Trucking · cost per mile & load profit

You quote $2.88 a mile. You keep $0.49.

Sixteen percent of your miles are empty, and every cost you have is spread across all of them. This workbook shows what a mile really costs you, what each load actually pays, and whether to take the next one. Works in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.
GET THE WORKBOOK $79
Works in Excel AND Google Sheets · instant download · Sheets script in the guide · free updates
Dashboard — rate per loaded mile against what you actually keep

Most owner-operators are guessing at their cost per mile

And the guess is always low, because the empty miles and the costs that arrive quarterly never make it into the math.
01

Empty miles still cost money

Deadhead burns fuel, wears tires and earns nothing. Every per-mile figure here is calculated on total miles, because that is what the truck actually drove.

02

The costs nobody puts in the spreadsheet

Payroll tax and workers comp on a driver's pay. Factoring or dispatch on gross. Reserve for the repair that has not happened yet. Leave them out and your margin is fiction.

03

Whether this load is worth running

Type the offer in and get a number, before you call the broker back.

What's inside

Every figure below is live in the file. Nothing here is a mockup.

Load Check — should I take it?

Enter the linehaul, the surcharge, the loaded miles and the deadhead to the pickup. You get what the load actually pays after fuel at your truck's real MPG, driver pay, reserves, factoring and a share of your fixed cost.

  • TAKE IT, MARGINAL or PASS, against what you need per mile
  • Break-even linehaul for that specific run
  • Owner-operator or hired driver, per load
  • Fixed cost charged from your own trailing twelve months
Load Check — the verdict before you book

Cost per mile, twelve periods

Loaded miles, deadhead miles, revenue and every cost category by period, with cost per total mile and net per mile calculated. Plus what your maintenance reserve collected against what you actually spent.

  • Revenue per loaded mile and per total mile, side by side
  • Fuel, driver pay, repairs and fixed, all per mile
  • Deadhead percentage flagged against your target
  • Reserve funded versus actual spend
Cost per Mile — the tab the workbook exists to produce

The specifics

12,637
live formulas
11
tabs
1,200
loads
Excel + Sheets
works in both

Before you buy

Why $79 when there are $19 templates?
A $19 template gives you a mileage log. This one calculates your true cost per mile including deadhead, charges payroll burden and factoring the way they actually hit you, and tells you whether the next load clears your number. The first load you turn down pays for it.
Is this for owner-operators or fleets?
Both, in the same file. Set the driver on a load to Owner / Self and no driver pay is charged — the profit on that load is your pay. Hire a driver for another truck and it handles that too. Sample data ships with one of each. Capacity is ten trucks.
Does it do IFTA?
No. The Fuel tab records the state on every purchase so your filing service has what it needs, but this workbook does not compute the return.
Do I need Excel?
It works in both. Excel opens it as-is. For Google Sheets, upload it and run the one-minute setup script printed in the back of your setup guide — charts, color rules and dropdowns all rebuild automatically.
How long to set up?
An evening. Your rates, your trucks, then start logging loads. Two trucks and a year of loads ship as sample data so you can see it working before you clear them.

Hard Numbers · Trucking

The workbook plus a step-by-step setup guide. Works in Excel or Google Sheets. No login, no subscription, no seat count. Download it, open it, and put your own numbers in this afternoon.

$79
ONE TIME
30-day refund, no questions