Free calculator
Free trucking cost per mile calculator
Your cost per mile is the one number that turns every rate from a guess into a decision. Enter your fixed monthly costs, your per-mile costs, and your miles — the calculator returns your all-in cost per mile as you type. Free, no account needed.
Your costs
FreeEvery field is editable — swap in your real numbers. Results update as you type.
Your all-in cost per mile
$1.59/mi
Below $1.59/mi you're hauling at a loss.
Profit only starts on the money above this line — and it has to cover deadhead miles too.
- Fixed cost per mile ($4,250 ÷ 10,000 mi)
- $0.42
- Variable cost per mile
- $1.17
- of which fuel (price ÷ MPG)
- $0.82
Now check a real load against your number
The free load calculator turns a rate con into effective rate per mile — deadhead included — so you can see how far above (or below) your cost it lands.
Want the full cost breakdown with a worked example? Read the owner-operator cost per mile guide.
LoadMerit provides educational content, simulations, calculators, and decision-support tools for freight load analysis. Content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be treated as legal, financial, tax, regulatory, insurance, brokerage, carrier, or dispatching advice.
Fixed vs variable costs, in plain terms
Fixed costs bill you the same whether the truck moves or sits: the truck payment, insurance, plates and permits. You spread them across your miles, so more miles means a lower fixed cost per mile. A $4,250 fixed month over 10,000 miles is $0.43 a mile; the same bills over 8,000 miles jump to $0.53 a mile.
Variable costs only show up when the wheels turn: fuel, maintenance, tires. Fuel is the big one, and the math is simple: pump price divided by your truck's MPG. Diesel at $4.25 a gallon in a truck getting 6.5 MPG costs $0.65 for every mile, loaded or deadhead. The diesel default here follows the EIA weekly on-highway price, so treat it as a reference, not today’s pump price.
What to do with your number
Your all-in cost per mile is the floor under every negotiation. A load has to beat it on effective rate per mile (total pay divided by loaded plus deadhead miles), or you paid for the privilege of driving. A $630 rate con on a 300-mile run looks like $2.10 a mile — add 60 deadhead miles and it's really $1.75.
Run any offer through the free load calculator to get that effective number, and compare lanes against the typical lane ranges (index-adjusted reference ranges, not live rates). For the full breakdown of what belongs in each cost bucket, read the owner-operator cost per mile guide.
Common questions
- How do you calculate cost per mile in trucking?
- Total your fixed monthly costs and divide by the miles you run that month, then add your per-mile variable costs. A $4,250 fixed month over 10,000 miles is $0.43 a mile; diesel at $4.25 a gallon in a truck getting 6.5 MPG adds $0.65 a mile, and maintenance and tires go on top of that.
- What counts as a fixed cost versus a variable cost?
- Fixed costs bill you the same whether the truck moves or sits: truck payment, insurance, plates and permits. Variable costs only appear when the wheels turn: fuel, maintenance, and tires.
- What is a typical cost per mile for an owner-operator?
- There is no single figure, because it moves with your truck payment, insurance, fuel price, MPG, and how many miles you run. The same $4,250 of fixed bills spread over 8,000 miles instead of 10,000 raises your fixed cost per mile from $0.43 to $0.53, so your mileage matters as much as the bills do.
- Why does cost per mile matter when booking loads?
- It is the floor under every negotiation. A load has to beat it on effective rate per mile — total pay divided by loaded plus deadhead miles. A $630 rate confirmation on a 300-mile run looks like $2.10 a mile, but add 60 deadhead miles and it is really $1.75.