Trucking cost-per-mile calculator
Your cost per mile is total operating cost divided by total miles driven, and it is the break-even figure every rate decision should be measured against. Most owner-operators underestimate it because irregular expenses and their own pay get left out.
Last reviewed · by the Fleetchart team
Your cost per mile
$1.770
Every mile below this rate loses money. This is the floor you negotiate from.
- Fixed per mile
- $1.011
- Variable per mile
- $0.759
- — fuel
- $0.585
- — maintenance & tires
- $0.130
- — tolls
- $0.044
- Total monthly cost
- $15,932
- Break-even at 5% dispatch
- $1.863
$9,100 monthly
$3.80/gal at 6.5 mpg
Rate needed before a dispatch fee
How to read this
The calculation has two halves. Fixed costs accrue whether the truck moves or not: the payment, insurance, permits, software, accounting and — critically — what you pay yourself. Variable costs scale with distance: fuel, maintenance, tires and tolls.
Two mistakes account for most wrong answers. The first is using an optimistic mileage figure; dividing fixed costs by miles you hope to run rather than miles you actually run understates the result and makes marginal loads look acceptable. The second is omitting expenses that arrive annually rather than monthly. Tires, major services and filing fees are real costs that need amortizing across the year.
Leaving your own pay out is the most common of all. A business that covers its costs but pays its owner nothing is not breaking even — it is running at a loss and disguising it as sweat.
Questions
- What is a typical cost per mile for an owner-operator?
- The best public benchmark is ATRI's annual cost survey. Its 2026 update puts the 2025 industry-average cost to operate a truck at $2.336 per mile, or $1.854 per mile excluding fuel — the highest in the report's history. That average comes from the carriers ATRI surveyed, so treat it as a sanity check, not your number: equipment age, financing, insurance history, lane mix and fuel economy all move an individual truck well away from it. If your own figure comes out far below $2.33, check that your pay, tires and annual bills are in it.
- Should I include my own salary in cost per mile?
- Yes. If your pay is not in the calculation then the break-even figure it produces is not a break-even at all, and every rate you accept against it quietly underpays you.
- How do I handle tires and major repairs?
- Amortize them. Estimate the annual cost and divide by expected annual miles to get a per-mile figure. Recording them only in the months they occur makes good months look better than they are and bad months look like disasters.
- How often should I recalculate?
- Quarterly at minimum, and immediately after any change to insurance, financing or fuel prices. Cost per mile is not a number you work out once.
Sources
- ATRI, An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2026 Update (July 2026) · 2025 industry-average operating cost of $2.336 per mile ($1.854 excluding fuel), and 2025 operating margins by sector. (checked )
Terms used here
Stop re-typing these numbers.
A calculator answers the question once. Fleetchart reads your rate confirmations and holds your expenses against the loads that caused them, so the answer stays current every week.
Related calculators
Why this number matters: How to work out your true cost per mile