What does a trucking mile cost today?

As of September 2, 2026, fuel costs $0.69 per loaded mile at today's wholesale diesel print ($4.46/gal ULSD, 6.5 mpg). Add typical non-fuel operating costs of about $1.55/mile (driver, truck payment, insurance, maintenance, tolls) and the all-in cost is $2.24/mile — which at a $2.40/mile rate leaves a 6.8% operating margin. That margin moved down 4.4 points over the past month, driven by ULSD diesel +18.4%.

$0.69fuel / mile $2.24all-in / mile 6.8%margin at $2.40/mi -14%margin if Hormuz repeats

Run it on your own numbers — rate, mpg, costs → your margin, live →

The math, in the open

One loaded mile at 6.5 mpg burns 0.154 gallons. At today's wholesale ULSD print of $4.46/gal that is $0.69 of fuel — the only line on a trucker's P&L that reprices every single day. The $1.55 non-fuel line is the industry's stubborn part: driver pay is the largest single cost in trucking, and equipment, insurance, and maintenance barely notice what the barrel does. Fuel is roughly 31% of the all-in mile at today's prices — which is exactly why rate negotiations live and die on the fuel surcharge.

Why the crisis number matters more than the average

Trucking margins are thin enough that the tail risk is the story. In the spring blockade, wholesale diesel spiked +72.5% at its peak — measured from our own daily record, not modeled. Apply that spike to today's numbers and the 6.8% margin above becomes -14%. Negative. A repeat doesn't squeeze this mile — it puts it underwater until rates or surcharges catch up. Surcharge lag is the mechanism: fuel reprices daily, surcharge tables reset weekly, and contract rates reset quarterly or worse.

Method

Fuel price is the ULSD futures/wholesale print, updated continuously on our data pipeline; your pump price adds taxes and local margin but tracks the change. The 6.5 mpg and $1.55 non-fuel assumptions are editable defaults — the margin card takes your real rate, fuel economy, and cost structure and recomputes everything live. The crisis figure applies diesel's measured peak move from the Feb–Mar blockade window to today's price. Not an invoice forecast, not advice.