North Carolina
What running a truck through North Carolina 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
$0.4100
Per gallon, 4Q2026. Rank 12 of 47.
Costs you
6.83c
Per mile at 6.0 mpg.
Median driver pay
$51,530
May 2025. Rank 46 of 51.
Active carriers
23,655
Interstate, based in North Carolina. Rank 9 of 51.
Fuel tax
$0.4100 a gallon, what that is per mile, and what it costs over a run.
Driver pay
A median of $51,530, a tenth percentile of $39,400 and a ninetieth of $76,360. What the spread says about the market.
Carriers
23,655 active interstate carriers running 309,691 trucks between them, at an average of 13.1 each.
How North Carolina compares
The average diesel rate across the 47 states that publish one is $0.3681, so North Carolina sits above it by $0.0419 a gallon. Over 100,000 miles at 6.0 mpg that difference is $699. Nationally, 47% of active interstate carriers run one truck; here it is 50%.
Other states