What Short Pay Really Costs a 10-Truck Fleet

Short pay rarely shows up as one big hit. A broker pays $85 less than you invoiced. A driver waits three hours and nobody writes down the times. A lumper receipt never makes it onto an invoice. Each one looks too small to chase, so nobody does, and the total never appears on a single line of the books.

Two leaks, not one

The calculator separates money into two kinds, because they are fixed in different ways.

• Short pays. You billed a load and the broker paid less than the invoice. The money was earned and invoiced, and a dispute can bring it back.
• Unbilled extras. Detention, layover, lumper, truck ordered not used, or a reweigh happened, but nobody put it on an invoice. There is nothing to dispute until someone bills it.

The first is a collections problem. The second is a paperwork problem that starts at the dock.

The example, line by line

The example fleet hauls 60 loads a month. 8% of loads are short-paid by $85 on average. 6% of loads carry an extra worth $120 that was never billed. The fleet disputes 25% of its short pays and wins back 60% of what it pursues.

Source: worked example on the true cost of short pay calculator. Each line is rounded to the cent.

At these numbers the fleet loses $12.98 on every load hauled, which is 0.46% of revenue at $2,800 a load. The shape matters more than the totals: most of the money is not sitting in disputes you lose. It is in claims nobody sends.

Same rates, different volume

The loss per load stays at $12.98 as long as the rates and habits in the example stay the same, so the yearly figure scales with the number of loads. This table only multiplies the example, nothing more.

Leaked = loads x 12 x $14.00 (short pays plus unbilled extras per load). Lost today = loads x 12 x $12.98.

Where it comes from

• Rate confirmation versus invoice. The rate on the confirmation is not the rate invoiced or paid. See rate con and invoice mismatches.
• Detention and layover. Hours past free time that were never billed or were deducted at payment. The detention calculator shows the dollars.
• Lumper receipts. Paid at the dock, then partly or fully reimbursed, or not at all.
• Chargebacks and deductions. Claims for damage, late delivery or paperwork that nobody contested. The short-pay and chargeback guide covers what to send back.
• Quick-pay and fuel lines. Fees or surcharge lines that differ from what you agreed.

Why most of it goes unclaimed

A short pay of $85 does not feel worth an hour of phone time, so it is written off. An extra the driver earned but dispatch never recorded is never invoiced at all. Neither shows up as a line in the books, which is why the total feels smaller than it is.

The fix is a routine, not a heroic effort. Compare each paid invoice with its rate confirmation. Keep proof from the day of the load: timestamps, receipts, signed paperwork. Send a short dispute inside the broker's window. The accessorial recovery calendar lists the usual deadlines to ask about.

What this does not tell you

• How many of your short pays are legitimate deductions. Some are, and the calculator treats every shortfall you enter as money owed.
• Whether a broker will accept a claim late. Your contract and the broker's rules decide.
• Your cost of chasing claims, which reduces the net gain.
• Whether your win rate holds when you pursue more claims. The "recoverable" line is a ceiling for the numbers you entered, not a forecast.

Run it on your own numbers

Open the true cost of short pay calculator, replace the example values with your own load count and rates, and read the result. It runs in your browser and sends nothing. If you would rather have the real figure than an estimate, the audit below checks your last 20 loads against the rate confirmations and invoices.