Who it is for
Trades, delivery, mobile services, anybody quoting jobs outside their town.
Local Services · Calculator · Free
What your truck really costs to run Vehicle Cost Per Mile
Compare cash outlay with economic operating cost per mile. Loan payments and depreciation stay in separate views so principal is not counted twice.
Runs in your browser. Nothing to install. Save the result or embed it on your site.
Your numbers
Choose one view. Cash includes payments; economic cost includes depreciation and interest instead.
Interest only, not principal. Used in economic cost; cash outlay already includes it in the payment.
What that means
Cash outlay per mile: $0.64
$0.64
Cash outlay per mile
$18,000 a year, 28,000 miles
$28.93
Cost per typical job
45 round-trip miles
31%
Fuel is only
of the real cost
$1,500
Cost per month
$2,893/yr
Per job, 100 jobs a year
Fuel$5,600
Loan payments$7,800
Maintenance$2,200
Insurance$2,400
The selected basis allocates $28.93 to this trip. Consider total job pricing, billable travel time, and costs not entered before setting a charge.
Cash outlay: $0.64/mile. Economic cost: $0.49/mile. Cash includes full loan payments and excludes depreciation; economic cost includes depreciation and loan interest, excluding principal payments. Neither is a tax deduction calculation.
What this assumed
- Fixed costs are spread over the annual miles you enter. Drive fewer miles and the per mile number goes up.
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
This is an estimate
This tool returns an estimate based on the numbers you entered. Your real result depends on your own costs, rates and conditions. Check it against your own records before you make a decision with it.
What this tool actually does for you
The problem it points at
Most owners price fuel and forget everything else. Then the truck needs tires and it feels like bad luck.
What you walk away with
A vehicle cost per mile and the amount allocated to a round-trip job, using your selected cost basis.
How to use it
Takes about two minutes. Be honest with the numbers, the tool is not going to tell anybody.
- Enter yearly miles, fuel use, insurance and maintenance for the same vehicle and period.
- Choose cash outlay for full loan payments, or economic cost for depreciation plus loan interest. These are separate views, not costs to add together.
- Enter all round-trip job miles. Read the selected per-mile cost and the vehicle cost allocated to that trip.
- Use the trip allocation in your quote alongside labor, travel time, job-specific costs and profit that are not entered here.
Keep learning
Go a little deeper.
See how this tool fits a practical task, with a guide you can follow at your own pace.
Questions people ask
Should I use cash outlay or economic cost per mile?
Cash outlay includes fuel, insurance, maintenance and full loan payments. Economic cost uses those operating costs plus depreciation and loan interest, excluding principal payments. Compare the views for your planning purpose; adding them together would count some costs twice.
How is the cost of a round-trip job calculated?
Divide the selected yearly vehicle cost by yearly miles, then multiply the unrounded result by round-trip job miles. Example: $18,000 cash outlay over 28,000 miles allocates $28.93 to a 45-mile round trip. The displayed $0.64 per mile is rounded; these example inputs are not a typical vehicle cost benchmark.
Is this my travel charge or a tax mileage deduction?
It is a vehicle-cost allocation, not a complete customer charge or a tax deduction rate. Add labor, billable travel time, tolls and any other job-specific costs outside the entered vehicle costs when preparing your quote. Use the actual rules that apply to your business for tax reporting.
Put this tool on your own website
Free forever. I host it. You keep it.
This is a real lead magnet you can run on your own site tonight. Somebody lands on your page, plays with the numbers, sees what their problem costs, and now they are on your website instead of a competitor's. Costs you nothing, and I keep it working.
- Scroll up and press Put this tool on my website. The code appears right there, no form.
- Copy the one line you get.
- In your website editor, add an Embed, HTML or Custom Code block on whatever page you want it on.
- Paste it in, save, publish.
- Check it on your phone, then send people to that page.
Works on
WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, GoDaddy, Webflow, Duda, HubSpot, ClickFunnels, or plain HTML. Anywhere that takes an embed code.
What it costs you
Nothing. No monthly fee, no expiring trial, no watermark you have to pay to remove. If you get stuck putting it in, text me at (903) 500-8898 and I will help you place it.
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Now imagine the whole website doing real work.
A five-page site built to capture leads and follow up, in accounts you own. The result is a working site, not a promise of leads.