1. Add up your fixed costs for a month
These are the bills you pay even if the truck sits:
- Truck and trailer payments (or lease)
- Insurance: liability, cargo, physical damage, bobtail
- ELD, phone, load board subscriptions, permits, plates (yearly costs ÷ 12)
- Parking, accounting, and any other monthly bills
2. Work out your running costs per mile
- Fuel: diesel price ÷ your MPG. At $3.80 and 6.5 MPG that's about $0.58 a mile.
- Maintenance and tires: total last year's repair and tire bills ÷ last year's miles. Many owner-operators land somewhere around $0.15–$0.25.
- Pay: what you want to earn per mile, or your driver's pay per mile.
- Tolls, scales, lumpers if you don't bill them back.
3. Put it together
Fixed cost per mile = monthly fixed costs ÷ monthly miles (count every mile, deadhead too). Then add your running costs per mile.
Any load that pays less than $1.75 per total mile (loaded plus deadhead) loses money. Try it with your numbers in the free cost per mile calculator.
4. Use it on every load
Multiply your cost per mile by the total miles for a load to get its break-even rate. Add the profit you want per mile to get the rate to counter with. The load profit calculator does this for you.
5. Recalculate every month
Slow months spread the same fixed costs over fewer miles, so your cost per mile rises exactly when rates are worst. Fuel price swings move it too. Tracking expenses as you go (snap the receipt) keeps the number current without a weekend of paperwork.
Questions
What's a typical cost per mile for owner-operators?
It varies a lot by truck payment, insurance, fuel and lanes. Your own number is the only one that matters for your loads.
Should deadhead miles be included?
Yes. Use all miles you drive in the month, loaded and empty, when you divide fixed costs.