Cost per mile calculator
The number that tells you whether a load is worth taking. Put in what the truck costs you standing still and what it costs you rolling, and this gives you the rate you have to beat — per loaded mile, after deadhead and after the broker's cut.
Miles
Fixed costs
Bills that arrive whether the truck moves or not.
Variable costs
Everything that scales with the odometer.
Break-even rate per loaded mile
$2.068
With 12% deadhead and 8% coming off the top, a load below this rate is costing you money to haul. Your all-in cost is $1.674 per mile driven — $1.903 per mile you actually get paid for.
Fixed
$0.847
$8,470/month over 120,000 miles
Variable
$0.827
of which fuel is $0.592
Total per mile
$1.674
$200,917 a year to run the truck
Where every mile goes
Test a rate
Leaves $1,077 a week after every cost above, including your own pay — $51,678 a year, at 18.8% margin on gross.
The mistake that makes the number useless
Most cost-per-mile figures quoted between drivers divide annual costs by all miles run. That is a fine number for a fleet report and a bad one for a load board, because nobody pays you for empty miles. Run 12% deadhead and your real cost per paid mile is about 14% higher than the figure you were quoting — which is exactly the margin most owner-operators think they are making.
The second mistake is leaving your own pay out. A truck that "breaks even" at $1.85 while paying its driver nothing is not breaking even; it is converting your labour into an equipment payment. Put your take-home in the fixed column and the break-even rate stops flattering you.
Common questions
What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything that bills you whether the truck rolls or not: the truck and trailer payment, liability and physical damage insurance, plates and permits, the heavy vehicle use tax, your ELD and software subscriptions, parking, and your own pay if you take a set draw. Fixed costs are the reason a slow week hurts twice — the bill is the same and there are fewer miles to spread it over.
Why does deadhead change my cost per mile?
It does not change what a mile costs — it changes how many miles are earning. Run 12% empty and every 100 miles you get paid for actually cost you 114 miles of fuel, tires and wear. That is why this calculator reports cost per loaded mile separately: the load board quotes you loaded miles, so that is the number you have to beat.
Should I put my own pay in the calculation?
Yes, if you want a number you can make decisions with. Leaving your pay out produces a low cost per mile that feels good and hides the fact that you are working for free. Put in what you need to take home and the break-even rate tells you the truth: below it, the load is paying for the truck out of your paycheck.
How do I work out maintenance per mile if I have never tracked it?
Start with your last twelve months of repair invoices, oil changes and PM services, divide by the miles you ran, and use that. If you genuinely have no history, run the calculator at a deliberately pessimistic number and revise it as real invoices land. A maintenance figure taken from someone else’s truck is the fastest way to a wrong answer, because it is the line item that varies most between an owner-operator with a 2019 tractor and one with a 2015.
Does this include the fuel surcharge?
No — enter the linehaul rate you are being offered per loaded mile. If a broker quotes linehaul plus fuel surcharge separately, add them together before typing the rate in, or you will reject loads that were actually profitable.
The starting values are placeholders, not benchmarks — replace every one of them with your own invoices before you trust the answer. Nothing is sent anywhere; the maths runs in your browser.