How To Accurately Price a Shipment

Estimating whether or not your bid will be suitable for a particular shipment is as much art as it is science. When making this call, you might want to consider the following questions:

• How much gas will the trip take, including pick-up and drop-off? Each car has a different fuel consumption efficiency. 
• How much does the shipment weigh? Larger items can require more fuel.
• Will you need extra time for loading or unloading? Will you need to hire an extra pair of hands? How urgently the customer needs it done?
• Will there be any additional charges, such as road tolls? Hotels? Equipment and pet food?

Plenty of variables to think about. That's why a typical courier rate is in a pretty wide range, between $.55 and $3 per mile depending on the shipment category, with shorter trips tending to secure higher rates. But driver rates are often not the only deciding factor in customer decision making, and you can learn more about what it takes to win in this article.

Drivers who are just starting out and have not yet received any customer feedback might need to offer customers a better rate to win their first few shipments. Once they start getting positive feedback, with customers describing them as dependable and professional, they'll be able to increase their bids gradually.

Another thing for a beginner to consider is folding in the background check fee for their first bid. By paying Checkr to process your information instantly, you can complete the security screening before delivering your first shipment. This is by no means a requirement, but it does improve your odds of gaining customer trust early on.

Finally, if you're finding it difficult to turn a profit with low bids, our Rideshare Tool will help you out with that. 

If in need of more detailed assistance, contact our support team or check out the advice columns on our blog.

What to read next?

For more information, see the articles on payment tips (2-min read) and upfront payments (2-min read).

For more general-purpose advice, see the Transporters section of our Help Center.