Business & trucking · Worked example
The empty return trip that changes your cost per mile
In this hypothetical monthly operation, the truck costs $2.145 for every mile driven. With 12% of miles empty, the break-even rate rises to $2.438 per loaded mile when rounded up to the nearest tenth of a cent. A rate that covers each driven mile is not necessarily enough when only loaded miles earn revenue.
Start with all miles, then separate the paid ones
The example runs 10,000 total miles a month. Fixed costs are $6,000. Fuel costs $3.90 per gallon and consumption is 6.5 miles per gallon. Driver pay is $0.70 per total mile, maintenance $0.20 and tires $0.045. These are planning assumptions, not industry averages or a current fuel-price quote.
Fuel contributes $0.600 per mile. Add the other variable costs and the total is $1.545. Fixed costs contribute another $0.600, giving $2.145 per total mile and $21,450 in monthly modeled costs. With 12% deadhead, 8,800 of those miles are loaded. Dividing $21,450 by 8,800 gives the loaded-mile break-even rate.
| Empty miles | Loaded miles | Break-even / loaded mile* | Profit at $2.50 / loaded mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 10,000 | $2.145 | $3,550.00 |
| 12% | 8,800 | $2.438 | $550.00 |
| 25% | 7,500 | $2.860 | -$2,700.00 |
| 50% | 5,000 | $4.290 | -$8,950.00 |
*Break-even is rounded upward so the displayed rate does not understate the modeled cost. Profit uses the unrounded costs, not the rounded break-even figure.
Why a return trip can overturn an attractive rate
Imagine a 500-mile paid outbound trip and a 500-mile unpaid return. The trip has 1,000 total miles but only 500 loaded miles: 50% deadhead, not 100%. Applying this example's fully allocated $2.145 cost per mile produces $2,145 of cost. At $2.50 for each loaded mile the revenue is $1,250, leaving a modeled $895 shortfall.
That allocation is useful for planning, but it is not an exact dispatch decision. Monthly fixed costs are spread over assumed mileage; the incremental cash cost of one additional trip is different. Fuel economy, driver arrangements, tolls, delays and the likelihood of finding a return load can differ from the monthly averages. Do not substitute the example's numbers for your own operating records.
Include the costs that are easy to forget
Use the fixed-cost field for the monthly items appropriate to your operation, such as equipment payments, insurance and permits. Avoid putting the same expense in both fixed and per-mile amounts. If driver pay applies only to loaded miles, convert it to an equivalent rate over all miles for this model; the calculator applies the entered driver rate to every mile.
Unpaid waiting time, brokerage deductions, parking, repairs, benefits and taxes are not magically included by a per-mile total. Either account for them in the modeled categories where appropriate or document them separately. The SBA's finance guidance explains the importance of recording both revenue and expenses; the calculations here are our own illustrative cost model.
Turn the example into a monthly check
Use the same time window for cost and mileage records, enter total miles rather than only odometer miles associated with paying loads, and calculate the empty share as empty miles divided by all miles. Save that scenario. Then compare a lower empty-mile percentage without quietly changing the other assumptions. It becomes clear whether the next improvement needs to come from cost, pricing or keeping more miles paid.