Cost Per Mile: A Worked Example for One Truck
One truck, every cost line, and the arithmetic in full. Plus the reason your cost per mile rises in the months you drive less.
By Movik Editorial ·
Cost per mile is your monthly fixed costs divided by the miles you actually drive, plus the costs that accrue per mile. For one truck at 10,000 miles a month with $4,800 of fixed costs and $0.855 a mile of variable costs, that is $1.335 a mile before you pay yourself. Drop to 8,000 miles and the same truck costs $1.455 a mile, because the fixed half is spread across fewer miles.
What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything you owe whether or not the truck turns a wheel this month.
Truck and trailer payments, physical damage and liability insurance, permits and registrations, parking, accounting, phone and software. Insurance is the line carriers most often leave out, and it is usually the second largest.
Total them monthly, not annually. Annual figures hide the month you are actually trying to survive.
| Line | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Truck payment | $2,200 |
| Trailer payment | $600 |
| Insurance | $1,300 |
| Permits, registrations, UCR spread over 12 months | $150 |
| Parking | $250 |
| Accounting, phone, software | $300 |
| Fixed total | $4,800 |
These figures are an illustration. Yours come from your own bank statements, and building the table from statements rather than memory is most of the work.
What counts as a variable cost?
Anything that accrues because the truck moved. Express each as a figure per mile.
Fuel is the largest and the easiest to get right, because it is your fuel spend divided by your miles. At 6.5 miles per gallon and $3.90 a gallon, that is $0.60 a mile. Use your own average, not the sticker on the pump.
| Line | Per mile | How it is derived |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | $0.600 | 6.5 mpg at $3.90 per gallon |
| Maintenance reserve | $0.180 | Set aside per mile, spent in lumps |
| Tires | $0.045 | Set cost divided by expected tire life |
| Tolls and scales | $0.030 | Trailing three-month average |
| Variable total | $0.855 |
- Maintenance reserve
A per-mile amount you charge against every mile and set aside, rather than treating repairs as surprises. A rebuild does not become cheaper because you did not plan for it. The reserve turns a lumpy real cost into a smooth one you can price into a rate.
What does the arithmetic look like?
Add up the costs that do not change with miles
Truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits, parking, accounting and software. These are owed whether the truck moves or not, so they belong in one monthly total.
Work out the costs that scale with miles
Fuel, maintenance reserve, tires, tolls and scales. Express each one as a figure per mile rather than per month, because that is how they behave.
Choose a realistic monthly mileage
Use your actual average from the last three months, not your best month. This single input moves the answer more than any cost line.
Divide the fixed total by the miles and add the variable rate
Fixed cost divided by monthly miles gives a fixed cost per mile. Add the variable rate to it. That sum is your cost per mile before you pay yourself.
Recompute every quarter
Insurance renews, fuel moves, and your monthly mileage drifts. A number from last year describes a truck you no longer operate.
With the tables above, at 10,000 miles a month:
Fixed per mile is $4,800 divided by 10,000, which is $0.48. Add the variable total of $0.855 and the cost per mile is $1.335 before owner pay. Pay yourself $0.55 a mile and the truck needs $1.885 a mile to support you.
Why does my cost per mile change every month?
Because the fixed half is divided by a number that moves.
At 10,000 miles, $4,800 of fixed cost spreads to $0.48 a mile. At 8,000 miles it spreads to $0.60. The truck did not get more expensive; it just had fewer miles to carry the same burden.
| Monthly miles | Fixed per mile | Variable per mile | Cost per mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12,000 | $0.400 | $0.855 | $1.255 |
| 10,000 | $0.480 | $0.855 | $1.335 |
| 8,000 | $0.600 | $0.855 | $1.455 |
This is why a slow month is worse than it looks. Revenue falls and unit cost rises at the same time, from the same cause.
How do I use it on a real load?
Apply it to total miles, then compare against revenue on loaded miles.
Take a load paying $2.10 a mile over 640 loaded miles, with 120 miles of deadhead to reach the pickup. Revenue is 640 times $2.10, which is $1,344. Cost is 760 total miles times $1.335, which is $1,014.60. That leaves $329.40 before you pay yourself.
Now restate the headline. Revenue of $1,344 over 760 miles actually turned is $1.77 a mile, not $2.10. The deadhead did not cost you a line item; it moved your rate.
Run the same arithmetic before accepting rather than after settlement. The calculator does this on a specific load without an account.
What do carriers get wrong here?
Using loaded miles for cost and total miles for nothing. Costs accrue on every mile. A calculation on loaded miles alone understates cost by your empty percentage.
Leaving out their own pay and then wondering where the money went. A load at $1.34 a mile covered the truck exactly and paid the driver nothing.
Treating repairs as bad luck. Without a per-mile reserve, every major repair lands as a crisis, and crises get funded with the most expensive money available.
Calculating it once. Insurance renews, fuel moves, and mileage drifts. A figure from last year describes a truck you no longer operate.
Build the number once from your own statements, then put your next load through it.
Frequently asked questions
Should I include my own pay in cost per mile?
Calculate it both ways and know which one you are quoting. Cost per mile before owner pay tells you the break-even below which the load loses money outright. Cost per mile including a wage for yourself tells you the rate at which the truck actually supports you. Carriers who only track the first number take loads that cover the truck and not the driver.
What mileage should I use, loaded or total?
Total miles, including deadhead. Your costs accrue on every mile the truck turns, and a calculation based on loaded miles alone understates them by whatever your empty percentage is. Revenue is earned on loaded miles and cost is incurred on all of them, which is the whole reason deadhead hurts.
How do I handle a major repair in the numbers?
Set a maintenance reserve per mile and charge every mile against it, rather than treating a rebuild as a one-off shock. The reserve smooths a cost that is real but lumpy. Whether that reserve is deductible in the period you set it aside is a question for your accountant, because setting money aside and spending it are treated differently.
Does cost per mile tell me the minimum rate I can accept?
It tells you the floor, not the target. A rate at your cost per mile means the load paid for itself and paid you nothing. Where you set the margin above the floor depends on the lane, the season and what else you could be doing with the truck that week.
Why is my cost per mile higher than the figures I see quoted online?
Usually because published averages exclude something yours includes, or come from operations with different equipment, insurance and mileage. Averages are a sanity check, not a benchmark. The only figure that governs your decisions is the one built from your own bank statements.
Movik Editorial
Freight finance desk
The Movik editorial desk covers freight payment, factoring and carrier compliance. Posts are reviewed against the underwriting and document-processing work the team does daily.
Written and fact-checked by the team that underwrites carrier funding applications at Movik.
