Why this one number decides your year
A load board shows you a rate. It doesn't show you whether that rate makes you money. Only your cost per mile does that. And margins in trucking are thin: ATRI reported that operating margins for truckload and refrigerated fleets "were still below 1.0 percent" in 2025.1 There's very little room for a load that looks fine but quietly loses money.
If you know your cost per mile, you can answer three questions in seconds: should I take this load, what should I counter with, and how much cash do I need to get through the month.
The 2025 benchmark, line by line
Every year the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) surveys fleets on what it costs to run a truck. Its 2026 report, released July 15, 2026, put the 2025 average at $2.336 per mile, the highest in the report's history and 3.4% higher than the year before. Without fuel, costs were $1.854 per mile.1,2
What it cost to run a truck in 2025, per mile
ATRI industry averages by line item. Total: $2.336 per mile.
Show as a table
| Line item | $ per mile (2025) |
|---|---|
| Driver wages | 0.818 |
| Fuel | 0.482 |
| Truck + trailer payments | 0.400 |
| Repair & maintenance | 0.220 |
| Driver benefits | 0.210 |
| Insurance | 0.110 |
| Tires | 0.050 |
| Tolls | 0.043 |
| Permits & licenses | 0.008 |
| Total (reported) | 2.336 |
Two things stand out for a new owner-operator. First, the driver is the biggest cost, and if that's you, your own pay has to be in the number, or you're working for free. Second, ATRI's figures are averages from established fleets. A brand-new carrier often pays more for insurance and financing, and costs vary by region: ATRI found the Northeast most expensive ($2.52 per mile) and the South-Central region cheapest ($2.23).2 Use the benchmark as a sanity check, not as your number.
How to calculate yours in 4 steps
- Add up your fixed costs for a month. These don't change with miles: truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits and plates (spread the yearly cost over 12 months), ELD and software subscriptions, phone, accounting.
- Add up your variable costs for the same month. These rise with every mile: fuel, repairs and maintenance, tires, tolls, parking, scales. For fuel: miles ÷ MPG × price per gallon.
- Add your pay. What you need to take home (or what you pay a driver), including payroll taxes and benefits. It's a cost of the business.
- Divide by all the miles you drove that month, loaded and empty. That's your cost per mile.
Then set your floor: minimum rate per mile = cost per mile ÷ (1 − target margin). For a 10% margin, divide by 0.9. Because that's per total mile, divide by your loaded share to get a minimum loaded-mile rate. If 15% of your miles are deadhead, divide by 0.85.
Use real numbers from your bank statements and fuel receipts as soon as you have one or two months of them. Estimates are fine to start with, but re-run the math monthly. Keeping every fuel receipt also covers you for IFTA.
A worked example
A one-truck owner-operator running 10,000 miles a month (these are the calculator's starting numbers; they're illustrative, not a quote):
| Cost (per month) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Truck + trailer payments | $2,800 |
| Insurance | $1,500 |
| Permits, ELD, phone, software, accounting | $400 |
| Fuel (10,000 mi ÷ 6.5 MPG × $3.75) | $5,769 |
| Repairs, maintenance + tires | $2,500 |
| Tolls, parking, scales | $300 |
| Your pay | $6,000 |
| Total | $19,269 |
| Cost per mile (÷ 10,000) | $1.93 |
| Minimum rate for a 10% margin (÷ 0.9) | $2.14 per total mile |
| Minimum per loaded mile with 15% deadhead (÷ 0.85) | $2.52 |
Using it on a real rate confirmation
A broker offers $2,000 for a load that's 800 loaded miles, and you'll drive 120 empty miles to pick it up. That's 920 total miles.
- Your cost: 920 × $1.93 = about $1,773.
- Profit at $2,000: about $227 (an 11% margin). Take it, or counter a little higher.
- At $1,700 you'd lose about $73, even though "$2.13 a loaded mile" might look fine on the board.
That's the habit: total miles × your cost per mile, compared with the offer, before you say yes. It takes ten seconds.
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Cost-per-mile calculator
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Cost-per-mile calculator
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Example numbers are illustrative, not a quote. "Minimum rate" is per total mile, so add your deadhead to the loaded miles when you compare it with a rate confirmation.
Where your cost per mile fits in the bigger picture
Your cost per mile also tells you how much cash you need while you wait for brokers to pay. Read the cash gap in our starter guide, and what factoring really costs if you're thinking of using it to bridge that gap.
Get the free New Authority Survival Kit
The 90-day checklist and the new-entrant audit cheat sheet (16 automatic-fail violations) as printable PDFs. Instant download.
Sources
- ATRI, "New ATRI Report Details Accelerating Costs and Low Profitability Despite Cuts", July 15, 2026: truckingresearch.org.
- FleetOwner, "Trucking operational costs hit record $2.336 per mile, ATRI reports" (line items and regions): fleetowner.com.
The worked example uses illustrative numbers. General information, not financial advice. Last checked October 14, 2026.