delivering in a state you've listed as a weak reload market: 18
• an outbound market score under 40, or a broker rating under 3.5: 15 each
• deadhead over 20% of total miles, or more than 5 hours of expected waiting: 10 each
• weight over 42,000 lbs: 8
• net per hour under your floor, or net per mile under your floor: 12 each

Both state lists are yours, set in your operating profile under Operating Constraints. Leave them blank and no state counts against a load.

Grade, confidence and efficiency

• Grade (A+ to F): mainly net per hour and net per mile against your floors, with a smaller weight for risk and the delivery market.
• Confidence: how clear-cut the verdict is. It is higher when the load is well above or below your floors and its details are complete; lower when it sits near a floor. It is not a prediction of how the load will go.
• Efficiency score (0 to 100): starts at 100 and loses points for deadhead, idle time, net per hour under your floor, a margin under 35% and very short trips.

Starting values

Until you fill in your operating profile, KRYSTAL uses these starting values: 7.4 mpg, $3.65 diesel, $0.18 a mile maintenance, $80 a day in fixed costs, and floors of $75 net an hour and $1.70 net a mile. Replace them with your own. The floors in particular decide the verdict.

Each saved analysis keeps a copy of the costs it was worked out with, so editing your profile later never changes an old report.