Extra Stops: Price the Time, Not Just the RPM
The rate per mile looked fine until the second and third live pick ate the day. The linehaul did not include those stops unless the rate confirmation priced them.
Not included
Unless it is written
Labor
Is not a stop fee
Example
Three stops versus straight through
Detention
Its own clock
Ahmad Qazi
Founder & CEO, O Trucking LLC
Fact-Checked by O Trucking Owner-Operator Desk
Prices extra stops as time without a new accessorial catalog
Sources:
Written by Ahmad Qazi, founder of O Trucking LLC, drawing on 9+ years dispatching for owner-operators. Learn more about us.
O TruckingExtra Stops: Price the Time, Not Just the RPM
Key Takeaways
- An unlisted stop is free work. Add the dollars before you roll.
- Stop fee, driver assist, and inside delivery are different lines.
- Price the hours the truck is committed, including dwell, not only the miles.
- Compare that all-in hourly figure to a no-stop alternative.
- Detention is a separate clock at each live stop, using the free time the rate con states.
- Do not adopt a "typical" stop charge from memory. Write the number that will be paid.
Linehaul does not include a stop the rate con does not list
Linehaul is the pay for the trip described on the rate confirmation: the pickups and deliveries that are listed, at the rate that is listed. A broker who calls with "one more pickup, it's on the way" is describing a different trip. If you do it without a revised confirmation, you have agreed to do it for the original money. That is free work. The miles may be few. The day is not.
Get the stop added, with a dollar figure, before you start the truck toward it. A revision that adds the address and says "same rate" is a revision that prices the stop at zero. Say no or price it. A revision that adds the address and a stop charge is a revision you can accept or reject with your eyes open. Do this even when the stop is the shipper's dock and the broker says every carrier does it. Every carrier who does it for nothing has trained the next call.
A stop fee versus an hourly driver-assist
A stop fee pays for the location: the extra arrival, the check-in, the chance the dock is slow. It does not pay for the driver to unload, sort, or carry freight inside. Those are labor. Driver assist is the page for that work. If the rate con says stop fee and the dock says the driver will floor-load, you have two missing lines, not one. Add the labor line before you touch the freight.
Inside delivery and sort-and-segregate fail the same way. They sound like part of "delivering." They are extra work with extra time and extra injury risk. A single stop charge that does not mention them does not include them. Ask the broker to write the labor in the same revision as the address. If they refuse, the stop is a drop only, and you should say that in the reply.
Three different lines
Location, labor, and waiting. A stop fee is only the first unless the paper says otherwise.
Dwell time is the real cost
The cost of an extra stop is rarely the five miles between docks. It is the arrival, the line, the door that is not ready, and the reload. Those hours come out of the day you could have used on a straight-through load. They also count on the hours-of-service clock. A day that looked like a simple out-and-back becomes a day you cannot legally finish because two live picks sat.
Write down an honest dwell assumption before you accept. If you do not know the facility, use a number you can defend and add the detention rule so a longer sit is paid. If the facility is known to hold trucks, the stop fee has to be large enough that the hold does not ruin the day, or detention has to be real. A stop fee with no detention, at a dock that averages a long sit, is a discount you are giving the broker.
A three-stop example against a straight-through load
Every dollar here is an assumption for the arithmetic, not a tariff and not a market rate. Suppose a straight-through load pays $900 for 300 miles and will take about 7 hours door to door, including a normal check-in. Suppose the alternative is the same 300 miles plus two extra live stops. Suppose the rate con adds $75 per extra stop, so $150, and suppose each extra stop holds the truck 2 hours beyond the rolling time. The three-stop version pays $1,050 and consumes about 11 hours.
The straight-through figure is $900 divided by 7 hours, about $129 an hour before costs. The three-stop figure is $1,050 divided by 11 hours, about $95 an hour before costs. The rate per mile went from $3.00 to about $3.50 if you ignore the dwell and pretend the miles did not change. The hour went the other way. That is why the RPM looked fine. Replace every number with the load in front of you. If your dwell assumption is wrong, the hourly comparison is wrong. Do not publish these dollars as what stops "should" pay.
Then compare the hourly result to a no-stop alternative you could actually book, not to a fantasy lane. If the straight-through truck is available and the three-stop truck is a favor, the favor's hourly number is the decision. Revenue per hour is the longer version of that decision. This example is only the extra stop.
What has to be on the rate con before you roll
The revision should name each stop's address, the stop charge in dollars, whether the driver is touching freight, and the detention rule at each live stop. It should say who pays. A note in the dispatch chat is not the revision unless the broker also sends a rate confirmation that matches the chat. Save the PDF you are willing to invoice. When the factor or the broker's payable desk asks what the extra $150 was, the PDF is the answer. A memory of a phone call is a short-pay.
If they will not revise, do not perform the stop and then bill it. Billing an accessorial the confirmation does not contain is how the invoice comes back short and the factor chargebacks you. The accessorial list shows the names of charges. It does not create a charge the rate con omitted.
Detention still needs its own clock
Detention free time is not a law of two hours. It is the free time the rate confirmation states, and it can be different at pickup and delivery, and different at an extra stop. Detention pay rates is that topic. If the confirmation is silent, do not invent two hours and do not invent a hourly detention rate. Ask for the sentence. If the confirmation says detention is waived because a stop fee was paid, then the stop fee is also the waiting pay, and the dwell assumption in your example has to carry the whole wait. Know which deal you signed.
Track in and out times at every live stop, including the extras. A detention claim without times is a story. A stop fee without times is how you learn the $75 did not cover a four-hour door. The times also defend the hours-of-service record if someone later asks why the day ran long.
Pro Tip
The accessorial catalog can wait. The revision cannot.
Count the appointment window as committed time when the facility will not take you early. Arriving at 8 a.m. for a 1 p.m. door is five hours the linehaul did not describe, even if the extra address is only a few miles off the route. If the broker wants that window, the stop charge or the detention sentence has to contemplate it. A truck that could have delivered the straight-through load and started another pickup is the opportunity you are pricing. Write that competing option down before you accept the favor.
Fuel burned idling at the extra door belongs in the same hourly comparison. You do not need a national fuel price to see the direction. If the three-stop day idles for hours and the straight-through day does not, the $95 an hour in the example is even softer once fuel is subtracted. Use your own fuel figure. This page will not invent one. The point is that RPM never sees the idle, and the stop fee rarely mentions it.
Frequently Asked Questions
The broker added a stop by text after I accepted. Is it included?
Not for money, unless a revised rate confirmation adds a dollar figure. A text that only adds an address adds work. Do not start the extra miles until the revision shows the pay.
They offered $50 for the extra stop. Is that the market?
It is the offer. This page will not tell you a market stop charge. Compare the hours that stop will burn with the dollars offered, using the example's method and your own numbers. If the hours wreck the day, the offer is not enough even if someone online calls it standard.
Does the stop fee include unloading by the driver?
No, unless the confirmation says so. Driver assist and inside delivery are labor lines. Link the touch-freight page. Do not let a stop fee absorb unpaid labor.
Is detention included in the stop fee?
Only if the rate con says the stop fee replaces detention. Otherwise detention has its own free time and its own rate, at each live stop, as that confirmation writes them. Do not assume two free hours.
Where is the full list of accessorials?
On the accessorial charges list. This page is the stop versus the linehaul, not a second catalog.
Do hours of service change because a stop was added?
The clock still runs while you dwell. An extra live load can push you out of hours even when the miles looked easy. Price the time, and do not plan the day as if the dock were instant.
Put a dollar figure on the extra stop before the wheels move.
O Trucking does not price accessorials. After authority is ACTIVE, dispatch is a flat weekly fee.