How much to pay the driver: the market, the floor and the monthly bill
How to use the market's price per tonne and each truck's ANTT floor to stop overpaying for freight, with an example of what that adds up to in a month.
By The CargoIA team3 min read
The driver freight is usually the biggest cost line for whoever sells freight. R$5 more per tonne looks small on a single load, but repeated on every load of a lane it turns into thousands of reais a month, as the example further down shows.
Two references
To decide how much to pay on a lane, there are two references. One is ANTT's floor, the minimum the law allows (Lei 13.703/2018); there is nothing to negotiate below it. The other is the market price, what is being paid on the lane right now, per tonne, with the tolls apart. Negotiation happens between the two.
One lane, four floors
The floor is worked out per trip, and each truck carries a different load. So on the same lane, the floor per tonne changes from truck to truck. Example: a 600 km lane, general cargo, Table A, under Portaria SUROC nº 22/2026:
| Truck | Floor per trip | Floor per tonne |
|---|---|---|
| 6 axles (LS) · 32 t | R$5,192.75 | R$162.27 |
| 7 axles (bitrem) · 37 t | R$5,795.28 | R$156.63 |
| 7 axles (4th axle) · 39 t | R$5,795.28 | R$148.60 |
| 9 axles (rodotrem) · 50 t | R$6,550.16 | R$131.00 |
All plus tolls. The rodotrem has the lowest floor per tonne because it carries the most. So when someone talks about a price per tonne, it's worth asking which truck.
What the market shows
In the spot market and in the quote, each lane shows the market's typical price per tonne, plus tolls, next to each truck's floor. Favorites holds the lanes you follow, with today's price against the table.
My freights: your price against the market's
In My freights, each lot of your operation (lane, day, product, tonnes and driver freight per tonne) sits next to the market's price on the same lane. That price is the median of the lane's listings over the last few days, and the radius widens to nearby towns when the lane has few listings. Your own organization's lots never count toward it. The result is the market minus what you paid.
Example: the market pays R$165.00 per tonne and you pay the driver R$172.00. That is R$7.00 per tonne against you, and the lot shows as a loss. At R$160.00, it would be R$5.00 per tonne saved.
The monthly bill
In the same example, with 2,000 tonnes a month on the lane:
| You pay | Against the market (R$165.00) | In the month |
|---|---|---|
| R$172.00/t | R$7.00/t more | R$14,000 more |
| R$165.00/t | the same | — |
| R$160.00/t | R$5.00/t less | R$10,000 saved |
All three are above the bitrem's floor of R$156.63. Between paying R$172 and paying R$160, the difference is R$24,000 a month, on a single lane.
When to renegotiate
My freights also takes the lane's temperature, comparing the listings of the last 3 days with the 30 before. Putting the result and the temperature together, each lot gets a reading:
- paying above a cold market, it's time to renegotiate;
- paying above a hot market, the premium may be the price of getting a truck;
- paying below a hot market, you risk not finding a truck;
- paying below a cold market, the price is good.
Lots go in one by one or by spreadsheet, and CargoIA works out the columns of yours.
See the plans and find where your operation pays above the market.