Tools for
Owner/Operators
&
Trucking Fleets
Enter your monthly expenses and miles to see your true cost per mile.
Cost per mile is the single figure that tells you whether a load is worth taking. Add up everything you spend in a month — the payments you make whether the truck moves or not, plus the costs that only occur when it does — divide by the miles you actually run, and you have your break-even rate. Any load paying below it loses you money no matter how good the rate looks on the board.
The mistake most operators make is running the number once, at start-up, and never again. Insurance renews, fuel moves, tires wear out, a truck ages into more maintenance, and the miles you ran last quarter are not the miles you will run this one. A cost per mile that is twelve months old is a guess.
Two things separate a useful calculation from a flattering one: include your own pay as a real cost, and use the miles you actually drove rather than loaded miles only. Deadhead miles cost fuel and wear even though nobody paid you for them.
There is no universal figure, and any site quoting one is guessing on your behalf. It swings with equipment age, whether you own or finance, insurance premiums in your jurisdiction, fuel prices, how many miles you run, and whether you pay yourself. What matters is knowing your own number precisely and tracking whether it is moving up or down — the direction tells you more than the absolute value.
Fixed costs are the ones that arrive whether the truck moves or not: truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits and licences, ELD and dispatch software, accounting, parking, association fees, payroll for salaried staff. Variable costs scale with the miles you run: fuel, tires, maintenance and repairs, tolls, and per-mile driver pay. Fixed costs are why sitting idle is expensive — they keep accruing while no revenue comes in.
Yes. If you leave your own pay out, the calculator will tell you a load is profitable when in fact it is only paying your bills and giving you nothing for your time. Treat your target take-home as an operating cost, the same way a fleet treats a driver's wage, and the number you get is the rate you actually need.
Use total miles, including deadhead. Empty miles burn fuel and consume maintenance life without generating revenue. Dividing by loaded miles only will make your cost per mile look better than it is — and it is precisely deadhead that turns a marginal load into a losing one.
Take the total miles for the trip, including the deadhead to get to the pickup, and multiply by your cost per mile. That is your break-even for the run. Anything the broker pays above that is your margin. Doing this before you accept means you are negotiating from a number instead of a feeling.
Quarterly at minimum, and immediately after anything material changes: an insurance renewal, a new truck payment, a big repair, a sustained move in fuel, or a change in the miles you're running. Many operators recalculate monthly using the previous month's actual expenses and odometer readings.