Trucking Cost Per Mile Calculator

This works out what a truck costs to run for every mile it turns, splitting the costs that arrive whether you drive or not from the ones that arrive per mile. Enter a period of miles with the empty miles among them, the payment, insurance and permits, then fuel economy, diesel price and the per-mile figures for maintenance, tyres and driver pay, and it returns the cost per total mile and the cost per loaded mile. Those two are not the same number: only the loaded miles earn, so the whole cost has to come back over them, and a rate quoted per loaded mile has to clear the loaded-mile figure. A second tab runs a single load against a cost per mile you already know, with the empty run to the pickup counted in. It covers operating cost only, so income tax and anything you draw beyond the driver pay per mile sit outside it.

Calculator Type
Units
Distances, fuel economy, the diesel price and every per-mile cost are all read in whichever you pick. Use the same setting on both tabs.

Use one period throughout. A month is usual: put a month of distance against a month of fixed costs.

Every mile the truck rolled, loaded and empty.
Miles run with no freight on: bobtail, repositioning, the run out to a pickup.
Leave at zero if the equipment is paid off. A depreciation reserve belongs here instead.
Primary liability, cargo, physical damage, occupational accident.
Plates, permits, UCR, IFTA filing, ELD and dispatch subscriptions, accounting, parking, phone.
Miles per gallon. A loaded sleeper tractor usually runs between 5.5 and 7.5 MPG.
Per US gallon, or per litre in metric. Your net price after fuel card discounts, not the pump sign.
Set aside per mile rather than counting the months nothing broke. $0.18 a mile is a common figure.
A full set divided by the distance it lasts. Four to five cents a mile is common.
What the seat costs per mile. Leave at zero only if you are deliberately treating your own pay as the profit.
Tolls, scales, lumpers, showers, DEF.
Fill this in to see the profit. Leave blank to get the break-even rate instead. Read per loaded mile.
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Units
Distances, fuel economy, the diesel price and every per-mile cost are all read in whichever you pick. Use the same setting on both tabs.

Run one load against a cost per total mile or kilometre you already know, with the empty distance to the pickup counted in.

The empty run to the pickup, plus any empty run after the drop that this load causes.
Detention, layover, tarp, stop-offs. Money you will actually collect.
The all-in figure from the other tab, fixed and variable together, per total mile. Set this tab to the same unit as that one.
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