Freight rate per mile: how to calculate it, and what the average hides

How to calculate rate per mile in trucking

The basic formula is simple: total pay for the load divided by miles. The trouble is that both halves of that formula can be counted different ways, and each way gives a different answer. Getting it right means being clear about what's in the pay and which miles you're dividing by.

For the pay, add the linehaul, the fuel surcharge and any accessorials that are already confirmed on the rate confirmation, like stop pay or tarp pay. Leave out detention you hope to earn. For the miles, there are two useful numbers. Loaded miles are pickup to delivery, the way postings and shippers count. All miles add the empty miles from where your truck is to the pickup.

Same load, 36 cents a mile apart. The loaded number is fine for comparing two postings on the same lane with similar deadhead. The all-in number is the one to compare with your costs, because fuel, tires and time don't care whether the trailer is full. Our rate per mile calculator shows both and checks the all-in rate against your saved floor.

Which miles to count

Miles are less precise than they look. Brokers and shippers often quote miles from a routing tool, which may use the shortest route or a practical truck route. Your actual miles depend on truck-legal roads, fuel stops, parking and detours. On a long load, the difference can be dozens of miles.

When you work out your own rate per mile, use the miles you'll really drive. If the posting says 700 and your truck routing says 740, the rate per mile is lower than it looks. Over a year of loads, small mileage gaps add up to real money, so it's worth checking on longer runs and on lanes you run often.

What is the average rate per mile for truck drivers?

Load board companies and freight rate services publish national average rates per mile for dry van, reefer and flatbed, usually weekly or monthly, for spot and sometimes contract freight. Those figures are useful for seeing which way the market is moving. They're often quoted in the news as the average rate per mile in trucking.

Before using any average, check its basis. Is it linehaul only or all-in with fuel? Spot or contract? Per loaded mile? Which period? A national spot average for vans says nothing about a specific lane, a reefer load, a short haul or a box truck. When we cite averages on this site, they come with the source, basis and date, from sourced market data. For lane-level context, see spot freight rates by major route.

One more caution: averages for owner-operator pay, as opposed to load rates, mix very different businesses. Company drivers are often paid per mile as wages, while owner-operators are paid for the load and cover their own costs. A cents-per-mile wage and a dollars-per-mile load rate aren't comparable numbers.

Rate per mile vs cost per mile

The rate per mile is only half of the picture. The other half is your cost per mile: everything it costs to run the truck for a month, divided by every mile driven that month. Fuel, maintenance, tires, the truck payment, insurance, permits, your phone and ELD, and ideally your own pay.

Your floor rate is that cost per mile plus your margin, and it's the line every load is measured against. A load paying $2.35 all-in is a good load for a truck with a $1.70 cost per mile and a losing load for a truck with $2.40. That's why two carriers can look at the same posting and make opposite, correct decisions.

Work out your own with the trucking cost per mile calculator. It can save your floor to My Numbers in your browser, and every calculator on this site then compares loads against it.

How to figure truck freight rates for a load

If you're pricing a load rather than reading a posting, work backwards from your floor. Add the loaded miles and the empty miles to the pickup. Multiply by your cost per mile for the minimum the load has to pay. Multiply that by one plus your margin for your target. That's your opening number.

Then adjust for the load itself. Short loads, multiple stops, long waits, tarps, hazmat and tight appointments all justify more. A load into a strong market, where the reload is easy, can justify a little less. The counter-offer calculator does the base math, and the multi-stop load pay calculator prices the stops.

• +Minimum = cost per mile x (loaded + empty miles)
• +Target = minimum x (1 + margin)
• +All-in rate per mile = target / (loaded + empty miles)
• +Rate per loaded mile = target / loaded miles, which is how you'd say it to a broker

Why your rate per mile changes by length of haul

Short loads pay more per mile, and long loads less, for a simple reason: every load carries fixed time at the ends. Driving to the shipper, checking in, loading, and the same at delivery can take as long on a 150-mile load as on a 1,500-mile one. Spread over fewer miles, that time needs a higher rate per mile to pay for the day.

So don't compare a short load's rate per mile with a long load's. Compare what each earns for the time it takes, and what each leaves after costs. On expedited and urgent freight, the rate per mile is higher still, because the carrier gives up flexibility. Our guide to expedited freight rates covers that end of the market, and van freight rates covers the most common equipment.

Rate per mile by equipment

Each trailer type has its own rate per mile range, because each has its own costs and its own pool of trucks. Reefers usually pay more per mile than dry vans, to cover the refrigeration unit, its fuel and the risk of a rejected load. Flatbeds and step decks often pay more again, for securement, tarps and the smaller number of trucks that can haul the freight. Box trucks and hotshots are usually paid per load on shorter runs, so their rate per mile swings widely with the length of haul.

That means comparing your rate per mile with another equipment type's average tells you little. A flatbed carrier earning less per mile than a reefer average might be doing well, and a box truck earning more per mile on short local runs might be barely covering costs. Your own cost per mile, for your own equipment, is the only fair comparison.

Track your real rate per mile over a month

One load's rate per mile is a snapshot. The number that tells you how the business is doing is your rate per mile for a whole month: total revenue divided by total miles driven, loaded and empty. It includes every deadhead, every short load and every week the truck sat. It's often noticeably lower than the rates on the individual loads felt.

Track it alongside two other numbers: your empty-mile share, which is empty miles divided by total miles, and your revenue per day the truck was available. If the monthly rate per mile is falling while load rates look fine, empty miles or idle days are usually the reason. Fixing those often adds more than chasing a few cents on the next posting.

Rate per mile or rate per hour?

For long hauls, rate per mile works well, because driving is most of the job. For short, local and multi-stop work, rate per hour can be the better measure, because time at docks and stops dominates. A load that pays $4 a mile for 100 miles but takes ten hours with waiting may earn less per hour than a $2 a mile load that runs 500 miles in a day. When in doubt, check both.

Common rate per mile mistakes

• +Dividing by loaded miles only. It overstates what the truck earns. Use all miles for decisions.
• +Comparing with a national average instead of your costs. The average isn't your truck.
• +Counting hoped-for detention. Count only pay that's on the rate con.
• +Trusting the posted miles. Check truck-route miles on longer loads.
• +Ignoring time. A high rate per mile on a load that takes all day can earn less than a lower rate on a clean run.
• +Never recalculating your floor. Fuel, insurance and payments change. Your floor should too.