Calculator · Cost per mile

Trucking cost per mile calculator

By Jordan Sanders, leased owner-operator · About

Short answer: Cost per mile is your total truck costs for a period divided by the miles you drove in it. Add up a month of fuel, truck payment, insurance, repairs and every other cost, divide by that month's miles, and you have it. Enter your numbers below to see your cost per mile, your biggest costs, and your profit per mile.

The numbers filled in are a made-up example, not a real driver; replace them with yours. Use all miles, loaded and empty. Count each cost once: carrier deductions on your settlement (insurance, tolls, plates) belong here, but don't add the same charge again from your bank or card statements. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Load profit calculator: is this load worth it?

Use the month above as your cost base, then enter one load. Daily costs (truck payment, insurance, plates and permits, phone and the rest) are charged for each day the load ties up your truck. Per-mile costs (repairs, tires, tolls) and fuel are charged on every mile, loaded and empty.

Leased on? "What the load pays you" is your share, the way your settlement sheet would show it, before the carrier's deductions. Those deductions are already in your monthly costs above.

The cost per mile formula

Cost per mile = total costs ÷ miles driven, for the same period. Use a full month or more: a single week can swing with one repair or one fuel stop.

To find what you keep on each mile, subtract it from your pay per mile: profit per mile = (gross pay − total costs) ÷ miles. If you're leased, gross pay is the gross on your settlement sheets before the carrier's deductions; count the deductions (insurance, plates, tolls, equipment fees) as costs.

A worked example

The example in the calculator, which is made up: 10,000 miles in a month, $11,000 of costs, $13,500 of gross settlement pay.

• Cost per mile: $11,000 ÷ 10,000 = $1.10
• Gross per mile: $13,500 ÷ 10,000 = $1.35
• Left after listed costs: $0.25 a mile, or $2,500 for the month, before taxes
• Biggest cost: fuel at $0.56 a mile, about half of everything

Fixed and variable costs

Some costs stay the same whether you run 6,000 miles or 12,000: the truck payment, insurance, plates and subscriptions, phone and the like. Others grow with every mile: fuel, tires, repairs, tolls. That's why a slow month raises your cost per mile even if nothing got more expensive. In the example, those daily costs are $3,750 a month (truck payment, insurance, plates and permits, phone and the rest), about $0.38 a mile at 10,000 miles but about $0.63 a mile at 6,000.

Where the numbers come from

Wondering how your result compares? See how much owner-operators make after expenses, with fleet cost benchmarks.

A calculator is only as good as what goes into it. The reliable source is your books: settlement sheets for gross pay and carrier deductions, your bank and card statements for everything else, and your ELD or trip records for miles. If those are up to date, your cost per mile is a two-minute check every month. Our bookkeeping checklist shows the routine, and Monthly Books sends you this number in your report every month.