Memphis, Tennessee-headquartered Vincent Scott spent more than three decades in air traffic control with the Federal Aviation Administration. Yet through all that time he remembered a scene from his boyhood in South Carolina, when his dad was a part-time coach for his Little League team.
"I see my dad over there" during a baseball practice, Scott said, and "he was doing something to an 18-wheeler."
Though he didn't think much about it at the time, he later learned his father was that very day prepping for his road test for his commercial license. Scott would hold that ambition in mind for himself over the next decades, and after retiring from air traffic control in 2022, he achieved it.
But what he found working for a few different trucking companies over the next years was disheartening -- days sitting in wait for dispatch more times than he cares to count, and an industry where all parties know their numbers except, too often, the operator behind the wheel.
Launching his Team Scott Financial Intelligence company website, he said he found so many owners "booking loads on gut feel, with no tower watching their profit. A load that looked good on the phone could cost money by the time deadhead and fuel were counted, and nobody was telling them before they committed."
His Atlas service and a free Profit X-Ray tool is that tower, he said. Scott built the entire system from scratch, likewise the free tool for any owner-operator to use at will. In some ways the X-Ray resembles Overdrive's own Load Profit Analyzer. Yet it's got significant variations on cost and rate inputs, likewise profit analysis on the other side.
[Related: J.P. Transport's journey to maximum trucking efficiency]
Rather than separate lump fixed costs/day and variable cost/mile on the input side like the Analyzer, TSFI's X-Ray separates fuel cost/gallon, and asks for an operating cost-per-mile input for all other costs. The cost fields at first visit come dynamically filled with a current regional average fuel price and the American Transportation Research Institute's most-recent average owner-op cost/mile figure, minus fuel.
Both inputs are editable with your own numbers -- what you've most recently paid for fuel and other expenses.
Input your mpg and load details (miles loaded and deadhead, rate), and here's what it looks like, using that Dallas to Chicago 950-mile run we've used for Analyzer comparisons often enough (average van rate out of Texas last week: $2.88/mile), no deadhead miles included in this case (though it's an option).
For operating cost-per-mile, this example used ATBS's most-recent dry van owner-op average over the last 12 months, minus fuel's portion. Keep in mind that, with these figures, self-pay salary isn't included on the cost side of the ledger.
Once you've populated the rate box, your output Profit X-Ray begins to populate on screen, and here's the skinny version of what results look like for the above load:
The X-Ray offers that 0-100 Profit Score shown in the circle up top and one of three verdicts on any load, depending on profitability levels: TAKE IT, NEGOTIATE, or WALK AWAY. As shown above, it preserves and displays inputs, and for loads well below market rates and target margins, the evaluation offers counter-rate suggestions and tells you why.
It's free to use as many times as you like, Scott noted.
Yet there's more: Subscription tiers for the broader TSFI Atlas service start at $99/month, offering greater functionality in what Scott calls a "virtual dispatch office" dubbed The Tower, extending the air-traffic metaphor.
For loads you want to negotiate, the system generates scripts with counter, target and floor offers for the broker call or email/text comms, likewise broker vetting tools and a rate-confirmation review before signing.
There's an invoice generator inside the Tower, too, and claim letters -- cargo, detention, TONU or late pay -- configurable to the business' letterhead.
[Related: Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer: How to use to asses rates, costs]
Other features:
- IFTA and detention tracking
- Weekly profit-loss statement capability
- Diesel and parking locators searchable by address/region
- Various load negotiation/comparison decision tools
- Both U.S. or Canadian dollar functionality, with miles or kilometers, and fuel in dollars/gallon or liter.
Any subscription tier also includes a "Truck Health" maintenance tracker, verifying intervals against manufacturer documentation -- supporting the Paccar MX-13, Detroit DD-15 and Cummins X15; key Eaton transmissions and Meritor and Paccar axles, air-dryer and brake items; and the annual required periodic inspection.
Service items display one of five statuses: Current, Approaching, Due, Overdue, or Unknown. Service history entries log a date, odometer, engine hours, cost and shop. Odometer check-ins can never roll backward, open defects carry severity, and inspection reports and receipts store privately.
Small-fleet users with multiple units will see every truck on one list, the ones needing attention first.
[Related: When the mentor becomes the master: Trucker of the Month Adam Mackey]
Vehicle service connects to your load scoring outputs as well -- when a well-paying load would run a truck past a critical service item, Atlas changes the verdict from TAKE IT to NEGOTIATE, keeps the original Profit Score visible, and shows you exactly why.
Truck Health works only from the owner's own records; it does not read ELD or telematics data, and it does not predict breakdowns.
"A load that pays well but runs your truck past its brake inspection isn't a good load. It's a bill you haven't gotten yet," Scott said.
Plans start at $99/month with every feature included at every tier. "No add-ons. No feature unlocks. No upsells. You only ever pay for truck count," Scott said.
