Your questions about LoadMerit, answered

A load board sells access to freight; a dispatch service books and negotiates for a percentage of the load. LoadMerit does neither — it's a lower-cost decision-support layer that helps you evaluate loads you find yourself and decide Book, Pass, or Negotiate. You stay in control and don't pay a dispatcher's cut.

Academy is a simulator you work through once, so it's a one-time purchase you keep. LoadMerit Copilot is a tool you use continuously — saved loads, the comparison board, broker notes, and AI negotiation scripts that stay useful week to week — so it's a subscription — monthly, or annual where an annual plan is offered — which also keeps the analysis and AI maintained.

With no account at all: the calculator, a sample scenario, and the resources. With a free account: the full load analyzer up to 10 analyses a day, your own cost and vehicle profiles so the math uses your numbers, 3 saved analyses at a time, and the run-rate and financial-health cards. Academy adds the full simulator — every scenario tier, scored feedback with the underlying math, quizzes, progress, a completion certificate, and 30 days of the LoadMerit Copilot plan. LoadMerit Copilot adds unlimited analyses and saved loads, the comparison board, broker notes and FMCSA lookup, the settled-rate ledger, the fuel log, the route optimizer, exports, the weekly email scorecard, AI drafting, and all of the Academy content. Fleet is that plan applied per truck: each truck's own fixed costs and break-even, the P&L, tax log and analysis summary filtered to one truck, and driver pay estimated per load and recorded at closeout.

A load board helps you find offers. LoadMerit helps you evaluate the ones you enter using your costs and assumptions. Try the free calculator on an offer you are considering, then decide whether you need the comparison and recordkeeping tools.

A TMS (Transportation Management System) is built for managing loads you've already booked — dispatch, tracking, invoicing, compliance. LoadMerit is a pre-booking decision tool: it answers "should I take this load?" before it becomes a job in your TMS.

Absolutely. The Academy module is designed for people who are learning before they have live freight. Every scenario is synthetic — you practice the Book / Pass / Negotiate decision on safe mock loads and get scored, explained feedback until the logic is automatic.

Software and educational content — the simulator, the analyzer, and the tools around them. Not freight services, dispatching, brokerage, or income opportunities.

Yes — 7 days on the monthly LoadMerit Copilot and Fleet plans. A card is required and it is validated when you start, but nothing is charged until the trial ends, and cancelling before then costs nothing. The offer is for your first subscription; checkout confirms eligibility. If no trial is available, billing starts at checkout. Annual plans bill immediately. Academy is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription, so it has no trial — it carries a 30-day money-back guarantee instead, which is the more generous offer, and it includes 30 days of the full LoadMerit Copilot plan. You can also see most of the product without any of that: the calculator is free with no signup, and a free account runs the full analyzer on your own numbers for as long as you like.

It became the price. The early "founder rate" — $99 Academy, $49/mo Copilot — is now the standard rate for everyone, permanently. Nobody who saw the founder offer will ever pay more than it promised, and existing subscribers keep exactly what they signed up at. Fleet is $99/mo.

Everything in Copilot, applied per truck. Each truck carries its own fixed costs — payment, insurance, target miles — so break-even is that truck's number rather than a fleet average; the P&L, tax log and analysis summary filter to one truck; and each truck can carry a driver-pay basis (per mile or percent of linehaul), estimated on every analysis with its base labeled and recorded at closeout. One login, however many trucks you run.

On a monthly subscription, moving up — Copilot to Fleet — is self-serve from your billing page: the upgrade applies to your existing subscription in place, you pay the prorated difference for the rest of the current period, and renewals bill at the new rate. No second subscription is created. Moving down a plan, and any change involving an annual subscription, goes through support.

Subscriptions can be canceled and keep access through the current period. Your records are not locked away when it ends: the loads, fuel and figures you recorded stay readable, and the exports your plan included stay available — you do not have to resubscribe to get your own data out. What stops is recording new work beyond the free limits. Refund details are on the Refund Policy page; contact support with any questions.

A free account can keep 3 saved analyses at a time — enough to run your own truck's costs against real loads and come back to them. You must be below the free save limit to save another analysis. The comparison board, broker notes, and the settled-rate ledger — recording what each load actually paid, which powers the lift report and your personal floor — are part of the paid LoadMerit Copilot, along with unlimited saved loads. The free calculator computes results without an account but does not save them.

They stay yours. Recorded settles power your own reports — settled vs offered, your personal floor, your history with each broker — and calibrate the wording of your AI negotiation drafts. They are never shared with brokers, load boards, or other users, and never pooled into a public benchmark. Averages only appear once you've recorded enough loads for them to mean anything.

No. Broker notes are your own private notes, not verified public ratings or platform-endorsed broker intelligence.

No. The decision engine is deterministic. AI drafts wording — the explanation, a negotiation message, coaching on the reasoning you wrote — from the engine's numbers, calibrated by your own recorded history and never anyone else's. Smart Paste also reads a posting's numbers into the form, where you check them before anything runs. But no figure is ever calculated by AI, and it never overrides the math.

No. It's an interactive simulator. You work synthetic load scenarios, decide Book / Negotiate / Pass, and get scored feedback with the underlying math and red flags.

It records completion of the required scenarios, quizzes, and final simulation. An Academy purchase makes you eligible to earn it; an active annual subscription qualifies once any trial has converted to payment. Monthly Copilot or Fleet eligibility begins after 90 days from subscription start, with an active subscription. You still need to finish the curriculum and accept the certificate disclaimer. It is not a license and does not guarantee employment or income.

No. There are no live load-board or broker integrations. You enter load details yourself — by hand or with Smart Paste — at your own discretion and in line with that source's terms. (A browser extension that reads only the posting text you select is coming to the Chrome Web Store.)

No. LoadMerit does not book loads, submit offers, or negotiate on your behalf. It provides educational practice and advisory analysis only — you make every final decision.

No. We do not guarantee income, jobs, carriers, loads, broker relationships, or profitable outcomes. Examples and calculations are illustrative and depend on the assumptions you enter.