Trucking Cost per Mile Calculator

This free trucking cost per mile calculator works out what it costs to run your truck for each mile, then the rate per loaded mile you need to break even or reach your target profit margin. Enter your monthly miles, truck and trailer costs, fuel price and mpg, and the calculator shows your cost per mile, break-even rate, and a price for a specific load.

It runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, and there is no account or sign-up. Use it to check a freight rate before you accept a load, quote a shipper, or plan a month of operating costs.

How to use the Trucking Cost Per Mile Calculator

1. Start with a preset: “Owner-operator, dry van”, “Small fleet, company driver” or “Reefer”. Each preset fills in typical values that you can change.
2. Enter Miles driven per month (mi).
3. Enter Loaded (paid) miles (%), the share of your miles that earn revenue. The rest counts as deadhead.
4. Enter your fixed monthly costs: Truck payment or lease, Trailer payment or lease, Insurance, and Permits and licences (yearly fees divided by 12).
5. Enter Fuel price ($/gal) and Fuel economy (mpg).
6. Enter the per-mile costs: Maintenance and repairs, Tires, and Tolls (monthly), plus Driver pay ($/mile). Leave driver pay at 0 if you are an owner-operator paying yourself from profit.
7. Set Target profit margin (%).
8. Open More options to add Other fixed costs ($/month) and Other variable costs ($/mile) if they apply.
9. To price a specific load, enter loaded miles and deadhead miles under the load fields. Leave them at 0 to skip this.
10. Read the results, then check How it was calculated for each step with your own numbers.

Use Print / save result to produce a one-page sheet with your inputs, results, steps and the date. Save it as PDF from the print dialog. Copy link creates a link that reopens your inputs, and the page address keeps your inputs after any change. Reset restores the example values.

How do you calculate trucking cost per mile?

Cost per mile (CPM) is your total operating cost divided by the total miles you drive. Your fixed and variable costs are added together to get the total, and the total is divided by miles. Fuel is calculated separately: fuel price per gallon divided by miles per gallon. At $3.75 per gallon and 6.5 mpg, fuel costs $0.577 per mile.

The break-even rate per loaded mile is the rate you need to cover all costs. It equals the monthly cost divided by the number of loaded miles (total miles multiplied by the loaded share). Deadhead miles cost money but earn nothing, so the paid miles must cover them. With the default example, $12,519.23 a month over 8,500 loaded miles gives $1.473 per loaded mile.

To reach a target margin, divide the break-even rate by (1 − margin). A 15% margin on a $2.00 break-even is $2.00 ÷ 0.85 = $2.35 per loaded mile.

What costs are fixed and variable in trucking?

Fixed costs stay the same whatever the miles you drive. In this calculator they are truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits and licences, plus any other fixed costs such as an ELD subscription, phone, parking, accounting or load boards. Default fixed costs total $4,400 a month, or $0.440 per mile at 10,000 miles.

Variable costs grow with every mile. They include fuel, maintenance and repairs, tires, tolls, driver pay, and any other per-mile costs such as reefer fuel, washes, scales or payroll taxes on driver pay. The cost breakdown table shows each cost per month, per mile and as a share of the total, so you can see where most of the money goes.

How do I use cost per mile to judge freight rates per mile?

Compare the rate a broker or shipper offers per loaded mile with your break-even rate. Anything below break-even loses money once fixed costs and empty miles are counted; anything above it adds to profit. A trucking rate calculator that only counts fuel misses the fixed costs, which is why this tool asks for both.

Sources

The costs in the example are illustrations, not industry averages; enter your own. Method and fuel price:

• ATRI, An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking (cost-per-mile method)
• U.S. EIA, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update (weekly on-highway diesel price)

Frequently asked questions

What is a good rate per mile for an owner-operator?

This calculator does not compare your figures with market rates, so it cannot tell you a “good” rate. What it gives you is your break-even rate per loaded mile and the rate for your target margin. Compare those numbers with what carriers or brokers offer for your lanes before you accept a load.

How do deadhead miles change the rate?

Deadhead miles add cost but earn no revenue, so the rate per loaded mile must rise as the loaded share falls. With the default $12,519.23 monthly cost, dropping the loaded share from 85% to 75% raises break-even from $1.473 to about $1.669 per loaded mile. Enter a loaded share that matches your real miles to get an accurate rate.

How do I quote a load from my cost per mile?

Use this formula: cost per mile × (loaded + deadhead miles) ÷ (1 − margin). In the default example, 800 loaded miles and 100 deadhead miles at $1.252 cost per mile and a 15% margin give a price of $1,325.57, which is $1.657 per loaded mile. Enter the loaded and deadhead miles under the load fields to get this price directly.

Can I see the results in kilometres?

Yes. The results also show cost per kilometre, break-even rate per loaded kilometre and target-margin rate per loaded kilometre. They use 1 mile = 1.609344 km. The default cost of $1.252 per mile becomes $0.778 per kilometre.

Can I use the results on invoices or shipping plans?

You can use the results in commercial work, such as quotes, invoices and shipping plans, without attribution. The output is an estimate only, so confirm rates, rules and limits with your carrier, broker or the applicable regulation before you rely on it.

Related tools

• Fuel surcharge calculator: use it when you need to add a fuel surcharge on top of a base rate.
• IFTA calculator: use it to work out fuel tax across the states you drive through.
• Truck driver pay calculator: use it to estimate what a driver earns per mile or per load before you set driver pay in this tool.
• Axle weight calculator: use it to check how your load is spread across the axles.
• Bridge formula calculator: use it to check whether your truck and trailer combination meets bridge formula limits.
• Truck loading calculator: use it to plan how cargo fits and loads inside a trailer.