Truck cost per mile calculator.
What does your truck cost to run? Two numbers: your cost per mile, and what a load must pay. Nothing leaves your phone.
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Put your own numbers in and get two figures back: your cost per mile, and the rate a load has to pay per loaded mile once you account for running empty. Your numbers never leave your browser.
What does your truck actually cost to run?
Put your own numbers in. This works out your cost per mile — and then the rate a load has to pay once you account for the miles you run empty. Most carriers have never had this number in front of them.
At 12% empty miles, this is what you need per loaded mile just to hit the floor above. Anything under it costs you money to haul.
This calculator does arithmetic on the figures you enter. It is an estimate to help you find your own break-even — it is not a quote, not a market rate, and not a representation of what any load will pay. Real costs vary by truck, lane, season and market. City DD Logistics Inc. does not guarantee rates, load availability or earnings. Want a hand doing this properly with your real invoices? We'll sit down and work it out with you, whether you dispatch with us or not.
Cost per mile is the floor. The loaded-mile rate is the decision.
Empty miles have to be paid for by the loaded ones.
Why
Nobody dispatches a truck with zero deadhead — anyone who tells you otherwise has never run one. So your cost per mile, on its own, is not quite the number you need.
If 12% of your miles run empty, only 88% of them are earning. The rate on the loaded miles has to cover all of them, including the empty ones. That's why the calculator gives you a required rate per loaded mile — and why the biggest number on the load board is so often the worst load on it.
A 1,770-mile run at $2,300 and a 721-mile run at $2,800 are not close. The long one pays less per mile driven and keeps your truck out two days longer. Once you know your floor, that stops being a judgment call and becomes arithmetic.
Cost per mile, answered straight.
What is cost per mile, and why does it matter?
Cost per mile is everything it costs to run your truck for a month divided by the miles you run in that month. It matters because it is the only number that tells you whether a load is worth hauling. Without it you are guessing, and a load that looks good on the board can lose you money.
What should I include in my cost per mile?
Fixed costs that happen whether you roll or not: truck and trailer payments, insurance, plates, permits and licensing — and your own pay, because you are not a volunteer. Then variable costs per mile: fuel, tires and maintenance. Leaving your own pay out is the most common mistake, and it makes every rate look better than it is.
What is a typical cost per mile for an owner-operator?
There isn't a useful average, and anyone quoting you one is guessing. It moves with your truck payment, your insurance, your fuel price, your MPG, how many miles you actually run in a month, and what you pay yourself. Two trucks on the same lane can have very different floors. That is exactly why you should work out your own rather than borrow someone else's.
How do empty miles change the rate I need?
Empty miles cost you fuel, hours and wear, and nobody pays you for them. If you run 12% of your miles empty, only 88% of your miles are earning — so the rate on the loaded miles has to cover all of them. That is why this calculator shows a required rate per loaded mile, not just a cost per mile. It is the number that actually decides whether to take the load.
Do dispatchers charge on the gross or on the linehaul?
It varies, and the difference matters. City DD Dispatch Desk charges 5–10% of your linehaul depending on the load, 7% on most loads, and never anything on a fuel surcharge line or extras like detention. (On an all-in rate with no fuel line, the whole rate is the linehaul.) Ask any dispatcher you talk to whether their percentage includes the fuel surcharge and extras — if it does, the number they quoted you is not the number you pay.
Is the calculator free, and do you keep my numbers?
It is free, there is no signup, and it runs entirely inside your own browser. The figures you type are never sent to us or to anyone else. We never see them.
Want a hand with your real numbers?
We'll work out your actual cost per mile with you, whether you dispatch with us or not.
We use this only to call you back about dispatch. Never sold. Stored in the US. Privacy Policy. Please don't send your SIN, SSN or banking details.