Trucking Cost Per Mile & Break-Even Rate Calculator
Calculate true cost per total mile, convert it into the rate required on loaded miles, price deadhead correctly, protect a target operating margin, and build lane-specific quote floors before accepting freight.
Build the real cost per mile
How deadhead and margin turn truck CPM into a freight rate
Target linehaul rate stress matrix
Compare CPM carefully
ATRI's 2026 Operational Costs of Trucking update reports an industry-average operating cost of $2.336 per mile in 2025, including $1.854 per mile excluding fuel. Use that as directional context, not a rate card: equipment age, insurance, driver compensation, duty cycle, geography, toll exposure, deadhead and accounting treatment can materially change a carrier's cost per mile.
Research reference: American Transportation Research Institute, Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2026 Update.
Detailed annual cost stack + six-lane quote board
Where every truck mile goes
Six lane quote floors and quoted-rate margins
| Lane | Total trip mi | Deadhead % | Target gross revenue | Target all-in / loaded mi | Required linehaul / loaded mi | Quoted linehaul | Quoted margin | Signal |
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Target linehaul rate sensitivity
Know what is — and is not — in your CPM
This is a financial planning and quoting model, not a freight-rate forecast. Enter your own insurance, compensation, fuel, maintenance, toll, equipment, financing and overhead assumptions. Do not double-count owner compensation and target profit. Lane economics can also be affected by reload probability, seasonality, detention, market imbalance, cargo requirements, insurance limits and operating constraints that are not automatically predicted here.