Freight Cost Per Mile Calculator
Per loaded mile and per total mile, with deadhead.
Calculate freight rate per mile on loaded miles and on total miles including deadhead, so an empty repositioning leg is not quietly ignored.
Empty miles repositioning to the pickup. They burn fuel and hours while earning nothing.
Optional. Fuel, maintenance, insurance, payments and driver pay divided by total miles.
Rate per loaded mile
$2.000/mi
$1.667/mi across all 600 miles
This load pays less per total mile than it costs to run. A strong loaded-mile rate can still lose money once deadhead is counted.
How the Freight Cost Per Mile Calculator works
Rate per mile is the number every load is judged by, and it has two versions that rarely agree. Divide by loaded miles and a load looks strong; divide by every mile the truck turned, including the empty run to the pickup, and the same load can be marginal. The gap is deadhead, and it is where owner-operator margins go.
Also known as: rate per mile calculator · cost per loaded mile · RPM calculator trucking
Not financial advice. Marketplace fees change, and they vary by country, plan and seller status. Every rate here is an editable default, not a quoted price, check the platform's current fee schedule before you price a product against it. This is not tax or business advice.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate rate per mile?
Divide the total paid for the load by the miles run. Loaded miles give the headline rate; adding deadhead gives the rate the truck actually earned. A $1,000 load over 500 loaded miles is $2.00 a mile, or $1.67 once a 100-mile empty leg is counted.
What are deadhead miles?
Miles run empty, usually repositioning from the last delivery to the next pickup. They burn fuel, hours and tyres while earning nothing, so they belong in the denominator. Ten to fifteen percent deadhead is common; much above twenty is a routing problem.
What is a good rate per mile?
It depends entirely on equipment, lane and season, so no single figure is meaningful. What is meaningful is your own cost per mile: total operating cost divided by total miles. Any load below that number loses money regardless of how the rate compares to a market average.
Should fuel surcharge be included in rate per mile?
Quote it separately. Linehaul per mile is what you are comparing between loads; the surcharge is a pass-through that moves with diesel. Blending them makes two quotes incomparable when they were priced in different weeks.