Invoicing a hot shot run

How runs get priced

Three shapes cover most work. A flat rate for the load, quoted point to point. A per mile rate on loaded miles. Or a day rate when a customer wants the truck available rather than a specific delivery. On top of any of those sit the extras: fuel surcharge, wait time, deadhead, after hours, oversize.

Whichever shape the run takes, the invoice should show it the way it was quoted. An invoice that reads $1,450 with no breakdown gets checked line by line at the other end, which is exactly the delay you were trying to avoid.

The fuel surcharge

A surcharge is usually a percentage applied to the line haul, not to the whole invoice. Applying it to reimbursements or to wait time is the fastest way to get an invoice kicked back, and it looks like padding even when it was an honest mistake.

RigTicket calculates percentage lines against the haul portion of the ticket rather than the total, so this one cannot happen by accident.

Wait time, the line everyone skips

Most drivers have an agreed free window, an hour or two, then an hourly rate after it. Almost nobody bills it, because by the time you are unloaded and back on the road it feels like an argument for a hundred dollars.

It is not one argument, it is one or two a week for the whole year. The fix is mechanical: note the in and out time on the ticket, get it signed at the gate before you leave, and the line bills itself. Nobody disputes a signed ticket a month later.

Deadhead

Whether deadhead is billable depends entirely on the agreement, and it should be settled before the run rather than discovered on the invoice. When it is billable, keep it as its own line at its own rate so loaded and empty miles never get mixed up in a rate review.

Getting paid without chasing

• Get the ticket signed at delivery, every time
• Reference the load number or BOL the customer uses, not just your own
• Put the PO on the invoice when they require one
• Invoice the same week, not at month end
• Know your terms and follow up on day 31, not day 60

What the paperwork has to survive

A hot shot invoice frequently passes through a broker, then the operator AP system, then a coding step, before anyone pays it. Every hop is a chance for it to stop. A single PDF with the load, the miles, the surcharge and the signature on it survives that trip. A text message with a number in it does not.

See how RigTicket builds it, including the certs that keep the truck legal while you are doing all of the above.