Trucking Break-Even Rate Calculator (Per Mile and Per Load)

Enter a year of costs, your miles and your deadhead. You get the rate you need per loaded mile and per mile driven, a target rate with profit, and the minimum pay for a load once the empty miles to reach it are counted.

How to use it

Put a year of fixed costs in the first box: everything you pay whether the wheels turn or not, including the pay you need to take home. Then enter your variable costs per mile driven, your annual loaded miles, and your deadhead as a share of all miles. Add a profit target if you want a rate to aim for rather than a floor. To test a specific load, enter its loaded miles, the empty miles to reach it, and the total pay.

The calculator works out total miles as loaded miles ÷ (1 − deadhead share), total cost as fixed costs + variable cost × total miles, and then divides that cost by total miles and by loaded miles.

Worked example

Illustrative figures, the same ones used in our guide to setting your rate; replace every one with your own.

Fixed costs $115,000. Variable costs: fuel $0.954 ($6.199 ÷ 6.5 mpg), maintenance $0.25, tires $0.06, other $0.04, total $1.304 a mile.
88,000 loaded miles at 12 percent deadhead: 88,000 ÷ 0.88 = 100,000 total miles.
Total cost: $115,000 + $1.304 × 100,000 = $245,400.
Break-even: $245,400 ÷ 100,000 = $2.45 per mile driven; $245,400 ÷ 88,000 = $2.79 per loaded mile.
With a $20,000 profit target: $265,400 ÷ 100,000 = $2.65 per mile driven, or $3.02 per loaded mile.

Now a load: 400 loaded miles, 120 empty to reach it, paying $1,100 ($2.75 per loaded mile). It costs you 520 miles. Break-even pay is 520 × $2.454 = $1,276.08, or $3.19 per loaded mile. The offer works out at $1,100 ÷ 520 = $2.12 per mile driven, about $176 short of covering cost.

Per loaded mile or per mile driven?

The per-loaded-mile figure is what your loaded miles must average across the year, assuming your usual deadhead. Use it for annual planning and contract lanes. When you judge a single load and you already know its deadhead, use the per-mile-driven figure on loaded plus empty miles, as the load check does. Applying the per-loaded-mile figure on top of known deadhead counts the empty miles twice and makes good loads look bad.

The industry comparison

ATRI’s Operational Costs of Trucking, 2026 edition, put the industry-average cost to operate a truck in 2025 at $2.336 per mile. The calculator sets your cost per mile driven beside it as a sanity check only. A fleet average is not your cost; your equipment, lanes, miles and your own pay decide that.

Common mistakes

Leaving out your own pay. Without it the break-even rate is the rate at which you work for nothing.
Optimistic miles. Fixed costs are spread over the miles you really run, after weeks off and shop time.
A stale fuel line. Update the fuel cost per mile when diesel moves, or use the fuel surcharge calculator to see what the surcharge covers.
Comparing a linehaul-only offer. Your costs include fuel, so compare against total pay including surcharge.
Ignoring factoring. If you factor, either add the fee per mile or divide the result by one minus the fee.

Questions

What is the difference between break-even per loaded mile and per mile driven?

Per mile driven spreads your total annual cost across every mile, loaded and empty. Per loaded mile spreads the same cost across paid miles only, so it is always higher. Use the loaded-mile figure for annual planning and the per-mile-driven figure when you judge a load whose deadhead you have already counted.

Should fuel be in my costs if I get a fuel surcharge?

Yes. Fuel is a cost whether or not it is reimbursed. Keep it in the variable costs and compare against total pay including the surcharge. Taking fuel out of both sides only works if the surcharge covers your real fuel cost on every mile, which it usually does not on empty miles.

How is the deadhead percentage calculated?

Here it is empty miles as a share of all miles driven. At 12 percent, 88,000 loaded miles means 100,000 total and 12,000 empty. Some people quote deadhead as a share of loaded miles instead; on that basis the same truck would be 13.6 percent, so convert before you enter it.

Nothing leaves your browser

The calculation runs entirely on your device. Your figures are not sent anywhere and we cannot see them. If your browser allows it they are saved locally so the form is still filled in when you come back — the Clear all fields button removes that copy.

Working out what rate to accept — the method behind this calculator.
Cost per mile calculator — build your fixed and variable costs line by line.
Fuel surcharge calculator.

Break-Even Rate Calculator