diff --git a/internal/controller/child_resources.go b/internal/controller/child_resources.go
index 10cf4fd..3e5620f 100644
--- a/internal/controller/child_resources.go
+++ b/internal/controller/child_resources.go
@@ -392,6 +392,21 @@ func sanitizeModelName(msvc *msv1alpha1.ModelService) string {
 	return sanitizedModelName
 }
 
+// pickLoadFormat returns the arg following "--load-format"
+func pickLoadFormat(pd *msv1alpha1.PDSpec) string {
+	if pd == nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	for _, c := range append(pd.Containers, pd.InitContainers...) {
+		for i := 0; i+1 < len(c.Args); i++ {
+			if c.Args[i] == "--load-format" {
+				return c.Args[i+1]
+			}
+		}
+	}
+	return ""
+}
+
 // mergePDService uses msvc fields to update childResource P/D Service
 func (childResource *BaseConfig) mergePDService(ctx context.Context, msvc *msv1alpha1.ModelService, role string, scheme *runtime.Scheme) *BaseConfig {
 
diff --git a/internal/controller/modelservice_controller.go b/internal/controller/modelservice_controller.go
index 223fcd8..36c1b60 100644
--- a/internal/controller/modelservice_controller.go
+++ b/internal/controller/modelservice_controller.go
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ type TemplateVars struct {
 	DecodeServiceName     string `json:"decodeServiceName,omitempty"`
 	InferencePoolName     string `json:"inferencePoolName,omitempty"`
 	InferenceModelName    string `json:"inferenceModelName,omitempty"`
+	LoadFormat            string `json:"loadFormat,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // from populates the field values for TemplateVars from the model service
@@ -113,6 +114,10 @@ func (t *TemplateVars) from(ctx context.Context, msvc *msv1alpha1.ModelService)
 	t.InferenceModelName = infModelName(msvc)
 	t.ModelName = msvc.Spec.Routing.ModelName
 	t.SanitizedModelName = sanitizeModelName(msvc)
+	t.LoadFormat = pickLoadFormat(msvc.Spec.Decode)
+	if t.LoadFormat == "" {
+		t.LoadFormat = pickLoadFormat(msvc.Spec.Prefill)
+	}
 
 	if msvc.Spec.ModelArtifacts.AuthSecretName != nil {
 		t.AuthSecretName = *msvc.Spec.ModelArtifacts.AuthSecretName