Blog · Board and management reporting · Freight brokers and 3PLs
The ten sales KPIs a freight brokerage or 3PL should run on, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you: lane share per shipper, primary tender share, margin per load by shipper and lane, tender acceptance and rejection, spot against contract mix, carrier concentration per lane, shipper concentration, quote win rate on spot, dormant shippers and lanes, and days to pay against days to collect. Also the three measures most brokerages miss, the figures to drop, the identities, and who owns what.
A brokerage sits between shippers who tender by lane and carriers who take loads by lane. The measures that matter are all by lane: how much of it you see, whether you are first call, what each load earns, and which carrier you depend on to cover it.
| # | Measure | Formula | Export | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lane share per shipper | Loads moved for the shipper on the lane ÷ shipper's estimated loads on the lane | Load file; shipper volumes stated or from bid data | Lanes where you are a minor carrier |
| 2 | Primary tender share | Tenders received as first offer ÷ tenders received, by shipper and lane | Tender log with sequence | First call or backup |
| 3 | Margin per load | (Revenue − carrier cost − accessorials and claims) ÷ loads, by shipper and lane | Load file; payables | Freight that moves and earns nothing |
| 4 | Tender acceptance and rejection | Tenders accepted ÷ tenders received; rejections by reason, by lane | Tender log | Lanes being lost; capacity tightening |
| 5 | Spot and contract mix | Spot loads and margin ÷ total, by shipper | Load file with rate type | Exposure to the spot market; shippers who only call in a crisis |
| 6 | Carrier concentration per lane | Largest carrier's share of loads on the lane; carriers used | Load file | Lanes that depend on one truck |
| 7 | Shipper concentration | Top ten shippers' share of margin; largest shipper | Load file | Dependence, by margin not revenue |
| 8 | Spot quote win rate | Quotes won ÷ quotes given, by shipper and lane, with response time | Quote log | Shippers using you as a price check |
| 9 | Dormant shippers and lanes | Shipper lanes with no load in k × their own typical interval, by prior margin | Load file | Freight that stopped without a conversation |
| 10 | Pay and collect gap | Days to pay carriers − days to collect from shippers, by shipper | Payables; receivables | Shippers the brokerage is financing |
Every one of these is computed per account, per rep and lane, and in total, and every one carries an identity that must hold before the table is shown.
Margin per load by shipper and lane. Reps are ranked on revenue or gross margin in total, so the largest account is assumed to be the best.
Primary tender share. Most tender logs carry the sequence. Few brokerages read it.
Carrier concentration per lane. Nobody notices until the one carrier that covered the lane takes a contract elsewhere.
The largest shipper tendered 1,200 loads: $2.6 million of revenue at 9 percent. After detention the brokerage absorbed and two cargo claims, margin per load was $148. A mid-sized shipper moved 300 loads at $310 each. On 60 percent of the large shipper's tenders the brokerage was second or third call, and it rejected 28 percent of them. The account that looks like the anchor is backup freight at half the margin per load.
Loads moved, alone. Volume without margin per load.
Gross margin percent as a ranking. Small loads flatter it.
Calls and emails logged. Replace with lane coverage and tender response.
| Table | Must hold |
|---|---|
| Loads | Load revenue − carrier cost − accessorials = margin; sums to the ledger |
| Tenders | Tenders = accepted + rejected + expired |
| Quotes | Quotes = won + lost + no response |
| Carriers | Carrier shares on a lane sum to 100 percent |
A table whose identity fails is a table with a row missing or counted twice. It is not shown until it is fixed.
| Measure | Owner | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Tender rejection; dormant lanes; spot win rate | Sales reps; desk leads | Weekly |
| Margin per load; primary tender share | Sales director | Monthly |
| Carrier concentration per lane | Head of carrier sales | Monthly |
| Lane share; shipper concentration; pay and collect gap | President; finance | Quarterly |
A measure with no owner is a metric, not a KPI; see KPI versus metric versus measure.
Ten measures from the load file, the tender log and the quote log, every one of them by lane. Margin per load and primary tender share say which shippers are really yours. Covirage computes all of them from the exports brokerages already produce, files only, with the definitions stated and the identities checked. See Covirage for freight brokers and 3PLs.
Of the tenders a shipper sent on a lane, the share where the brokerage was offered the load first. A broker can be on the routing guide and see only what the primary carrier rejected. Backup freight is irregular, harder to cover and lower margin. The measure shows where the brokerage is actually the shipper's choice.
A load at 18 percent on $600 earns $108 and takes the same effort to cover as one at 11 percent on $2,400, which earns $264. Per load, in currency, by shipper and lane, shows which freight pays for the desk's time. It also finds the high-volume shipper whose loads, after accessorials and claims, earn almost nothing.
Because every rejected tender teaches the shipper's system to send the next one elsewhere. A lane with a 30 percent rejection rate is a lane being lost. Rejection by lane, with the reason, is also the brokerage's own capacity signal, available weeks before any market index.