Trucking Cost Per Mile Calculator
Work out what a mile actually costs you to run, what you must charge per loaded mile to break even once deadhead is accounted for, and what a given rate leaves you at the end of the month. Compare the result against the 2025 industry averages below.
The mistake that makes a profitable-looking rate lose money
Most cost-per-mile calculators divide total monthly cost by total monthly miles and stop there. That number is useful for understanding your cost base, but it is the wrong figure to quote against, because you are not paid for every mile you run. You are paid for loaded miles only.
If you run 10,000 miles a month and 12 per cent of them are empty, you have 8,800 revenue miles carrying the cost of all 10,000. A total cost of $1.80 per mile becomes a break-even of roughly $2.05 per loaded mile. Accepting $1.95 feels comfortably above cost and quietly loses money on every load.
This calculator reports both numbers. Use total cost per mile to understand your business and to compare yourself against the industry. Use break-even per loaded mile when you are deciding whether to take a load.
2025 industry benchmarks to check yourself against
The American Transportation Research Institute publishes an annual analysis of operational costs drawn from carrier financial data. For the 2025 calendar year the marginal cost of operating a truck averaged $2.336 per mile, a record, and up 3.4 per cent on 2024. Excluding fuel, the figure was $1.854 per mile.
| Sector | Average cost per mile, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Truckload | $2.21 |
| Specialised | $2.39 |
| Less-than-truckload | $2.58 |
| All sectors | $2.336 |
Driver wages and benefits together passed one dollar per mile for the first time, averaging $1.028. The fastest-rising line items were tolls, up 13.2 per cent, repair and maintenance, up 8.6 per cent, and tires, up 6.4 per cent. Fuel was flat at 0.2 per cent.
These are averages across all fleet sizes and regions, so treat them as a sanity check rather than a target. If your own figure comes out far below $1.80, something is probably missing from your fixed costs.
What belongs in fixed costs
Fixed costs are the ones that continue whether or not the wheels turn: truck and trailer payments or depreciation, primary liability and physical damage insurance, occupational accident or workers compensation cover, base plates and apportioned registration, the heavy vehicle use tax, permits, IFTA filing, the ELD subscription, accounting and dispatch software, and yard or parking rent.
Two items are commonly forgotten and both are large. The first is a replacement reserve: if the truck will need replacing in five years, that cost is being incurred every month whether or not you set the money aside. The second is your own wage if you drive. Leaving driver pay at zero because you take the profit makes the cost per mile look far better than it is and makes it impossible to compare yourself to a fleet that pays a driver.
What belongs in variable costs
Variable costs scale with distance: fuel, diesel exhaust fluid, tires, routine servicing and repairs, tolls, and per-mile driver pay. Fuel is the single largest and the most volatile, which is why it is entered here as price per gallon and fuel economy rather than as a flat per-mile figure. A drop from 7.0 to 6.0 miles per gallon at $3.70 diesel adds about nine cents a mile, which on 10,000 miles is $900 a month.
Maintenance is the line most often underestimated. It arrives unevenly, as a clutch or a set of injectors rather than a smooth monthly charge, so operators who have had a quiet quarter tend to enter a number well below their real long-run cost. Divide the last two years of repair invoices by the miles run in that period rather than guessing.
Common questions
Should I use cost per mile or break-even per loaded mile when quoting?
Break-even per loaded mile. That is the figure that already carries the cost of the empty miles you will run to get to and from the freight. Cost per mile is the right number for understanding your business and benchmarking, but quoting against it will systematically underprice you by the proportion of your deadhead.
Do I include my own pay if I am an owner-operator?
Yes, if you want a number you can compare with anything else. Enter what you would have to pay a driver to do the work. What is left after that is the return on the business rather than a wage, and separating the two is the only way to tell whether the truck is profitable or simply buying you a job.
What deadhead percentage should I assume?
Use your own if you have it, from your ELD or fuel tax records, since that is the whole point of the field. If you are estimating, 10 to 20 per cent is the usual range. Regional and dedicated work sits at the low end; long-haul irregular route and specialised equipment that cannot easily reload sit at the high end.
Why is my cost per mile so much lower than the ATRI average?
Usually one of three reasons. Driver pay is set to zero because you drive yourself. Fixed costs omit depreciation or a replacement reserve because the truck is paid off. Or maintenance is entered from a recent quiet period rather than a long-run average. All three understate cost, and the first is the largest.
How does this handle a fuel surcharge?
It does not, because a surcharge is revenue rather than cost. If a rate is quoted as a line haul plus a fuel surcharge, add them together and enter the all-in figure per loaded mile in the rate field, and keep the diesel price current so the fuel cost side stays honest.
Does it matter that fixed costs are monthly and everything else is per mile?
That is deliberate, because it reflects how the costs actually behave. A truck payment is the same in a slow month as a busy one, which is exactly why cost per mile rises when miles fall. Run the calculator at your worst month's mileage as well as your average to see how much of your margin depends on keeping the truck busy.