How to Calculate Your Cost Per Mile

Your cost per mile is the one number every load decision should start with. Without it, a $2.50 rate and a $3.00 rate are just numbers. With it, you know which one makes money, which one only covers fuel, and which one you should turn down. Here's how to work it out in about an hour.

Why cost per mile matters

A load's rate per mile tells you what the broker pays. Your cost per mile tells you what it costs you to run. The gap between them is your profit, and you can't negotiate well, choose between loads or judge a dispatcher without knowing it.

It also changes how you see deadhead. A load that pays well on loaded miles can still lose money once you add the empty miles to reach it. Measured against your cost per mile, that shows up immediately.

The industry benchmark

The American Transportation Research Institute's 2026 report put the average cost of running a truck at $2.336 per mile in 2025, the highest it has recorded. Excluding fuel, costs were $1.854 per mile. That's a fleet average, including driver wages and benefits, so your number as an owner-operator will be different. Use it as a sanity check, not as your answer.

Step 1: Fixed costs

Fixed costs are what you pay whether the truck moves or not. Add them up for a full year:

• Truck and trailer payments, or lease payments
• Insurance: liability, cargo, physical damage and any others
• Plates and registration, Form 2290, UCR and permits
• ELD, load board, phone and software subscriptions
• Accounting, factoring program fees and other business costs
• What you need to pay yourself to live. Leave it out and you'll book loads that only pay the truck

Step 2: Variable costs

Variable costs rise with every mile you drive. Work each one out per mile:

• Fuel. Your average price per gallon divided by your miles per gallon. Check the EIA's weekly diesel prices for your region. At $6.25 a gallon, close to the fall 2026 national average, and 6.5 mpg, that's about $0.96 per mile.
• Maintenance and repairs. Your last year of repair bills divided by your miles, or a reserve per mile you set aside every week.
• Tires. The cost of a set divided by the miles they last.
• Tolls, scales and parking. From your receipts.
• Dispatch and factoring fees, if they're a percentage of each load. Our flat 6% or 8% of the gross is easy to convert: at $3.00 a mile all-in, 6% is $0.18 per mile.

Step 3: Your miles

Use your total miles, loaded and empty, from your ELD or fuel records for the last 12 months. If you're new, estimate conservatively. Most new carriers overestimate how many miles they'll run in the first year.

A worked example

Here's an illustrative dry van owner-operator. These aren't averages. Swap in your own numbers.

Example figures only. Your costs, miles and pay will differ.

Notice how much the miles matter. At 80,000 miles instead of 100,000, the same fixed costs of $116,000 come to $1.45 per mile instead of $1.16, and the total climbs to about $2.65. Fewer miles means every mile has to earn more.

Two carriers with the same truck can end up with very different numbers. One runs 120,000 miles a year in the Midwest with low insurance.

Another runs 75,000 miles near a big city with high premiums and tolls. Both are normal. What matters is knowing yours, because every load decision starts from it.

If you're still planning your business, run the worksheet three times: a slow year, an expected year and a strong year. If the slow year doesn't work, adjust the plan before you buy the truck.

From cost per mile to rate floor

Your rate floor is the lowest rate per mile you'll accept. Build it from your cost per mile:

1. Start with your total cost per mile, including your own pay.
2. Account for deadhead. If you average 15% empty miles, divide by 0.85. At $2.36, that's about $2.78 per loaded mile.
3. Add a margin for profit and a cushion for repairs you didn't plan for.

Give that floor to your dispatcher. Ours won't bring you loads below it, and they'll tell you when a load slightly under it is worth taking because of where it leaves you. Our self-dispatch vs dispatcher math uses the same numbers.

Common mistakes when calculating cost per mile

• Using loaded miles only. Divide by total miles, then account for deadhead when you set your floor.
• Leaving out your own pay. The truck can be profitable while you're working for free.
• Forgetting irregular costs. Annual items like the 2290, UCR, plates and big repairs belong in the yearly total, not ignored because they're not monthly.
• Using the best fuel week. Use a year's average, or recalculate when diesel moves.
• Copying someone else's number. Another carrier's cost per mile, or the industry average, can be far from yours.
• Calculating once. Costs change. A number from last winter can be wrong by summer.

Ways to bring it down

• Cut deadhead. Every empty mile costs your full variable cost with nothing coming in. Here's how to cut deadhead miles.
• Run more miles on the same fixed costs, by keeping the truck loaded instead of sitting.
• Improve fuel economy: speed, idle time and tire pressure all show up per mile.
• Collect every accessorial you're owed. Detention and TONU you skip are revenue you already earned.
• Shop your insurance at renewal, once you have a clean year on record.

Write your cost per mile and rate floor down where you'll see them when you're booking. Recalculate every quarter. Fuel, repairs and miles change, and your floor should change with them.