Truck miles are not car miles
Every truck route is a negotiation with infrastructure. A 13'6" trailer can't take an underpass rated at 13'2". An 80,000 lb gross can't cross a bridge posted at 40 tons. Hazmat placards close tunnels entirely. A consumer GPS ignores all of it, which is why drivers who follow one end up backing out of a residential street at 2 AM with a police escort.
There is a second gap that costs more and gets noticed less. Brokers usually quote from household-goods (HHG) mileage, a rate-table standard that predates modern routing. You drive practical miles— the road a legal truck can actually use. Practical is typically 3–8% longer. On a 1,200 mile run at $2.50/mi that spread is roughly $90 to $240 of unbilled driving, every single time, and it never appears on the rate confirmation.
Knowing the practical number before you accept is how you argue for the rate you need instead of discovering the shortfall at settlement.
How tolls actually get calculated
Toll authorities price by axle count, not vehicle class. Add a lift axle and your rate changes. The Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York systems each run their own schedule, and a single Northeast run can cross four of them.
This calculator breaks tolls out by authorityrather than returning one lump figure. That matters for two reasons: you can sanity-check the number against your transponder statement, and when a broker says “tolls are included in the rate,” you can tell him exactly what he just included.
A Newark port run with $180 in tolls at $2.60/mi is a materially different load than the same lane with $40 in tolls. Same rate on the rate con. Very different week.
Reading cost per mile against a broker's offer
Your cost per mile is fixed costs plus variable costs, divided by miles actually run. Fixed: truck payment, insurance, permits, plates. Variable: fuel, tires, maintenance, tolls, reserves for the rebuild you know is coming. Divide by allmiles — loaded and empty.
The mistake that kills margins is judging a rate on loaded miles alone. A $2.90/mi load looks strong until you count the 140 deadhead miles to reach the pickup. Across 620 total miles that same load is $2.35/mi, and if your break-even is $2.10 you just worked a day for $155.
Enter your current position as the first stop and the pickup as the second. The deadhead lands in the denominator where it belongs, and the cost-per-mile figure tells you what the run is actually worth. For fee context, what truck dispatchers charge in 2026 breaks down the five fee structures against a 120k-mile year.
Fuel stops and the price you don't pay
Fuel spacing is a range decision, not a convenience decision. Set the interval to match your usable tank, not your total tank — running to fumes to reach a cheaper stop is a bet you lose once and remember forever.
Diesel price varies by state on tax alone, before the retailer takes a position. Crossing from a low-tax state into a high-tax one with a quarter tank is a self-inflicted cost. Enter your expected price per gallon and the estimate reflects your corridor rather than a national average that matches nowhere.
Who this is for
Owner-operators pricing a load before they call the broker back. Small fleets checking whether a lane is worth a dedicated truck. New authorities figuring out what their number needs to be before they take anything at all.
We built it because our dispatchers were running these calculations by hand every day. It's free and it stays free. If you'd rather not run it yourself — that is precisely the job we do at 5% flat, linehaul only. See dry van, reefer, flatbed, or new authority dispatch.
Route calculator FAQ
- Why is truck mileage different from car mileage?
- A car route takes the shortest legal path. A truck route can't. Bridges with height limits, roads with weight restrictions, hazmat exclusions, and low-clearance underpasses all remove options a car GPS would happily use. Brokers usually quote household-goods (HHG) miles from a rate table, while you actually drive practical miles. The gap between the two is commonly 3–8%, and it comes out of your pocket unless you catch it before you book.
- Why do tolls change based on my axle count?
- Most toll authorities price by axle, not by vehicle class. A 5-axle tractor-trailer and a 6-axle configuration on the same road pay different rates, and on corridors like the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana turnpikes the difference across a single run is real money. This calculator itemizes tolls by system so you can see which authority is charging what, rather than getting one lump number you can't check.
- How do I use cost per mile to judge a broker's rate?
- Add your fixed costs (truck payment, insurance, permits) and variable costs (fuel, tires, maintenance, tolls) and divide by the miles you actually run — including deadhead. That number is your break-even. When a broker offers a rate, divide the linehaul by total miles including your deadhead to the pickup, then compare. A rate that looks fine on loaded miles alone can lose money once 120 deadhead miles are in the denominator.
- Does the calculator include deadhead miles?
- Add your current location as the first stop and the pickup as the second. The route then includes the empty leg, and the cost-per-mile figure reflects what the run actually costs you rather than what the loaded portion suggests.
- Is the route calculator free?
- Yes. No signup, no account, no card. It's the same routing and toll data our dispatchers use when they price a lane, and it's free whether or not you ever become a FOMO carrier.