User Guide
FreightMath for every role on your team.
Profitability data is only powerful when the right person acts on it. These learning paths show each role exactly what to look at, what questions to answer, and what to do with what they find. The primary metric throughout is FM OR (FreightMath Operating Ratio). New to any term? The FreightMath Glossary defines every metric and measure used in the platform — the composite measure that accounts for each load's full network impact: the load itself (Core OR), the freight that positioned the truck at origin (IB OR), and the outbound reload environment at destination (OB OR).
Six learning paths, one per role. Each covers what the role cares about, the dashboards and workflows to use, the KPIs to monitor, a four-rung skill progression, a recommended routine, common mistakes, and the Quick Start cards most relevant to the role.
CEOs, Presidents, and VP-level leaders who need a clear, fast read on network profitability.
VPs of Sales, Account Executives, and Business Development leaders who grow revenue without degrading FM OR.
Pricing managers, rate analysts, and revenue optimization specialists who own the rate structure.
VP of Operations, Director of Operations, and fleet managers who own cost performance and service execution.
Dispatchers, load planners, and CSRs who interact with freight at the load level every day.
CFOs, Controllers, Revenue Managers, and FP&A analysts who own financial accuracy, GL integrity, and period-close reporting.
CEOs, Presidents, and VP-level leaders who need a clear, fast read on network profitability without wading through operational detail. Your job is to ask the right questions and hold the team accountable to the answers.
The pages listed below are documented in detail in the Detailed User Guide — including screenshots, metric definitions, and filter guidance for each view.
Network-level FM OR KPI strip with trend line, load volume, revenue, and margin. FM OR is the headline metric — start every session here. The bottom row (Deadhead, Density, Velocity) are your leading operational indicators.
Interactive dual Y-axis chart for trend investigation and YoY analysis. Plot any FreightMath measure over time. Toggle to Table view for a full snapshot across all key metrics. Your primary trend signal for long-range OR movement.
Geographic view shaded by profitability and density. The density matrix shows load volume vs. OR — identifying where to grow and where to reduce exposure. The Area Overview table shows inbound, outbound, and broker OR by market.
Classifies customers and lanes into four zones: Desirable, Backhaul, Undesirable, and Flow Issues — using both Core OR and FreightMath OR. Toggle between by Bill To and by Lane views. Sorted by volume, top 20 by default. Your customer strategy view.
Quantifies revenue upside by comparing current linehaul + fuel rates against lane average, peer group, and DAT benchmarks. Selects the most favorable benchmark and multiplies by LOH × load count. The dollar figure is your repricing agenda.
Scenario planning tool — model the OR and profit impact of changes to linehaul rate per loaded mile, deadhead per load, truck count, variable cost, overhead, and broker mile %. Results table shows Current vs. What If vs. Delta across all financial measures.
| Frequency | Task | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Review OR Summary Dashboard — network OR, trend, top 5 customer flags | 15 min |
| Monthly | Review Customer Profitability Ranking — flag any new entrants above OR 0.97 | 10 min |
| Quarterly | Review FreightMarks benchmark position — where do we sit vs. peers? | 20 min |
| Quarterly | Strategic review with KSM advisor — profitability diagnosis and action plan | 60 min |
Reading a single period FM OR without the 12-month context. One bad month can be explained; trend direction is what drives decisions. Also confirm whether you are reading forecasted OR (intra-month) or actual OR (month-end recast) — presenting a forecasted OR as final is a common source of board-level confusion.
Treating high-OR customers as automatically disposable. A customer with a poor OR may still be critical for backhaul balance, network density, or strategic relationships.
Waiting for quarterly reviews to surface profitability issues. Monthly reviews catch deterioration before it compounds into a structural problem.
Benchmarking against the wrong peer group. Confirm with your KSM advisor that the FreightMarks peer set matches your operational profile (fleet size, lane density, asset type).
The red arrow triage — your fastest daily read on where performance degraded.
The High Density / High OR table surfaces your highest-leverage geographic priorities instantly.
Understand which customers to protect, which to reprice, and which demand operational attention.
Model the financial impact of strategic changes before committing — the final boss for scenario planning.
VPs of Sales, Account Executives, and Business Development leaders who manage customer relationships and volume growth. Your job is to grow revenue without degrading FM OR — and to use ABC cost data to defend rate positions and build the case for increases. When a lane’s FM OR is elevated, the first question is always whether Core OR is the driver — if IB OR or OB OR is the problem, a customer rate increase won’t fix it and you’ll lose credibility bringing it to the table.
Ranked list by blended OR. Your pre-call preparation list.
Cost-to-serve breakdown and rate floor for any lane. Export as PDF for customer conversations.
Push ABC cost floors into RFP bid pricing. Ensures every submitted rate has a margin floor.
Compare OR trajectory across customer groups or segments. Spot which accounts are drifting.
Identify the target lane or account
Filter Customer Profitability Ranking to accounts with blended FM OR ≥ 0.97. Sort by load volume to prioritize Power Lane volume first — a high-FM OR account running mostly Power Lane freight is a higher-priority conversation than one with scattered Spider Lane volume.
Diagnose the FM OR driver before building the rate case
In Lane Detail, check Core OR, IB OR, and OB OR separately. If Core OR is the primary driver of elevated FM OR, a rate increase is the right lever. If IB OR or OB OR is dominant, the issue is in the positioning or reload environment — repricing the load rate may not resolve FM OR and could damage the customer relationship unnecessarily. Only build the rate case when Core OR confirms it.
Build and export the rate case
Once Core OR is confirmed as the driver, open the Rate Analysis panel. Review the cost-to-serve waterfall — variable CPM, overhead allocation, and the rate floor that targets your minimum FM OR. Export the lane summary PDF. The ABC cost breakdown is far more defensible in a customer conversation than a market rate argument: “here is what it costs us to run this lane” is a factual statement, not a negotiating position.
Set the target rate and confirm FM OR improvement
After the conversation, record the new rate, effective date, and volume commitment. Revisit in 90 days and pull Lane Detail to confirm Core OR — and therefore FM OR — improved on the repriced lane. If FM OR is still elevated after a successful reprice, IB OR or OB OR may now be the dominant driver; escalate to Operations for a network-level fix.
| Frequency | Task | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Review Customer Profitability Ranking for accounts above OR 0.97 — flag new entrants | 10 min |
| Monthly | Deep-dive lane-level OR for top 5 highest-OR accounts — identify repricing targets | 30 min |
| Per Bid | Export lanes to BidRight before submitting any RFP — confirm rates are above cost floor | 15 min |
| Quarterly | Review OR improvement on lanes repriced in the prior quarter — validate the change landed | 20 min |
Agreeing to rate holds or volume discounts without first checking lane-level Core OR and FM OR. A concession on a lane where IB OR is the problem doesn’t solve the FM OR issue — it just locks in a below-floor rate on a lane that was already being hurt by positioning costs.
Chasing volume growth without watching blended FM OR. A customer who doubles their volume at a 1.03 FM OR is compounding the problem, not solving it. And because FM OR captures network positioning effects, doubling volume on a weak-IB corridor makes the IB OR problem worse for every other lane feeding into that origin area.
Using only market spot rates to justify rate increases. The ABC cost breakdown gives you far stronger footing — “here’s what it actually costs us to run this lane” is more defensible than “the market moved.”
Dismissing high-OR customers without checking whether they provide strategic network value (backhaul balance, density in a key lane cluster). Always discuss with operations before making a strategic call.
Filter to Shipper and read the dollar figure — this is your repricing agenda, ranked by opportunity size.
Know which quadrant every customer sits in before your next account conversation.
Find lanes where you grew volume but OR worsened — a pricing misalignment signal that needs a rate review.
Broker % in/out tells you where you’re over-reliant on spot market to fill and exit a customer’s market.
Pricing managers, rate analysts, and revenue optimization specialists who own the rate structure. Your job is to ensure every lane is priced at or above its true cost-to-serve — and to use FreightMath as the authoritative source of cost truth for every pricing decision. Rate floors in FreightMath are derived from the ABC cost model and target a minimum FM OR, not just breakeven. Understanding what feeds those floors — GL data via MapLedger, CPM rate drivers, and the Overhead Workday Model — is the foundation of accurate pricing.
Fuel CPM, driver pay CPM, maintenance CPM by lane type. The foundation of every rate floor.
Cost-to-serve waterfall with suggested rate floor and margin sensitivity.
Push cost floors into bid workspace. Every RFP lane gets an ABC-backed minimum rate.
Loads where actual cost exceeded modeled cost by >15%. These expose rate floor miscalibration.
| Frequency | Task | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Review Cost Deviation Alert View — flag loads where actual exceeded modeled by >15% | 20 min |
| Weekly | Check fuel CPM movement — update rate floors on affected lanes if shift > $0.03/mile | 15 min |
| Monthly | Full Per-Mile Cost Driver Review — validate all CPM rates reflect current GL data | 30 min |
| Per Bid | Export RFP lanes to BidRight — confirm cost floors are loaded before building rates | 20 min |
| Quarterly | Rate floor accuracy audit — compare predicted vs. actual Core OR and FM OR on repriced lanes. If Core OR improved but FM OR remains elevated, IB or OB OR is the residual driver. | 45 min |
Setting rate floors from the prior quarter’s cost data without checking whether CPM rates have moved. Fuel and driver pay CPM can shift meaningfully within a quarter — always use the most current baseline.
Treating the ABC rate floor as the target rate rather than the minimum. The floor targets a specific Core OR — typically 0.93–0.95 — but FM OR will be higher or lower depending on IB OR and OB OR. Your bid target must produce an acceptable FM OR after all three components are considered, not just clear the Core OR floor.
Your primary pricing tool — largest opportunity lanes at the top, dollar impact quantified.
Find the mileage sweet spot where your operation performs best and build differentiated rate floors by band.
Sort by most reduced volume + green FM OR — these are your best lanes that you inexplicably did less of.
Build the financial case for a rate action — model Current vs. What If vs. Delta before executing.
VP of Operations, Director of Operations, and fleet managers who own cost performance and service execution. Your job is to identify where operational inefficiency is driving cost above the model and to make dispatch, equipment, and driver assignment decisions that improve lane-level FM OR. Operations owns two of the three FM OR components: when deadhead drives up empty miles, IB OR and OB OR worsen. When detention inflates load costs, Core OR rises. Both show up in FM OR, and both require operational fixes, not pricing fixes.
Loads where actual cost exceeded modeled cost. Your operational diagnostic tool.
FM OR tier breakdown across Power, Repeat, and Spider lanes. Red Power Lanes are the highest operational priority — they carry the most volume and create the largest IB/OB OR drag on adjacent lanes.
Core OR breakdown by driver group. Driver assignment affects loaded miles, empty miles, and detention exposure — all of which feed Core OR, which rolls into FM OR.
Fuel, maintenance, and driver pay CPM by segment. Identifies where operational cost is running above model.
| Frequency | Task | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Review top 10 cost deviation loads — categorize root cause and assign corrective action | 20 min |
| Weekly | Check deadhead % — flag any week where deadhead exceeds baseline by more than 2 points | 10 min |
| Monthly | Driver Group Segment View — identify any driver group running 5%+ above network average cost | 20 min |
| Monthly | Lane OR Distribution review — flag concentration of red lanes by geography or customer | 30 min |
| Quarterly | Capacity redeployment review — model shift from lowest-OR to highest-OR lanes | 45 min |
Reviewing cost deviation without categorizing root cause. A deviation caused by chronic customer detention is a sales problem; one caused by driver routing is an operations problem. They require different interventions.
Dismissing a high-FM OR lane as a “pricing problem” without running the OR diagnostic. If Core OR is elevated, check cost deviation for operational drivers first — detention, deadhead, or driver assignment may be the cause. If IB OR or OB OR is elevated, the fix is a network positioning change, not a customer reprice. Operations, pricing, and sales share ownership of FM OR.
Day-of-week challenges, deadhead origins, and load balance — everything you need to diagnose a market.
Elevated FM OR in specific LOH bands signals dwell time or poor rate alignment — filter by customer to isolate.
Power Lane / High OR: the highest-volume lanes that are hurting your network most. Act immediately.
Outliers in QC are sometimes real operational problems — not just data anomalies. Review before dismissing.
Dispatchers, load planners, and customer service representatives who interact with freight at the load level every day. Your decisions have the most direct impact on load-level profitability — and FreightMath gives you the data to make those decisions with cost visibility. Every load a dispatcher accepts affects Core OR directly. Every empty mile generated affects IB OR and OB OR at the area level. CSRs interacting with customers on service issues, detention, or pricing inquiries benefit from knowing the FM OR profile of the freight they are managing. Together, this role group shapes FM OR from the ground up.
Full page descriptions and screenshots for every view below are in the Detailed User Guide.
Ranks bill-to customers by load volume with OR, deadhead, velocity, and length of haul. Conditional formatting highlights stronger and weaker OR. Trend chart pairs weekly volume with FM OR and Core OR. Use this to quickly check the profitability profile of a customer before accepting a load on an unfamiliar lane.
Lane-level OR lookup organized by origin-destination pairs. Know the profitability profile of any lane — including Power Lane vs. Repeat vs. Spider classification — before accepting it. Red lanes (FM OR > 1.0) on a Power Lane require supervisor flag; on a Spider Lane require a deprioritize-or-exit decision.
Evaluates individual power units and drivers at the segment level. Detailed segment table shows trip records with departure time, movement status, O/D, miles, revenue, and labor group. Filter by driver ID to see your team’s OR, miles, and loaded vs. empty breakdown. The loaded/empty color coding instantly shows where empty miles are accumulating.
Exception-based monitoring showing loads with $0 linehaul, excessive dwell time at origin or destination, and unusually high Core OR. For CSRs: the excessive dwell time and high Core OR exception panels surface the customers and loads generating service cost inflation — useful context before customer conversations about service expectations or detention disputes.
Period-over-period view by customer and lane showing volume change and OR impact. For CSRs handling account management or growth conversations: see which customers grew volume and whether that growth improved or worsened FM OR — essential context for understanding whether to encourage more freight from a given account.
Review yesterday’s cost deviation loads
Check the Cost Deviation View for loads from the prior day that came in >15% above model. Note any customers or lanes that appear more than once — these are pattern problems to escalate.
Check lane Core OR and FM OR before accepting today’s loads
For any load on a lane you’re unfamiliar with, pull the lane FM OR in the quick reference. Red lanes (FM OR > 1.0) should be flagged to your supervisor before acceptance if pricing hasn’t confirmed a rate action is in progress. Also note whether the lane is a Power, Repeat, or Spider Lane — your supervisor needs that context to prioritize the flag correctly.
Sequence loads to minimize deadhead and strengthen area OR
Use lane FM OR alongside driver position to prioritize backhaul loads that reduce empty miles and land drivers in strong-OB OR markets. A slightly lower-rate backhaul that eliminates 200 deadhead miles and positions the driver in a high-OR reload area will improve FM OR more than a higher-rate load requiring significant repositioning into a weak reload market. Empty miles are not just a cost — they are the primary driver of IB OR at the area level.
Flag detention and service escalations in real time
When a driver is being detained beyond the grace period, document it immediately. Chronic detention customers inflate cost per load and should be escalated to Operations and Sales using FreightMath load detail as supporting evidence.
Accepting loads on chronically red lanes without flagging them. If a lane has had FM OR > 1.05 for three consecutive months, that is a pricing and operations problem that dispatchers should be surfacing, not silently absorbing. Note the lane tier when you escalate — a red Power Lane needs immediate attention; a red Spider Lane may be a deprioritize-or-exit decision for leadership.
Optimizing for load count rather than load profitability. A day of 10 loads on green Power Lanes outperforms 14 loads mixed with red Spider Lane volume. Volume is a vanity metric; FM OR is the scorecard. And because empty miles between loads affect IB OR at the area level, the sequencing of those 10 loads matters as much as the loads themselves.
Red arrows first — before accepting today’s board, know which areas degraded yesterday.
Deadhead origins/destinations with their FM OR — use to sequence loads that land drivers in strong-OB markets.
Know which lanes are Power, Repeat, or Spider before you accept — a red Power Lane needs a supervisor flag.
Excessive dwell time and high Core OR exceptions surface your chronic detention customers by name.
CFOs, Controllers, Revenue Managers, and FP&A analysts who own financial accuracy, GL integrity, and period-close reporting. Your job is to ensure the FreightMath model is fed clean data, that cost categories are correctly mapped via MapLedger, and that FM OR is a trustworthy input to financial decisions. FM OR is only as accurate as the GL data flowing through MapLedger and the analyzed load count from the TMS — both must be validated at every period close before FM OR is published or presented to leadership.
GL account to cost category mapping. Run every period close to catch unmapped or reclassified accounts.
FreightMath analyzed load count (ANALYZED_FLAG = 1) vs. TMS billable load count. Must match within 0.5% before publishing any FM OR analysis — missing analyzed loads understate the OR denominator.
Validate CPM rates reflect current GL actuals. Run quarterly — or whenever a major cost category moves.
Period close validation — confirm network OR is consistent with P&L directional movement before reporting.
Run MapLedger Account Review
Navigate to MapLedger → Account Review. Filter for Unmapped status. Any GL account added or reclassified during the period must be mapped before period FM OR is calculated — a misclassified variable cost (e.g., booked as overhead) distorts Core OR on every load. Contact your KSM advisor for ambiguous accounts; incorrect OR category assignment is harder to explain after distribution than before.
Reconcile analyzed load count to TMS
Navigate to Data Integrity → Load Reconciliation. Compare the FreightMath analyzed load count (ANALYZED_FLAG = 1) to your TMS billable load export for the same period. Variance above 0.5% must be investigated before publishing FM OR — missing analyzed loads understate the revenue denominator and produce an artificially elevated FM OR reading.
Validate CPM rates against GL actuals
Open the Per-Mile Cost Driver Review. Confirm that fuel CPM, driver pay CPM, and maintenance CPM rates reflect the most recent completed period’s GL data. Note any categories that have moved more than 5% — document the change for the period narrative.
Reconcile FM OR to P&L OR
Compare the network FM OR from FreightMath to the traditionally calculated OR from your income statement. At the full-network level, FM OR and Core OR converge — small variance between them is expected and normal. The gap between FM OR and P&L OR is typically explained by the Overhead Workday Model (which distributes fixed costs by operational days rather than spreading them by revenue or miles) and period timing differences. Document the reconciliation methodology. A gap greater than 2–3 OR points requires investigation; beyond 5 points, pause publication and contact KSM.
Publish period OR with data quality sign-off
Once steps 1–4 are complete, the period OR is cleared for distribution. Document the validation steps in your period-close checklist and note any data quality flags that were resolved or outstanding.
| Frequency | Task | Time Required |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | MapLedger Account Review — clear all unmapped accounts before period FM OR is calculated; verify no variable costs are miscategorized as overhead | 20 min |
| Monthly | Analyzed Load Reconciliation — confirm ANALYZED_FLAG = 1 load count matches TMS billable loads within 0.5% | 15 min |
| Monthly | FM OR vs. P&L OR reconciliation — document and explain any gap above 2 OR points using Overhead Workday Model methodology and period timing differences | 30 min |
| Quarterly | Full Baseline Review — validate all CPM rates, document cost driver movement narrative | 60 min |
| Quarterly | KSM Advisor review — confirm model assumptions, overhead allocation, and period methodology | 60 min |
Publishing period FM OR before completing MapLedger Account Review and analyzed load reconciliation. Unmapped accounts or missing ANALYZED_FLAG = 1 loads distort FM OR in ways that are difficult to explain after distribution — and once leadership has seen a number, correcting it retroactively damages credibility more than a one-day delay in publication.
Allowing CPM rates to go stale for multiple quarters. When fuel or driver pay moves significantly and the model isn’t updated, the OR output becomes directionally unreliable. Quarterly updates are the minimum cadence; monthly is recommended in volatile cost environments.
Presenting FM OR and P&L OR in the same document without a reconciliation note. Leadership will notice the difference and ask — if you can’t explain it in terms of the Overhead Workday Model allocation methodology and period timing, the entire OR presentation loses credibility. The reconciliation memo is not optional when both figures appear in the same report.
Deferring baseline updates to the KSM advisor without providing updated GL exports on time. The FreightMath model is only as current as the data you feed it. Finance owns the data pipeline (GL exports, TMS load extracts); KSM owns the model integrity and Overhead Workday Model calibration. Both sides must stay current — a one-quarter lag in GL data means CPM rates are stale and FM OR is unreliable for decision-making.
QC exceptions are your period-close checklist — clear them before publishing FM OR to leadership.
Cross-reference FM OR, Core OR, and FSC/Billed Mi — calculate the offset impact at both fuel extremes.
Configure, export, and build custom views for reporting — the closest thing to a live pivot against the GL.
Integrate scenario modeling into your annual budget — lane-level cost floors feed your forward financial model.