California
What running a truck through California costs in fuel tax, what the state pays the people who drive them, and how many carriers actually call it home. Every figure is pulled from a public source and dated, and the per-mile numbers are worked at 6.0 mpg.
Fuel tax
$0.9790
Per gallon, 4Q2026. Rank 1 of 47.
Costs you
16.32c
Per mile at 6.0 mpg.
Median driver pay
$60,230
May 2025. Rank 19 of 51.
Active carriers
66,853
Interstate, based in California. Rank 1 of 51.
Fuel tax
$0.9790 a gallon, what that is per mile, and what it costs over a run.
Driver pay
A median of $60,230, a tenth percentile of $41,830 and a ninetieth of $81,960. What the spread says about the market.
Carriers
66,853 active interstate carriers running 544,383 trucks between them, at an average of 8.1 each.
How California compares
The average diesel rate across the 47 states that publish one is $0.3681, so California sits above it by $0.6109 a gallon. Over 100,000 miles at 6.0 mpg that difference is $10,182. Nationally, 47% of active interstate carriers run one truck; here it is 60%.
Other states