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Cost per mile and break-even rate calculator

Your cost per mile is everything the truck costs you in a week, fixed and running, divided by the miles it drives that week. That figure is your break-even rate: a load that pays less for every mile driven, empty miles included, costs you money to haul.

By Aditya Jain, Aditya EnterprisesUpdated October 24, 2026A planning aid, not financial, tax or legal advice

Example figures are filled in to show how it works. Replace each one with yours.

Miles a week

Every mile the truck drives, loaded and empty.

Fixed costs, per month

Paid whether the truck runs or not.

Truck and trailer payments

Insurance

Plates, permits and registration

Other fixed costs

ELD, phone, accounting, parking.

Running costs, per week

They go up and down with the miles.

Fuel

Tolls

Maintenance and tires

Driver pay, yours too

What you need to take home, or what you pay your driver. At 0, the break-even pays you nothing.

Other running costs

Scales, washes, lumper fees you are not paid back.

Your break-even rate

$1.982a mile

Every mile the truck drives, loaded or empty, has to bring in at least this.

How the math works

01Fixed costs, a week$1,153.85$5,000.00 a month × 12 ÷ 52
02Running costs, a week$3,800.00$1,500.00 + $50.00 + $400.00 + $1,750.00 + $100.00
03All costs, a week$4,953.85$1,153.85 + $3,800.00
04Cost per mile$1.982$4,953.85 ÷ 2,500 miles
05Without fuel and tolls$1.362($4,953.85 − $1,500.00 − $50.00) ÷ 2,500 miles

Fixed costs are $0.462 of every mile and running costs $1.520. To price one load, take the $1.362 without fuel and tolls to the load check, which adds that load's own fuel and tolls.

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How the math works

Step by step.

01Add up your fixed costs for a month: truck and trailer payments, insurance, plates and permits, and anything else you pay whether the truck runs or not.
02Turn that into a weekly figure: times 12 months, divided by 52 weeks.
03Add a week of running costs: fuel, tolls, maintenance and tires, driver pay (yours too) and anything else that moves with the miles.
04Divide the weekly total by the miles the truck drives that week, loaded and empty. That is your cost per mile, and your break-even rate.
05Take fuel and tolls out and divide again. That is the figure the load check starts from, because every load has its own fuel and tolls.

Good to know

Before you use the number.

Count every mile the truck drives, empty ones included. Brokers quote rates per loaded mile, so a load also has to pay for the empty miles to reach it: the load check counts them.
For scale, the national average is $2.336 a mile, all-in (ATRI, 2026 Operational Costs of Trucking). Your own figure is the one to price loads against.
Break-even is the floor, not a target: it covers the costs and the pay you put in, and nothing more.

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