AxleVaultAXLEVAULT
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What does your truck cost per mile?

Your fixed bills, your miles, your fuel, and a reserve for the day something breaks — added up into the one number every load gets priced against. All miles, not just the paid ones.

1Your month

$
What goes in here?
Truck payment, trailer payment or rent, insurance, plates & permits (UCR, 2290, IRP — the yearly ones ÷ 12), ELD, phone, parking, office or software, any factoring minimum — and what you pay yourself as the driver. Skip fuel, tires and repairs: those come in per mile below.

Count every mile the truck drives. Fewer miles means every mile carries more of the bills — that's why sitting still raises this number.

$
$

Tires, PM, repairs, and the rebuild or next truck at the end. Real all-in on a used truck runs $0.35–$0.45.

2Your cost per mile

All-in cost per mile—
Fixed per mile—
Fuel per mile—
Reserve per mile—
Break-even per loaded mile—at 15% deadhead
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14-day trial · no card required · your real bills, a ten-second daily mileage log, and a cost per mile that updates itself

How to calculate cost per mile for a truck

Cost per mile is three pieces added together, and only one of them changes with the price board at the pump:

cost per mile = fixed bills ÷ monthly miles  +  diesel price ÷ mpg  +  reserve per mile

Fixed bills are everything that's due whether the truck moves or not: the truck and trailer notes, insurance, plates and permits with the yearly ones spread over twelve months, ELD, phone, parking — and what you pay yourself, because your work isn't free. Divide the total by the miles the truck actually drives in a month, empty miles included.

Fuel is the diesel price divided by your truck's real mpg. At $3.80 and 6.5 mpg that's about $0.58 on every mile before the wheels earn anything.

The reserve is the piece most people skip and the reason a "profitable" year ends with a repair bill there's no money for: a fixed amount set aside on every mile for tires, PM, repairs, and eventually a rebuild or the next truck.

Worked example: $7,000 in fixed bills over 10,000 miles is $0.70. Fuel at $3.80 ÷ 6.5 is $0.58. A $0.25 reserve brings it to $1.53 a mile, all-in. Run the same month at 8,000 miles and it's $1.71 — nothing changed except the miles. That's why a cost per mile computed once in January quietly goes wrong by March, and why the full guide walks through keeping it honest.

Once you have the number, put it to work: the required-rate calculator turns it into the minimum rate the next load must pay, and the load profit calculator checks any rate a broker quotes against it.

What is the average cost per mile to run a truck?
Most owner-operators land somewhere roughly between $1.50 and $2.20 all-in, depending on the truck note, insurance, today's diesel price and how many miles the month actually ran. But the average is a trap: brokers don't pay your industry's average bills, and you don't price loads with it. The number that decides whether a load makes money is YOUR cost per mile, from your own bills and miles.
What costs go into cost per mile?
Three buckets. Fixed monthly bills: truck and trailer payments, insurance, plates and permits spread over 12 months, ELD, phone, parking, software, and what you pay yourself as the driver. Fuel: diesel price divided by your truck's mpg. And a maintenance-and-replacement reserve per mile for tires, PM, repairs and eventually the next truck. Fixed ÷ monthly miles + fuel per mile + reserve = your all-in cost per mile.
Do I divide by loaded miles or all miles?
All miles — loaded plus empty. The truck burns fuel and wears tires on deadhead too, and your fixed bills spread across every mile you drive, not just the paid ones. If you divide by loaded miles only, your cost per mile looks better than it is and cheap freight starts looking profitable.
How often should I recalculate my cost per mile?
At least monthly, because the miles change even when the bills don't. A slow month spreads the same fixed bills over fewer miles, so every mile costs more — sitting still raises your cost per mile. The AxleVault app recomputes it every day from a ten-second mileage log, counting every calendar day without an entry as a sit day.
Is $2.00 a mile a good rate?
Only your own numbers can say. $2.00 per loaded mile with 15% deadhead is about $1.70 per mile actually driven — great against a $1.40 cost per mile, break-even against $1.70, and a loss below that. Work out your cost per mile here, then use the required-rate calculator to turn it into the minimum rate the next load must pay.
The app keeps this number live

A cost per mile that updates itself.

AxleVault stores your bills once, takes a ten-second mileage log each day, and recomputes your cost per mile every morning — sit days counted, so the number you price loads with is the truth for that day.

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