Comparison
DeadheadMath vs TruckingOffice
TruckingOffice is trucking management software covering the paperwork side of a small carrier, while DeadheadMath scores a rate against your costs before you commit the truck.
Comparison
DeadheadMath vs Rigbooks: pricing the load or keeping the books
Rigbooks is bookkeeping shaped around a trucking operation, while DeadheadMath is a load pricing calculator you open before you take the freight.
The short answer
If your problem is that April closed and you still do not know what the truck cost you, a trucking bookkeeping tool like Rigbooks is aimed squarely at that. If your problem is the twelve loads a week you have to say yes or no to, with 140 empty miles hiding inside half of them, DeadheadMath is aimed at that instead. Many owner operators run one of each. Our One Truck plan is 19 dollars a month precisely because it is not trying to replace your books.
DeadheadMath and Rigbooks side by side
| What you are deciding | DeadheadMath | Rigbooks |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Score a rate against your fixed cost per day, deadhead, and fuel before you accept it | Keep an organized set of trucking books and expense records over time |
| When you open it | On the phone with the broker, with the load board still on screen | Built around the record keeping rhythm, so its natural moment is after the run |
| Deadhead treatment | Empty miles to the shipper are entered per load and pulled into the per mile result | Approach is expense and mileage record keeping rather than per quote empty mile scoring |
| Fixed cost handling | Truck note, insurance, plates, and permits are modeled as a cost per working day | Costs live as categorized records in the books for the period you are reporting |
| Lane history | Every quote you score is kept by lane so Joliet to Laredo shows what it really paid | History is organized around the accounting record rather than around lane pricing |
| Settlement tracking | Settlements are matched back to the quoted number so you see the gap on every load | Settlement and revenue data enters as part of normal bookkeeping entry |
| Setup before it is useful | About twenty minutes, most of it entering the truck note and the insurance premium | Bookkeeping tools generally need your accounts and history set up before they read true |
| Who it fits | Owner operators and two truck carriers taking spot freight and deciding fast | Operators whose main gap is disciplined books and clean records for the year |
What follows on the right is the shape of Rigbooks as a category: the workflow it assumes and the buyer it is written for. None of it stands still, so take the current position from them rather than from here. DeadheadMath is published by MLJ, SASU and this page is written by Jimenez Julien.
Choose DeadheadMath when
- You take spot loads and need the go or no go number before the broker calls the next truck.
- Your empty miles swing from 3 percent to 20 percent and the rate per loaded mile keeps lying to you.
- You want to know what a lane has actually paid you across the last eight runs, not just this month.
- You already have a bookkeeper or a tax preparer and do not need another place to store receipts.
Choose Rigbooks when
- Your real gap is bookkeeping discipline and a clean set of trucking records at tax time.
- You want expense capture and categorized reporting as the center of your software, not a pricing screen.
- You prefer one system that holds the financial history of the business rather than a decision tool.
Two different questions about the same truck
Bookkeeping asks what the truck cost. Load pricing asks what the next load has to pay. They use overlapping numbers and they are not the same product. A carrier can have immaculate books and still take a 1,850 dollar load out of Fontana that ends 190 empty miles from the next decent market, because nothing in the books was looking at that decision while it was live.
DeadheadMath is built for the decision. You enter linehaul, loaded miles, and empty miles to the shipper, and it returns dollars per total mile against your own daily fixed cost. Rigbooks is built for the record. Judged on their own jobs, both do useful work, and the honest answer for many one truck carriers is that they run one of each rather than forcing either one to do the other job.
What fixed cost per day changes
A truck note, the insurance premium, plates, UCR, the 2290, parking, and the ELD subscription do not care whether you rolled today. Spread across the days you actually work, they usually land somewhere between 200 and 400 dollars a day for a single truck. That daily number is what turns a rate into a verdict.
Once fixed cost per day is in the model, a two day load at 2,100 dollars with 120 empty miles stops being a rate and becomes a margin. Bookkeeping tools hold the raw ingredients for that number in their categories. DeadheadMath is the piece that puts it in front of you while the load is still available.
Running both without duplicate entry
Carriers who use both keep the split clean. Fixed costs go into DeadheadMath once a quarter, when the insurance renews or the truck note changes. Everything else stays where your books are. You are not re-keying fuel receipts into two places, because DeadheadMath needs your MPG and your current diesel price, not a copy of every ticket.
The practical test is a Monday. If your Monday problem is finding a receipt from February, keep your books tight. If your Monday problem is three brokers, three rates, and a truck sitting empty in Memphis, that is a pricing problem and it needs a pricing tool.
Questions people ask before they choose
Can DeadheadMath replace my trucking bookkeeping?
No, and it does not try to. DeadheadMath models cost and prices loads, and it keeps settlement and lane history so you can see what each lane paid. Your books, your quarterly filings, and your tax return still belong in accounting software or with your preparer.
Do I have to enter every expense twice?
No. DeadheadMath asks for fixed costs as a monthly or annual figure and converts them to a cost per working day. You update those when something changes, such as an insurance renewal. Per load you enter rate, loaded miles, and empty miles, which takes under a minute.
Which one should a brand new authority buy first?
In the first ninety days the risk is taking cheap freight, not filing untidy books. A pricing tool protects you during that window. Add or keep proper bookkeeping in parallel, because your first IFTA return and your first tax year arrive faster than you expect.
Other comparisons on deadheadmath.com
Comparison
DeadheadMath vs QuickBooks
QuickBooks is general small business accounting that any trade can adapt, while DeadheadMath is built only for freight and only for the moment you decide whether to take the load.
Settle this head to head on your own truck
Two columns of criteria only take you so far when the money is in the details of your operation. Bring your truck note, your insurance declaration, and the load that looked good at 2.05 per loaded mile, and we will show you exactly where these two tools part company. Twenty minutes, and you keep the cost per working day figure we build with you.