How to Calculate Your Margin on Every Load (2026 Guide)
A simple, practical way for small carriers to work out real profit per transport — before you book — including the empty-km and cost traps that quietly kill margins.
Why margin per load is the only number that matters
Turnover flatters. You can haul €40,000 of freight in a month and still lose money if your costs per load are higher than you think. For a small carrier, the number that actually decides whether the business survives is margin per transport — and most carriers only find out weeks after the truck has already rolled.
The basic formula
Margin is simple on paper:
Margin = Sell price − Buy price − Direct costs
- Sell price — what your customer pays you for the load.
- Buy price — what you pay a sub-carrier (0 if you run it on your own truck).
- Direct costs — fuel, tolls, driver time, and the part almost everyone forgets: empty kilometres to the pickup.
The empty-km trap
A load that pays €1.30/km loaded can turn into a loss once you add 120 empty km to reach the pickup. On your own fleet, always measure from where the truck actually is — not from the pickup point. This single correction changes which loads are worth taking.
Do it before you book, not after
The mistake is treating margin as a monthly report. By then the decision is made. The carriers who stay profitable check margin at the moment of dispatch: they see sell minus buy minus empty km before they commit to a sub-carrier or send their own truck.
How Cargon does it automatically
Cargon shows profit per transport instantly. It pulls the sell price from the order, the buy price from the carrier credit note, and calculates empty km from your truck's previous unload to the new pickup — so the margin you see is the margin you'll actually get. Per-truck fleet performance then rolls those numbers up so you know which vehicles and lanes really earn.