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How to Calculate Your True Cost Per Mile

Most truckers only count fuel. Learn the 7 costs you're probably missing and why they're killing your profits.

Mike Henderson

The Complete Guide to Trucking Cost Management

Most truckers know their fuel cost. But fuel is only about 30-40% of your actual cost per mile. The other 60-70% is what separates profitable truckers from those who go broke.

The 7 Costs Every Trucker Must Track

1. Fuel Cost

The obvious one. Take your fuel price and divide by your MPG. If diesel is $3.50/gallon and you get 7 MPG, that's $0.50/mile in fuel alone.

2. Truck Payment

Divide your monthly payment by your expected monthly miles. A $2,000/month payment with 10,000 miles/month = $0.20/mile.

3. Insurance

Commercial truck insurance runs $1,000-$2,000/month for most owner-operators. At 10,000 miles/month, that's $0.10-0.20/mile.

4. Maintenance & Repairs

Budget $0.10-0.15/mile for routine maintenance, tires, and unexpected repairs. Newer trucks are on the lower end; older trucks are higher.

5. Permits & Licenses

IFTA, IRP, authority fees, UCR — these add up. Spread across your annual miles, figure $0.02-0.05/mile.

6. Driver Pay (or Your Own Salary)

Even if you're the driver, you need to pay yourself. Most calculate this as $0.40-0.60/mile or a percentage of the load.

7. Deadhead Miles

Empty miles still cost money — fuel, wear, and time. If you deadhead 15% of your total miles, you need to factor that into every paying load.

The Formula

True Cost Per Mile = (Fuel + Payment + Insurance + Maintenance + Permits + Driver Pay) ÷ (1 - Deadhead Percentage)

Example Calculation

  • Fuel: $0.50/mile
  • Payment: $0.20/mile
  • Insurance: $0.15/mile
  • Maintenance: $0.12/mile
  • Permits: $0.03/mile
  • Driver pay: $0.50/mile
  • Subtotal: $1.50/mile
  • Deadhead adjustment (15%): $1.50 ÷ 0.85 = $1.76/mile

If your true cost is $1.76/mile and you accept a load paying $1.50/mile, you're losing $0.26 on every single mile. Do that enough times and you're out of business.

The Bottom Line

Knowing your true cost per mile is the difference between building wealth and going broke. Calculate it once, update it quarterly, and never accept a load below that number.

Or let HaulProfit calculate it automatically — enter your costs once and get instant green/yellow/red decisions on every load.