The national hotshot benchmark for the week of 27 July 2026 to 2 August 2026, snapshot recorded 28 July 2026: what the carrier is paid, what the shipper pays, what it works out to on a real lane, and what it leaves the truck once its own costs are covered.
| Measure | Week 31, 2026 | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier rate per mile | $2.40 | What lands on the rate confirmation. |
| Shipper all-in per mile | $2.76 | Before any accessorial actually incurred on the load. |
| vs prior snapshot | ● unchanged | Compared like for like. |
| Snapshot recorded | 28 July 2026 | Never edited afterwards — this page keeps showing the week 31 number. |
That is unchanged from the previous recorded snapshot.
On hotshot freight the accessorial that most often decides profitability is time at the dock, and the benchmark above does not contain a cent of it. At $2.40 a mile, a 350-mile run grosses about $840. Two hours of unpaid detention on top of that is a meaningful share of the margin; four hours can exceed it outright.
The fix is not a higher rate. It is a written term. Detention at $60 an hour after two free hours turns a bad afternoon into a priced event, and it makes the receiver’s dock performance somebody’s problem other than the driver’s. See the detention policy and the lumper policy for exactly how both are handled.
If you are comparing a hotshot quote against the benchmark above, ask what happens at hour three before you compare the per-mile numbers. The quote with the worse rate and the written accessorial terms is frequently the cheaper load once it has actually run.
This week’s benchmark multiplied by real lane distance. A starting point for a conversation rather than a quote — direction, season and the receiving requirement all move the true number, and none of them are in a national average.
| Lane | Distance | Carrier gets | Shipper pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odessa, TX → Oklahoma City, OK | 400 mi | $960 | $1,104 |
| Houston, TX → Shreveport, LA | 240 mi | $576 | $662 |
| Denver, CO → Salt Lake City, UT | 520 mi | $1,248 | $1,435 |
Distances are practical truck miles and will differ slightly from a car routing.
Against a working all-in operating cost of $1.90 per mile for a one-truck carrier, this week’s hotshot benchmark of $2.40 leaves +$0.50 per loaded mile — about $350 on a 700-mile run, before deadhead and before any unpaid time at a dock.
That gap is not profit. It is what has to absorb the empty miles to the next pickup, a wait nobody paid for, a week with a bad reload, and the repair that has not happened yet. A rate that clears the floor by a few cents only works if nothing goes wrong. Work out your own cost per mile →
Week to week, mostly noise. Over a season, these are the things that actually decide where this benchmark sits.
| Urgency | Most hotshot freight is expedited. Somebody’s line is down or a job site is waiting, and speed is the actual product being purchased. |
| Payload limit | Typically 10,000–16,500 lb. Past that it is not a hotshot job and pretending otherwise cancels the load at the dock. |
| Deadhead | Hotshot lanes are rarely balanced, so the return trip is often empty and gets priced into the outbound. |
The full hotshot rate hub → carries the rest, plus the specification table, the regional breakdown and the accessorial impact.
The national benchmark was $2.40 per mile to the carrier for the week of 27 July 2026 to 2 August 2026, which works out to about $2.76 all-in for the shipper before accessorials.
It depends entirely on your own cost per mile. Against a working all-in operating cost of $1.90 for a one-truck carrier it leaves +$0.50 per loaded mile — before deadhead, which typically takes a further sixth off it.
A national benchmark blends lanes running in both directions, appointment and FCFS freight, and every region at once. Your lane is one direction, one receiving requirement and one market. Direction alone can move a real quote by a third.
No. Detention, layover, TONU and lumper fees all sit outside the per-mile number. On a short lane they can be worth more than the whole margin — see the detention policy.
No, and deliberately so. This is a dated report and it keeps showing the week 31 number. The evergreen Hotshot rate hub always carries the current figure.