The break-even rate per mile worksheet

Section one: bills that arrive whether you roll or not

• Write down the truck and trailer payment per monthUse the actual note payments, not what you think you will refinance to. If the truck is paid off, enter your replacement reserve instead, because a rebuild or a down payment is coming.
• Divide the annual insurance premium by twelveInclude primary liability, cargo, physical damage, and occupational accident or workers comp. Take it from the declaration page rather than memory, since renewals move more than most carriers expect.
• Add plates, apportioned registration, UCR, and the 2290Total the annual figures and divide by twelve. Include any state permits and the IRP renewal. Together these are usually a few hundred dollars a month for one truck.
• List every monthly subscription the truck depends onELD service, load board access, GPS or dash camera fees, phone plan, and bookkeeping software. Small individually, and often over two hundred dollars a month together.
• Add parking, tolls transponder fees, and accountingYard or lot parking at home, transponder account fees, and what you pay a preparer or bookkeeper per month. Round up rather than down on anything you are guessing at.
• Total the section and label it monthly fixed costFor a single truck with a note this commonly lands between five and nine thousand dollars a month. If yours is far under that, check what you left out.

Section two: costs that follow the miles

• Compute your fuel cost per mileTake your real pump price and divide by your true MPG from the last six fuel ups. At 3.95 a gallon and 6.5 MPG that is about 61 cents per mile, and it moves with both numbers.
• Set a tire reserve per mileTake the installed cost of a full set of steers and drives and divide by the miles you expect from them. Write the number down even though you will not spend it this week.
• Set a maintenance and repair reserve per mileLook at what you actually spent on repairs over the last twelve months and divide by miles run. If you have no history, start high and correct it once you do.
• Add tolls, scales, washes, and DEF per milePull the totals from a full quarter of card statements and divide by that quarter's miles. Toll heavy northeast running will look very different from midwest work.
• Total the section and label it variable cost per mileThis is the number that must be covered by every mile the truck turns, loaded or empty. Most single truck operations land somewhere between 55 and 90 cents.

Section three: miles, days, and empty miles

• Count your working days per year, not calendar daysSubtract home time, holidays, breakdown days, and the days you spent on paperwork or inspections. Two hundred forty is a realistic starting point for a solo operator.
• Pull total miles turned from last quarterTake it from your ELD or fuel tax records, which count every mile. Do not use the broker's loaded mileage totals, because those leave out the legs you drove empty.
• Pull paid loaded miles from the same quarterAdd up the loaded miles across your rate confirmations for those three months. The difference against total miles is your deadhead, and it is usually larger than remembered.
• Compute your deadhead percentageDivide empty miles by total miles. Under ten percent is strong, ten to fifteen is normal, and anything over twenty is a routing problem worth an afternoon of thought.
• Compute fixed cost per working dayTake monthly fixed cost times twelve, then divide by working days per year. This one figure is what lets you price a load by how long it ties up the truck.

Section four: the number you quote against

• Compute break-even per total mileAdd variable cost per mile to fixed cost per day divided by average miles per working day. That is the floor across every mile you turn, empty ones included.
• Convert it to a floor per loaded mileDivide break-even per total mile by one minus your deadhead percentage. At fifteen percent deadhead a 1.35 total mile break-even becomes about 1.59 per loaded mile.
• Add your own pay and a profit marginDecide what you must take home per week and add it as cents per mile. A truck that only breaks even is a job that pays nothing and owns a depreciating asset.
• Write the final floor on a card in the cabOne number, big enough to read while you are on the phone. Under it you do not book, no matter how good the lane sounds or how long the truck has sat.
• Recheck the worksheet every quarterDiesel moves, insurance renews, and tires wear. Redo it when the quarter closes and compare the new floor against what you actually accepted in the last three months.