How do I work out whether a load is worth taking?

Divide total revenue, including fuel surcharge, by total miles including the deadhead to reach the pickup, then compare that against your cost per mile driven. The rate per loaded mile advertised by the broker is not the right comparison because you pay for empty miles too.

Working Out What Rate to Accept

Q: What is a good rate per mile in trucking?

There is no universal figure; it depends on your own cost structure, lanes and utilisation. ATRI put the industry average marginal operating cost at $2.336 per mile in 2025, which represents a break-even floor for an average operator rather than a target.

Every load is one calculation. Done properly once, it becomes instinct; skipped, it is how carriers run hard all year and finish flat.

The four numbers

Your cost per mile driven. Everything you spend in a year divided by every mile you turn.
Your cost per paid mile. The same costs divided by loaded miles only. Always higher, and always the relevant one.
The total miles of this load, including the deadhead to get to it.
The total revenue, including fuel surcharge and any approved accessorials.

The test: total revenue divided by total miles, compared against your cost per mile driven. That single division answers whether the load pays, and it is the one most people skip because the broker quoted a rate per mile that sounded fine.

Worked example. A load pays $2.75 per mile for 400 loaded miles: $1,100. You are 120 miles away, so you drive 520 miles in total. $1,100 ÷ 520 = $2.12 per mile driven. Against an industry average operating cost of $2.336 per mile, a load advertised at $2.75 is below cost before you have argued about anything.

That is the entire trick. Deadhead does not reduce your rate a little; it can eliminate the margin completely.

The benchmark, and its limits

ATRI put the industry average marginal operating cost at $2.336 per mile for 2025, or $1.854 excluding fuel. That is the highest in the history of that report.

Use it as a sanity check, not as your number. A single owner-operator has a different cost structure from a fleet, and your figure depends on your equipment, lanes and utilisation. Our calculator works out yours and compares it line by line against that benchmark.

What has to be inside your cost before the comparison is honest

Your own pay. If you did not include it, you are measuring against a job that pays nothing.
A maintenance accrual, not the repairs you happened to pay this year. See maintenance.
Fixed costs across realistic miles, with weeks off and shop time removed.
Factoring fees, if you use it. See factoring.
Tax reserves. The bill arrives whether or not you set money aside.

A cost per mile that omits any of these produces a number that makes bad loads look acceptable, which is the worst possible error to make repeatedly.

Judging a load in thirty seconds

Once you know your cost per mile driven, three questions settle almost every load:

What is total revenue divided by total miles? Below your cost, stop here.
Where does it leave me? A slightly weak rate into a strong freight area can beat a strong rate into a dead one. You are buying position as well as revenue.
What does it cost me in hours? A tight appointment, a known slow receiver or a long wait turns an acceptable rate into a bad day. See detention.

On negotiating

The strongest position is knowing your number and being willing to decline. You are not bluffing when you say a load does not work — you are reading your own arithmetic aloud, and that is audible.

Two practical points. Ask for the rate you need rather than nudging theirs, because it is a different conversation. And remember the broker has a budget for that load and a deadline; late in the day on a load that must move, your position improves considerably.

The context nobody in the negotiation will mention: ATRI's 2026 data put operating margins below 1 percent in truckload and refrigerated in 2025, with an average loss in flatbed. In an industry running at roughly break-even on average, the operators who do well are disproportionately the ones who decline work. Being busy and being profitable are not the same thing, and only one of them shows up in your account.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if a load pays?

Divide total revenue by total miles including deadhead, and compare against your cost per mile driven. The advertised rate per loaded mile is not the comparison.

What is a good rate per mile?

There is no universal figure. It depends on your cost, which depends on your equipment, lanes and utilisation. The industry average operating cost was $2.336 per mile in 2025, which is a floor for the average operator rather than a target.

Should I include my own pay in the cost?

Yes. Leaving it out means comparing loads against working for free.