Trucking Cost Per Mile: How to Calculate Your Floor Rate

1. Fixed costs (you pay these whether you roll or not)

• Truck and trailer payments
• Insurance (liability, cargo, physical damage, occupational)
• Permits, IFTA, IRP, heavy-use tax (Form 2290)
• ELD subscription, dispatch software, factoring fees
• Parking, office, accounting

Tally a full month, then divide by miles. A typical solo owner-op runs $3,000–$5,000/mo in fixed costs before fuel.

2. Variable costs (per-mile expenses)

• Fuel — biggest line. Use last 30 days of actual MPG and price/gal.
• Tires (budget $0.03–$0.05/mi)
• Preventive maintenance and repairs (budget $0.10–$0.15/mi)
• Tolls, scales, lumpers
• DEF, oil, washes

Fuel example: 6.5 MPG at $3.85/gal = $0.59/mi in fuel alone.

3. Driver pay / owner salary

Owner-operators often skip this and end up working for free. Pay yourself a real salary — treat it as a cost, not "what's left over." A $60,000 salary across 100,000 miles is $0.60/mi.

Worked example

$1.94/mi is your break-even. Add your margin target (15–25%) to get the floor rate you'll plug into the Load Qualifier:

Floor Rate = CPM ÷ (1 − margin%)
           = $1.94 ÷ (1 − 0.20)
           = $2.43/mi minimum

Auto-haul carriers: per-unit math matters

On a 5-car stinger, the same trailer mile is split across units. A full load at $7.50/mi spreads to $1.50/mi per unit. Partial loads need co-loading to hit the same trailer RPM — the Load Qualifier's co-load shortfall tells you exactly how much extra revenue you need from a second unit.

Common mistakes

• Using deadhead miles in the denominator — only count loaded + necessary repositioning.
• Ignoring quarterly/annual costs (2290, IRP renewal) — divide into monthly slices.
• Not paying yourself a salary, then wondering why there's nothing in the bank.
• Updating CPM once a year. Fuel and insurance move; recalculate quarterly.