A reference, not a marketplace

An owner-operator’s whole business is one number, cost per mile, and almost everyone who sells into this industry has a reason to leave it vague. This site computes it properly and shows its working.

Where the numbers come from. Fuel prices are the EIA’s weekly retail on-highway series, read from their published page and stamped with the week they belong to. The weight rules are the Federal Bridge Gross Weight Formula from 23 U.S.C. 127, evaluated rather than transcribed, so the table and the calculator cannot disagree. The 17 tractors and 18 engines carry manufacturer specifications where a specification exists and clearly labelled observed ranges where one does not.

What is a range and why. Fuel economy is always a range here. The same truck varies by more than a mile per gallon on gear ratio, tyres, speed and driver, so a single figure for a model is marketing rather than data. Used prices are broad for the same reason: condition and remaining aftertreatment life move them further than the badge does.

What this site does not do. It does not list trucks for sale, it does not sell leads to a carrier recruiting department, and it does not publish freight rates it cannot source. Rate data is proprietary, so the calculators take what you were actually offered as an input rather than inventing a market average.

Corrections. If a figure here is wrong, it should be fixed and the fix should be visible. Tell us through the contact page; corrections get read first.