How Do You Calculate Cost Per Mile

I usually won't load the truck for under $500 and don't like to do that unless it gets me to a lot better load.

Even the cheap loads will usually kill a day.

Better to spend that day on a longer run paying $800-$1000 or more for that days time.



I figure I need to do at least $4000 a week and that's a bare minimum.

You may be able to get buy on less but you will always be one major breakdown away from being out of business.

 

$1200 divided by 890 miles equals $1.35

Your 'cost per mile' is probably very close to $1 dollar a mile. that's just fuel and overhead. Factor in your bills at home to keep the lights on and belly full oops and tolls for this load here.

Figure out what your total life costs are per month and divide by 4.33 to come up with a weekly number. Now you know how many miles you need to run every week to live and eat. You can work the numbers out monthly, quarterly or yearly as well.

Basically you need to know what your Break Even Number is.

 

That's $4000 a week, not a month. That's gross. That is also not that great. That would be around $200,000 a year before expenses but there are a LOT of expenses in trucking.

 

I saw figures for last year from ATRI that had the average cost per mile for the carriers that reported to their study in the $1.60-$1.70 per mile range. Don't remember the exact figure. That included some of the large carriers. Of course that included the driver pay as an expense also.

Your cost per mile will be less if you lease to a carrier but your gross will be a lot less also. Leasing works for some and not for others. You have to figure out what fits you best.

 

Look up posts on this subject by MNDriver - he has a great MS Excel spreadsheet that helps with this. I have a spreadsheet as well but his tops mine in terms of detail. Plug in your numbers ( rate, miles, d/h miles, per day insurance costs, plates, maintenance, etc... ) and it will calculate your costs / profit / etc....hope this helps!

 

im not sure im understanding your post , that beautiful pete you put a pic of, is that yours, I think you own a company and lease owner ops on to your company and thats the advise you give?
I hope Im not reading the post correctly or undersranding it.

 

well cost per mile depends on few factors... it depends if you bought your truck and paid it of (in that case your cost per mile will be lower since you have no payments on the truck) or you are having payments in which case you have to include the payment into your calculations... For example my brother and me own 3 trucks (paid off) and we just added a beautiful brand new Freighter Coronado 2016 so we have to include monthly payment and higher insurance cost into our cost per mile calculations which cost per mile is much higher then for those 3 trucks that are paid off . Also it depends if you having to pay dispatch or you finding your own loads, also are you using a factoring company or not (most owner operators are using factoring companies because of cash flow). Like Blessedman said previously there are a lot of expenses in trucking and you have to know your costs. I hope it helps you understand it better