A load offer arrives as a few lines: pickup, delivery, weight, pieces, a rate. Everything that decides whether it is a good load is in what those lines leave out - which miles the rate covers, whether waiting time pays, and what the rate confirmation says when the offer and the paperwork disagree. Reading one properly takes about a minute.
What is actually in a load offer?
Six things, and you should be able to find all six before you answer. Pickup location and window, delivery location and window, weight and piece count, dimensions, the rate, and who is paying it. If any of the six is missing, that is your first question rather than a reason to say no.
The offer is not the contract. The rate confirmation is - it is the document that names the rate, the accessorials and the terms, and it is what you will be held to if there is a dispute. Read it before the wheels turn, not after, and if it does not match what you were told on the phone, say so before you accept it.
What does the rate per mile not include?
The miles you drive to get there. A rate quoted per mile is almost always per loaded mile, so an offer that looks strong at the quoted figure can be ordinary once the empty leg is added. Divide the total pay by loaded plus empty miles and compare that against your own cost per mile.
This is the single most common way a good-looking offer turns into a bad week, which is why it is worth knowing your real deadhead percentage before you start negotiating rather than after.
How do you check the miles?
Run the route yourself before you accept. Brokers quote from mileage software that may use a different routing standard than the road you will actually drive, and a hundred-mile gap on a long run is not unusual. If the mileage on the rate confirmation is lower than the road, that is a negotiation point while you can still decline, and nothing at all afterwards.
Check the delivery window against the drive time too. An offer that cannot be run legally is not an offer - it is a problem you have agreed to own.
What is a fuel surcharge and does a van get one?
A fuel surcharge is a separate per-mile amount that moves with fuel prices, so the base rate does not have to be renegotiated every week. On contract freight it is normal and it is stated separately. On spot expedite work in a cargo van it is often folded into a single all-in rate instead.
Neither is wrong. What matters is knowing which one you are being offered, because an all-in rate and a base rate plus surcharge are not comparable figures. Ask which it is, and if it is all-in, treat the number as final rather than as a floor.
What is detention and when does it actually pay?
Detention is payment for time you spend at a shipper or receiver beyond an agreed free period. It is a contract term, not a legal entitlement - nothing obliges a broker to pay it unless the rate confirmation says so. So the questions are: how many free hours, how much per hour after that, and what proof is required.
- Note your arrival and departure in writing and get the times on the bill of lading where you can. Detention claims are won with timestamps, not with recollection.
- Tell dispatch while you are still sitting there, not when you invoice. Most agreements require notice during the delay.
- Check the cap. Detention often stops accruing after a stated number of hours, which is when the load becomes a layover conversation instead.
Which accessorials matter for a cargo van?
Fewer than for a truck, but the ones that apply come up constantly. Extra stops, inside delivery, a residential or limited-access location, a lift gate requirement, after-hours or weekend delivery, and TONU - truck ordered not used - when you arrive and the freight is cancelled.
Each one is either on the rate confirmation or it does not exist. The habit that pays is asking about them at the offer stage, when the broker still needs a van, and the equipment questions behind half of them are covered in our guide to what carriers require of your van.
What should you ask before you accept?
Five questions, in this order: what are the total miles including my empty leg, is the rate all-in, what are the detention terms, is anything about the pickup or delivery non-standard, and what are the payment terms. None of them are awkward and all of them are cheaper to ask now.
One thing worth knowing about the last question: under 49 CFR 371.3, a broker must keep a record of each transaction, and every party to that transaction has the right to review it. It is rarely necessary, but it is the reason a broker’s answer about what the load paid is checkable rather than a matter of trust.
Keep the answers. A screenshot of the posting, the email that quotes the rate and the confirmation you signed cost nothing to save and settle most disagreements in a single message. Where the broker’s account and yours differ, the party holding the written record is the party who gets paid without an argument.
Compare the answers against what the work earns you rather than against the last offer you saw - our figures on what cargo van owner-operators earn and the rest of the owner-operator guides are the reference points, and running with us means the offers arrive with those answers already in them.
