It is easy to track one number closely and everything else by feel. If that number is gross revenue — the one that arrives in the bank and the one people ask about — it is the wrong one to trust alone.
Gross revenue is a measure of activity, not of health. A fleet can grow revenue every month while margin falls, and the first hard evidence can arrive as a cash-flow problem months after the decision that caused it. These five figures catch it earlier, and each one points at a different lever.
1. Net revenue per mile
Linehaul plus accessorials, minus fuel surcharge pass-through, divided by loaded miles. The point of stripping the surcharge is that it moves with diesel rather than with how well you negotiated, so leaving it in makes a fuel spike look like commercial improvement.
Track it per lane as well as per fleet. The fleet average hides the two lanes quietly subsidising everything else.
2. Deadhead percentage
Empty miles divided by total miles. This is the figure most directly under a dispatcher's control, and the one where a small improvement compounds hardest — every empty mile removed is a mile of fuel, wear and driver hours that becomes available to sell. (The deadhead calculator divides by loaded miles instead, so the same month reads a little higher there; pick one convention and keep it.)
3. Utilization
Revenue-earning days divided by available days. A truck sitting for want of a load, a driver, a part or a signature is a fixed cost with nothing on the other side of it.
Record the reason alongside the number. Utilization on its own tells you that you lost days; the reason tells you which of dispatch, maintenance, hiring or paperwork to fix. Some reasons are rules rather than choices: a truck declared out of service at an inspection may not run until the repairs are done (§ 396.9), and a driver who is not qualified may not drive at all (§ 391.11). Without the reason the figure is a complaint rather than a diagnosis.
4. Cost per mile
Fixed plus variable, including your own pay, over the same period. This is the floor every rate decision is measured against, and it drifts — insurance renews, tires wear, maintenance intervals arrive.
Recalculate it quarterly. A cost model built on last year's numbers will confidently tell you a losing rate is acceptable, which is a worse outcome than having no model at all.
5. Revenue per truck per week
The one figure that survives a change in fleet size. Total revenue rises when you add a truck whether or not the addition was a good idea, so it cannot tell you if it was — this can.
It is also the honest way to compare a good month against a big one. If revenue per truck per week is flat while the fleet grows, growth is buying activity rather than profit.
One month, worked through
Reviewing them
Monthly suits a small fleet. Weekly is noisy enough that you end up reacting to individual loads; quarterly is slow enough that a bad lane runs for a season before anyone notices.
- Put all five on one page. Five numbers you actually look at beat twenty in a dashboard nobody opens.
- Compare against your own previous months, not against industry figures. The trend in your own numbers is the signal.
- When one moves, write down what you think caused it — then check that against next month. This is how a scorecard becomes a feedback loop instead of a report.
Sources and further reading
Regulations cited (eCFR, current text)
- 49 CFR 396.9 — Inspection of motor vehicles and intermodal equipment in operationAn out-of-service truck stays parked until the repairs are done.
- 49 CFR 391.11 — General qualifications of driversA seat with an unqualified driver is an empty seat.
On NeuroHaul
- What a mile actually costs youBuilding figure 4 from your own paperwork.
- Deadhead is a planning problem, not bad luckMoving figure 2 before the load is accepted.
- Profitable on paper, empty in the bankWhy a good scorecard can still come with an empty account.
- Cost per mile calculatorFigure 4 on your own numbers.