Transportation health calculator

Miles are not profit. Fuel, empty backhauls, and insurance decide whether a busy week was a good week. This calculator is for owner-operators and small fleets who know miles, fuel, and what actually hit the bank.

Who this is for

OTR, regional, last-mile, and delivery operators with a small number of trucks. It is not a TMS. It is a health check.

What to enter first

Revenue, miles, fuel, labor, operating expenses. Loaded vs. total miles unlocks loaded %. Debt service matters when trucks are financed. Days used vs. days available unlocks truck utilization.

Worked example: two-truck dry-van side business

Original trailing year. Figures are rounded on purpose.

  • Linehaul and accessorials collected: $412,000
  • Miles run: 148,000
  • Loaded miles: 121,000
  • Fuel:
  • Drivers (including owner miles paid as wages): $96,000
  • Insurance, maintenance, dispatch, parking: $64,000
  • Equipment payments: $41,000
  1. Revenue per mile = 412,000 ÷ 148,000 = $2.78. A common small-fleet conversation band is roughly $2.50–$3.50 all-in; this is middle of the road.
  2. Fuel cost % = 138,000 ÷ 412,000 = 33.5%. Inside a rough 30–38% band; a bad diesel quarter would break it.
  3. Cost per mile excluding debt = (138,000 + 96,000 + 64,000) ÷ 148,000 = $2.01. With payments: $2.29. Profit per mile ≈ 2.78 − 2.29 = $0.49 before taxes and surprises.
  4. Loaded miles = 121,000 ÷ 148,000 = 81.8%. The band we like is often 85%+. Deadhead is the quiet tax.
  5. DSCR using a crude NOI of 412,000 − 298,000 = 114,000 vs. 41,000 payments ≈ 2.78×. Coverage can look fine while profit per mile is a thin dime after a breakdown.

Chasing more miles at $2.40 when your cost is $2.29 is how fleets get bigger and broker. The page is built so cost per mile and loaded % sit next to revenue per mile.

How to read the results

Revenue per mile is the bid. Cost per mile is the operation. Profit per mile is the only score that matters. Loaded % is dispatch quality. Fuel % is a volatility alarm. Utilization is whether the truck earned its payment.

Mistakes that make the math useless

  • Using dispatched miles instead of hub miles.
  • Omitting owner unpaid driving from labor so the rate looks professional.
  • Annualizing a contract rate you only ran for six weeks.

When to re-run the check

After fuel spikes, insurance renewal, a lane-mix change, or adding a truck. Separate owner-operator reality from fleet averages if you run both.

Broker vs. freight?

If you take a cut and subcontract, your “miles” may be meaningless. Use revenue and costs as a business, or run the freelance/agency calculator for a brokerage.