Trucking cost-per-mile calculator.
Calculate your trucking cost per mile from one month's expenses. Include empty miles and driver pay to see the revenue you need from each loaded mile.
Monthly truck expenses
Use actual expenses to review a month, or budgeted expenses to plan one. Keep the same truck and month throughout.
Your figures stay in this page. We do not send or save your calculator inputs. Reloading the page restores the example.
Monthly expense breakdown
| Expense | Monthly total | Per total mile |
|---|---|---|
| Truck & trailer payments | $2,400.00 | $0.24 |
| Insurance | $1,200.00 | $0.12 |
| Permits, registration & business taxes | $200.00 | $0.02 |
| Other fixed overhead | $300.00 | $0.03 |
| Driver pay & benefits | $5,000.00 | $0.50 |
| Fuel & DEF | $5,500.00 | $0.55 |
| Maintenance & repairs | $1,000.00 | $0.10 |
| Tires | $300.00 | $0.03 |
| Tolls, scales & trip fees | $200.00 | $0.02 |
| Other variable costs | $400.00 | $0.04 |
| Total | $16,500.00 | $1.65 |
Amounts display to the nearest cent. Calculations use unrounded values.
Total miles and loaded miles
Cost per mile measures the whole operation
Add the month's expenses, including driver pay, and divide by every mile the truck drove. Empty miles still consume fuel and put wear on the truck.
Cost per total mile = monthly costs ÷ total miles
Loaded miles must cover empty running too
When only loaded miles earn revenue, those miles must also cover the empty running. The example has $16,500 in costs, 10,000 total miles and 1,500 empty miles. That is $1.65 per total mile, or about $1.94 across each of the 8,500 loaded miles.
Break-even per loaded mile = monthly costs ÷ (total miles − empty miles)
This is an average revenue requirement, not a quote for a particular load. If fuel surcharges or other charges bring in revenue, include them when comparing total revenue with these costs. Do not add fuel expense again: it is already in the worksheet. Our fuel surcharge calculator works out a separate contract-based surcharge.
Make the expenses match your business
Include each cost once. Use a maintenance reserve for planning or actual repair spend for a past period; adding both for the same repairs inflates the result. Annual insurance, permits and subscriptions need a monthly share. For this cash-budget worksheet, enter equipment payments without also adding depreciation for the same equipment.
Driver pay is a separate input so an owner-operator can include pay for their own work. Cash left after these budgeted costs can provide a buffer or return to the business. Equipment loan payments include principal, so this is not an accounting profit calculation. This worksheet does not calculate income tax or a profit target. Add any operating costs missing from the named categories to the appropriate "other" field.
Method and source
The fixed and variable expense approach follows OOIDA's cost-per-mile worksheet explanation. Our example figures are invented for demonstration, not industry averages or current fuel prices. Method reviewed September 11, 2026.