Dispatch ROI calculator: are your load board hours worth the fee?

Most owner-operators judge dispatch fees as a cost on every load. This dispatch ROI calculator looks at the other side of the trade: the hours. Searching load boards, calling brokers, chasing paperwork. Count them for a normal week, put a value on an hour of your time, and see whether the hours a dispatcher takes off your plate are worth more or less than the fee. The time ledger draws each hour as a square, and the hours you get back turn green. If your problem is too few loads rather than too many hours, start with what to do when loads are slow.

How it is calculated

• Admin hours = load board hours + broker call hours + paperwork hours, per week.
• Hours back = admin hours × the share a dispatcher would take on. Not all of it goes: you still approve every load and answer some calls.
• Value back = hours back × what an hour of your time is worth.
• Fee = weekly earned pay (linehaul plus accessorial pay) × the tier you pick from our pricing.
• Net = value back - fee.
• Break-even = fee ÷ hours back: the hourly value at which the time alone pays for the fee.

What the calculator leaves out is deliberate. It doesn't assume a dispatcher will raise your rates, add loads or cut deadhead. Those can happen, but nobody can promise them, so they don't belong in your math.

A worked example

These are the calculator's EXAMPLE numbers. Track one real week before you trust your estimate, because admin time is easy to underestimate.

How to read the result

If the net is positive, the hours you get back are worth more to you than the fee, before counting any change in rates. If it's negative, either you already run your own desk efficiently, or your hourly value is set low. Check the break-even figure: if an hour of your time is clearly worth more than that, handing off the desk work pays on time alone. Then look at the yearly hours. Hundreds of hours a year is a lot of driving, rest or time at home.

Hidden hours worth counting

• Evenings on the phone. Calls at the end of a driving day still count, and they cut into rest.
• Waiting for callbacks. Time parked while a broker decides is time the truck isn't earning.
• Detention and TONU claims. Collecting the paperwork and following up takes hours. Accessorials not claimed are money lost.
• Invoicing. Packets, PODs and follow-ups on late payments. Our freight invoice guide shows what that work involves.
• Appointments. Booking and rebooking dock times; see freight scheduling software (coming soon) for how shippers manage them.

Track a real week first

Estimates of admin time are usually low. For one week, write down every block of time spent on boards, calls, texts with brokers, paperwork and invoicing, even ten minutes at a fuel stop. Add it up on Sunday and enter that number. Then do the same with your hourly value: if you'd spend the time driving, use real profit per hour, not a hopeful one. The result is only as honest as the two numbers you put in.

Weighing the fee itself

The fee depends on what it's charged on as much as the percentage. Run any quote through the dispatcher fee calculator to compare it on your own week, and use the load profitability calculator to find your profit per hour, a good starting point for valuing your time. Our full terms are on pricing details: no setup fee, no minimum, month-to-month.

If the hours are worth more than the fee, hand them off and keep the decisions. You approve every load, the rate con comes straight to you, and a declined load costs nothing. Send an application.