Per-Mile Profit Calculator

How to Find Your Real Cost Per Mile

Your real cost per mile is not your fuel cost, and it is not the number you guessed when you bought the truck. It is every dollar it costs to keep that truck moving, divided by every mile it actually runs — loaded and empty. Add up all of your costs over a month or a quarter, then divide by your total miles for the same period. The result is the rate you must beat on every loaded mile simply to break even, before you have earned a cent of profit. Work it out from your own records, not from an industry average, because no two operations have the same truck, the same lanes, or the same fixed costs.

Start with the two kinds of cost. Fixed costs keep coming whether the wheels turn or not: truck payments, insurance, permits, licences, ELD subscriptions and office costs. Variable costs rise with every mile: fuel, driver pay, maintenance, tyres, tolls and dispatch or factoring fees. Add them together for the period, divide by total miles, and you have your true cost per mile. Drive fewer miles and your fixed cost per mile rises, because the same insurance bill is spread over fewer miles. That is why a slow month can turn a rate that looked profitable into a loss. For a step-by-step method, see our guide on how to calculate cost per mile, then use the calculator above to test any load against the number you find.

Why Deadhead Miles Quietly Kill Your Margin

Deadhead miles are the empty miles you run to collect a load, reposition for the next job, or return home — and they are the quietest way to lose money in trucking. Your costs run on every mile, but your revenue only runs on loaded miles. The truck burns the same diesel empty as it does loaded, the driver is still paid, tyres still wear, and the maintenance clock still ticks. The only thing that stops on a deadhead mile is the income.

Take a simple example. A load pays $2.50 per mile for 1,000 loaded miles, which is $2,500 of gross revenue. If you run 100 deadhead miles to reach it, you have actually run 1,100 miles to earn that $2,500, so your revenue is only $2.27 for every mile the truck moved. Add another 200 empty miles and the same load is worth just $2.08 per mile run. Nothing about the load changed — only the empty miles did. The calculator above makes this visible by charging fuel, driver pay and other running costs against all of your miles, while counting revenue only on the loaded ones, so a load that looks good at its headline rate can be shown for what it really pays.

Keep your deadhead percentage low wherever you can: look for a backhaul before you accept a headhaul into a dead freight area, negotiate a rate that covers the empty miles to the pickup, and track your deadhead share every week, not just once a year. A regular 10 to 15 percent deadhead is common in many operations, but once it creeps above 20 percent, even a strong headline rate can leave you working for nothing.

What Is a Break-Even Rate — and How to Use It Before You Accept a Load

Your break-even rate is the lowest rate per loaded mile at which you stop losing money on a load, once every cost — including the empty miles and the percentage fees taken off the top — has been paid. It is not your cost per total mile. Because deadhead miles and dispatch or factoring fees have to be covered by the loaded miles alone, your break-even rate per loaded mile is always higher than your cost per mile run. The calculator above works it out for you, and it is the single most useful number to know before you say yes to a load.

Use it as a hard floor. When a broker offers a load, compare the quoted rate per loaded mile with your break-even rate for that specific run, including the deadhead to collect it and the tolls on the route. If the offer is below break-even, you are paying the shipper to haul their freight: decline it, negotiate the rate up, or ask for a backhaul that lifts the round trip above break-even. If the offer is only just above break-even, the load may still not be worth taking if it ties up your truck for days or takes you into an area with no freight coming out. Check the rate before you accept, not after you have delivered, when it is already too late to change your mind. Rework your break-even rate whenever fuel prices, insurance, or driver pay move, because a rate that was profitable last quarter may not be profitable now.

The Cost Categories to Include Every Time

A profit calculation is only as honest as the costs you put into it. Leave one category out and the calculator will flatter you. Work through the full list every time you price a load:

• Fuel: your largest variable cost. It depends on diesel price and your miles per gallon, and it is charged on every mile, loaded and empty.
• Driver pay: pay per mile, or a salary converted to a per-mile figure, again on all miles driven.
• Insurance: liability, cargo and physical damage cover, spread across the miles you run.
• Maintenance and repairs: servicing, tyres, brakes and breakdowns. Set aside a fixed amount per mile as a maintenance reserve instead of waiting for a large bill to arrive.
• Dispatch and factoring fees: usually charged as a percentage of the load revenue, so they come straight off the top before any of your per-mile costs are paid.
• Tolls, scales, permits and fuel tax: route tolls are easy to forget, and fuel tax is a real per-mile cost too — estimate it with our IFTA fuel tax estimator.
• Other running costs: truck payments, depreciation, ELD and software, accounting, parking and phone costs — enter them as a per-mile figure in the calculator.

Once you know your true cost per mile and your break-even rate, you can price loads with confidence instead of guessing. Use the calculator above on every load, keep your deadhead low, and revisit your costs at least once a month. You can find all of our free tools on the Trucking Tools hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I calculate my profit per mile?

Divide your total net profit by your total miles. Take your gross revenue, then subtract every cost — fuel, driver pay, insurance, maintenance, tolls, dispatch and factoring fees, and other running costs — to get your net profit. Divide that net profit by the total miles you ran, including deadhead miles, to get your profit per mile.

What is a break-even rate per mile?

It is the lowest rate per loaded mile at which you stop losing money on a load, after every cost has been paid and after percentage fees such as dispatch and factoring have been taken off the revenue. If the rate you are offered is below your break-even rate, the load loses money; if it is above it, the load makes a profit.

What profit margin should a trucking company aim for?

As a guide, a net margin of 20% or more is strong, 10–20% is workable, and under 10% is thin — these are the bands used by the calculator above. A thin margin leaves little room for a breakdown, a fuel price rise, or a slow week, so aim to lift your margin by cutting deadhead, raising your rate, or reducing your cost per mile.

Do deadhead miles count in the calculation?

Yes, for costs — fuel, driver pay and wear run on total miles, including deadhead miles — but deadhead miles earn no revenue. That is why the calculator charges running costs against every mile you drive, while revenue is counted only on loaded miles, and why keeping deadhead low matters so much to your profit.