A freight rate is built, not looked up. This hub shows you how to work out each part for your own truck — and gives you the measured road distances to build it on.
Your rate should be yours — a single national “going rate” would be wrong for your truck on your lane. As the Load Exchange grows, we will publish a baseline from real completed deals.
The rate formula
Your cost per km
your truck, your finance
×
Measured road distance
195 corridors, not estimates
+
What the return leg recovers
the part that decides margin
Start here
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How to calculate a freight rate
The whole method, start to finish. Read this first if you are quoting a load this week.
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What a good cost per km looks like
How to tell whether your own number is healthy before you build a rate on it.
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Fuel, tyres, maintenance, driver, insurance, finance, overhead — the full line-up.
Multiply by the real distance, not an estimate
This is where rates quietly go wrong, and it is the part we can prove. We hold measured road distances for 195 corridors, computed by routing engine against the actual road network. On the 146 lanes where we also held a prior desk estimate, the estimate was out by an average of 133 km.
| Lane | Measured road | Prior estimate | Out by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durban → Gqeberha | 941 km | 570 km | 371 km |
| Johannesburg → Gqeberha | 1 060 km | 770 km | 290 km |
| Durban → Cape Town | 1 636 km | 1 650 km | 14 km |
| Johannesburg → Cape Town | 1 397 km | 1 400 km | 3 km |
| Cape Town → Gqeberha | 749 km | 760 km | 11 km |
Quote Durban → Gqeberha on 570 km and you have underpriced 371 km of diesel, tyres and driver time on a single leg. At an illustrative cost per kilometre of R20 — use your own — that is R7 420 you will not be paid. That is not a rounding error; it is the margin.
See the road, the passes and the toll plazas on each lane: Transport corridors →
Work out each part
Your cost per kilometre
Until you know what a kilometre costs you, every quote is a guess.
What moves — diesel and tolls
A rate built in one month and run in the next is a different rate.
The return leg
A one-way rate that covers cost is a loss once the truck comes home empty.
Cross-border cost guides
Zimbabwe · Zambia · Mozambique · Botswana · Tanzania · Cost of running a truck in Zimbabwe
A working compass, not a price list
Most operators quote from memory, from what the last broker offered, or from what someone said in a WhatsApp group. That is not a rate — it is an echo. Get the three parts above right and you will quote better than most of the market, because most of the market is not doing this. You are the one who decides your price. This hub just makes sure you decide it with the road, the diesel and the return leg in front of you.
A single national “going rate” would be wrong for your truck on your lane anyway — which is why the method matters more than a number. As the Load Exchange grows, we will publish a baseline rate from real completed deals, with its sample size and date, so you can weigh it against your own.
Kweli Load Exchange
Now find a load for your truck — or a truck for your load
Free for transporters and shippers. No commission, no subscription.
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and cross-border
See
who you are dealing with
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commission, always
List your truck and its corridors, or post a load. Your corridors decide which loads we show you first — they do not lock you out of the rest. Body, weight, fit, papers: we show them, and you decide.
WhatsApp-integrated · your number is your account. Nothing from an app store — you finish with your trucks and their corridors on the board.
New to Kweli? See what the network does → — load exchange, driver registry and the Pulse community.
Questions people ask
What is a good rate per km in South Africa?
There is no single answer, and anyone quoting one is guessing. A workable rate is your own cost per kilometre plus your margin, over the measured road distance. Work out your CPK first — a rate built on someone else’s cost structure is not your rate.
How do I calculate a freight rate?
Cost per kilometre × measured road distance, plus tolls, border costs and permits for that route, plus your margin — then check what the return leg is likely to recover.
Why is the road distance different from the map distance?
Straight-line and desk estimates ignore the road. Across 146 lanes we measured, prior estimates were out by an average of 133 km, and by as much as 371 km on Durban → Gqeberha.
Should I add a fuel surcharge?
On any rate agreed before the load runs, yes — diesel is the cost most likely to move between quoting and invoicing.
How to use this guide
This hub exists to help you build your own understanding of the rates that apply to you — your truck, your finance, your lanes. The road distances here are measured against the actual road network, so the kilometres you multiply by are real ones. Any cost per kilometre we show is there to demonstrate the arithmetic; the number that belongs in your rate is your own.
As the Load Exchange grows, we will publish a baseline rate. It will come from real completed deals, with the sample size and the date attached, so you can see exactly what it is built on. Until then, the method above is what puts you ahead of an operator quoting from memory.
Fuel prices, toll tariffs and permit costs move. Figures are current as at the date on this page. Spotted something that looks wrong? Tell us — we correct it in place and say that we did.
Next, in the rest of the network
- Calculators — the tools that do this arithmetic for you: cost per km, fuel surcharge, trip cost.
- Transport corridors — the measured distance, passes and toll plazas on each lane you are pricing.
- Kweli Load Exchange — what the exchange is, and how your corridors decide which loads you are shown first.
- Fuel & freight costs — the current diesel price in the countries we run, and what each change costs per kilometre.