What To Say · A HaulProof Pocket Guide
What To Say When a Settlement Comes Up Short
A settlement comes up short and the money is not the hard part. The message is. The ones I watched go nowhere all read about the same — "my check is short" — and nobody on the other end had anything to work with.
Skip ahead to the messages, or to the follow-up when nobody replies.
Read the settlement before you write a word
Back when I was running brokered freight, I sent my share of hot messages on a Friday afternoon with nothing behind them but a feeling that the number looked low. Those went nowhere. The ones that got fixed all started the same way: settlement on one side, rate confirmations on the other, and not a word typed until I could point at one line.
Go load by load. Match the linehaul and the fuel surcharge to the signed rate con for that exact load. Check that every accessorial you earned actually landed. Read every deduction and ask whether you agreed to it and whether the math is right. For the long version of that, here is how to read a settlement line by line. This guide picks up after that, at the part nobody teaches: what you actually send.
You are looking for one sentence you can stand behind. This load, this line, agreed amount, paid amount, difference. If you cannot get to that sentence, you are not ready to send yet — and sending early is how a real short pay gets filed under "driver who complains."
"My check is short" is the message that gets ignored
Picture the person who opens it. A settlement clerk or a carrier-pay desk, sitting on a stack of other people's problems. They did not cut your rate, they did not lose your detention slip, and they have no idea which of your loads you mean. To help you, they would have to pull your whole settlement, pull every rate con, and find the gap themselves. So it goes to the bottom of the pile.
Now picture that same person opening a message that says load 41892, detention, two hours at the rate on the con, here is the difference, BOL attached. That one they can act on without leaving their desk. Same money, same driver — but only one of those messages hands somebody something to do. You are not writing to be right. You are writing to make the fix easy.
Five things every short-pay message needs
- The load number and the settlement date. In the subject line if it is email. That is how it gets found again later — by them, and by you.
- The specific line. Not "the pay." Linehaul, fuel surcharge, detention, lumper, or the exact wording of the deduction as it appears on the statement.
- Agreed next to paid. Two numbers side by side. Let the gap speak.
- The difference, in dollars. Do the subtraction yourself. Never make the reader do arithmetic to understand your point.
- One clear ask. Usually: can this be corrected on the next settlement? One question, answerable in a sentence.
Attach it, do not offer it
"I can send the rate con if you need it" adds a round trip. Attach what you already have, the first time, every time. For most short pays that is a short list: the signed rate confirmation, the signed BOL with in and out times, any lumper or out-of-pocket receipt, the gate ticket if you got one, and screenshots of your own timestamped messages to dispatch from the day it happened.
That last one is the piece drivers skip and regret. A text you sent at 11:40 saying you were still on the dock is a dated record somebody other than you can read. The detention guide covers the six things worth writing down while you sit, and these are the messages to send from the dock. Settlement day is easier when the paperwork got built on the day.
Flat beats angry, every time
Keep the temperature out of it. Not because you should not be annoyed — it is your money and you already did the work. But heat makes the reader defensive, defensive turns into "let me check with someone," and that is where short pays go quiet. Flat and factual reads as a professional filing a correction, which is what you are doing. Save the strong opinion for who you book with next month.
The messages
Fill in the brackets, attach the paperwork, send.
1 · Detention or another accessorial that never showed up
Load [number], settlement dated [date]: detention on this load is not showing. Arrived [facility] at [time] on [date], released at [time]. Free time per the rate con was [hours], which puts [hours] of detention at [rate] = [amount]. Signed BOL with in and out times attached, along with my [date] message to dispatch. Can this be added to the next settlement?
When detention went missing on me, it was more often a keying problem than a refusal. Give them the times and the math so nobody has to reconstruct it.
2 · The linehaul does not match the rate confirmation
Load [number], settlement dated [date]: linehaul paid [amount]. Signed rate confirmation for this load shows [amount]. Difference is [amount]. Rate con attached — see line [reference]. Let me know if you are seeing a different version. Otherwise, can we get the difference on the next settlement?
"If you are seeing a different version" leaves room for an amended rate con you never got, which happens, and keeps the message from reading as an accusation.
3 · Fuel surcharge missing or under the agreed rate
Load [number], settlement dated [date]: fuel surcharge shows [amount / not listed]. Rate con has FSC at [rate] per mile on [miles] miles = [amount]. Difference is [amount]. Rate con attached. Is the FSC being calculated on different miles on your end?
Ask the mileage question directly. A fuel surcharge gap is often a miles disagreement in disguise, and naming it saves two rounds of email.
4 · Paid miles came in under what you ran
Load [number], settlement dated [date]: paid [number] miles. Routed miles [origin] to [destination] were [number], odometer [start] to [end]. Difference is [number] miles at [rate] = [amount]. Happy to send the routing if it helps. What mileage source is being used on this lane?
This one is a question first and a claim second, on purpose. Mileage terms come from your agreement, and some pay off a specific mileage table rather than what your odometer says. Better to learn which one you signed than to argue with it.
5 · A deduction you do not recognize
Settlement dated [date]: there is a deduction of [amount] listed as [description]. I am not able to tie it to a load or to anything I authorized. Can you send the backup for it and let me know which load or date it relates to?
No accusation, no theory. You are asking for a document. If the document is good, you learned something. If it does not exist, you now have that in writing.
6 · Lumper or an out-of-pocket that was not reimbursed
Load [number], settlement dated [date]: lumper of [amount] paid out of pocket at [facility] on [date] is not showing as a reimbursement. Receipt attached, paid by [card / cash], plus the message where dispatch approved it on [date]. Can this be reimbursed on the next settlement?
Receipt and approval in the same message. Out-of-pocket money was always the simplest kind for me to raise, because the proof is short — put both halves in one place and there is nothing left to go look for.
7 · A whole load is missing from the settlement
Settlement dated [date]: load [number], [origin] to [destination], delivered [date], is not on this settlement. Signed BOL and rate con attached. Can you confirm it is in the queue for the next one, or let me know what is still needed on my end?
Give them the graceful exit — "in the queue for the next one" — because often it is. Missing paperwork on your end is the other half, so ask about that too.
When the first message gets no reply
This is the part most drivers skip, and it is the part that decides whether anything moves. Silence is not a no. Silence is usually a full inbox. Give it three business days, then send the same facts again with the original date on them. Do not rewrite it hotter. Rewrite it shorter. If the line in question is detention, the detention-claim guide walks the whole escalation from the dock to the settlement.
8 · Three business days, no reply
Following up on my [date] message about load [number] on the settlement dated [date] — [line] short by [amount]. Copying it below with the same attachments. Is this something you handle, or should I be sending it somewhere else?
That last question is the whole message. It is not pressure, it is routing, and it is very hard to leave unanswered.
9 · Second follow-up, still nothing
Third message on load [number], [amount] short on the settlement dated [date]. Sent [date] and [date], attachments included both times. I want to make sure this did not get lost. Can you confirm you have it and let me know when I should expect an answer?
You are not asking for the money here. You are asking for a date. A date is a small ask, and once you have one you have something to point at.
10 · When the answer is no
Understood, thanks for looking at it. So I have it straight for my records: [line] on load [number] was declined because [reason given]. Is that based on the [rate con / carrier policy / broker agreement], and can you point me to the section? I want to make sure I am running it right going forward.
A clean no you understand beats an argument you win once. Get the reason in writing, find out where it comes from, and price the next load with your eyes open.
Keep your own thread
Keep what you send where you can find it. One thread per load, the settlement and the paperwork with it. The second and third messages then write themselves, and you start seeing the pattern — when the same line comes up short three settlements running, that is worth knowing before you book the next load. None of this decides what you are owed — your agreements do that. What the record decides is whether anybody has to take your word for it.
Finding the line is the slow part
Writing the message is quick once you know which line is wrong. Finding the line is what eats a Sunday. HaulProof reads your settlement line by line and flags the gaps — short miles, missing fuel surcharge, detention that never landed, deductions that do not tie to anything. You decide what to do with what it finds.
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These ten are from What To Say, a HaulProof Pocket Guide — 82 ready-to-send messages covering the whole job. Arrivals, dock waits, detention, breakdowns, paperwork that does not match, day-end recaps. Plus three printable pages for the truck.
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Common questions
What do I do if my settlement is short?
Find the exact line before you write anything. Pull the rate confirmation for that load, match it against the settlement, and get to one sentence: this load, this line, expected this, paid this, difference this. A specific number is something the other end can act on. "My check is short" leaves them to go find the number themselves, and that is the kind of message that sits.
How do I dispute a short pay with a broker?
In writing, the same day you spot it, with the paperwork already attached. Name the load number and the line that is wrong, put the agreed amount next to the paid amount, state the difference, and ask one question — usually whether it can be corrected on the next settlement. Keep it flat. The person opening that email almost never caused the error, and treating them like they did slows the fix down.
Who should I send a short-pay message to?
Start where your paperwork comes from. If you are leased on, that is usually your carrier's settlement or accounting desk, sometimes through your dispatcher. If you bill a broker directly, it is their carrier-pay address, with the load number in the subject line. Send it where there is a record. A call can move things fast, but if a call is all that happened, three weeks later nothing happened.
How long should I wait before following up on a short pay?
Give it three business days, then follow up. Not a new complaint — the same facts, plus the date you first sent them and one question they can answer in a sentence. In my experience, a lot of the ones that never got fixed were never actually refused either. They went quiet, and nobody asked again.
What if the short pay is a deduction I do not recognize?
Ask what it is and what it is tied to before you argue about whether it belongs. A deduction with no load number and no description is a question, not a fight. Ask for the backup document and for what authorized it, then decide. Sometimes it turns out to be a real charge with a bad label.
These templates help you raise a pay question clearly and document it. They do not decide whether any amount is owed, and they are no guarantee anything gets corrected — your signed rate confirmation, your carrier agreement, and your broker agreement decide that. General education for owner-operators and leased-on drivers, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Built by a driver, for drivers.