Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Gross margin
$400
Margin percentage
16.7%
Carrier's share of shipper rate
83.3%
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How to use this
- 1Enter rate billed to shipper ($).
- 2Enter rate paid to carrier ($).
- 3Read your gross margin on the right — it updates as you type.
- 4Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Freight brokers make money on the spread between what they bill the shipper and what they pay the carrier hauling the load. This calculator computes that gross margin in dollars and as a percentage of the shipper rate, which matters because a broker running consistently under a 12-15% margin on a lane is often not sustainably covering overhead (sales, ops staff, factoring fees on their own end, bad debt reserve), while margins above 25-30% on non-contracted spot freight tend to draw complaints or lost repeat business from carriers who feel underpaid.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Rate billed to shipper: 2400 $
- Rate paid to carrier: 2000 $
Results
- Gross margin: $400
- Margin percentage: 16.7%
- Carrier's share of shipper rate: 83.3%
What each field means
Inputs
- Rate billed to shipper ($)
- The rate billed to shipper used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 2400 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Rate paid to carrier ($)
- The rate paid to carrier used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 2000 $ so you have a working example on load.
Results
- Gross margin
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Margin percentage
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Carrier's share of shipper rate
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
What's a typical broker margin?
Spot market loads commonly run 15-25% margin; contracted, high-volume lanes with committed capacity often run tighter at 8-14% because volume and reliability matter more than per-load margin on repeat freight.
Why do carriers care about broker margin?
Carriers increasingly ask for rate transparency, especially on load boards showing both legs, because a broker taking 35-40% on a load signals either a thin relationship or a shipper rate high enough that the carrier should be negotiating harder.
Does high margin always mean the broker is overcharging?
Not necessarily — margin also covers the broker's risk (advancing carrier payment before collecting from the shipper, sometimes 30-60 days out), claims liability, and the cost of sourcing capacity on hard-to-cover lanes or short notice.
How is this different from a factoring fee?
Broker margin is the spread between what two different parties pay for the same load; a factoring fee is the cost one party (carrier or broker) pays a third-party financial company to get paid faster than the standard invoice terms.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
Related tools
Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Broker Load Margin Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/brokered-load-margin
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/brokered-load-margin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Broker Load Margin Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Broker Load Margin Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/brokered-load-margin) (2026).