Box truck business profit calculator

How it is calculated

Monthly figures use 52 weeks divided by 12, so a 5-load week becomes about 21.7 loads a month.

• Gross = loads a week × rate per load × 52 ÷ 12
• Fuel = monthly miles ÷ miles per gallon × fuel price, where monthly miles = loads × miles per load, empty miles included
• Maintenance = monthly miles × your maintenance and tire cost per mile
• Dispatch and factoring = a percentage of gross, if you use them
• Profit = gross − fuel − maintenance − dispatch − factoring − truck payment − insurance − other fixed costs

Break-even loads a week = fixed costs ÷ what each load leaves after its own fuel, maintenance and fees ÷ (52 ÷ 12). Below that number, the month loses money.

Profit here is before income tax and before you pay yourself, so for a one-truck owner it is your pay too.

A worked example

All EXAMPLE numbers: 5 loads a week at $550, 220 miles per load including empty miles, 9 miles per gallon, diesel at $6.38 (the EIA U.S. average for the week of Sep 28, 2026), maintenance 15 cents a mile, a $1,500 truck payment, $900 insurance, $450 of other fixed costs and a 5% dispatch fee.

SOURCE: U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION, WEEKLY RETAIL DIESEL PRICE, WEEK OF SEP 28, 2026

That leaves $4,377 a month before tax. Break-even is about 2 loads a week, so the first two loads of every week pay for the truck sitting in your driveway; every load after that is the business. At the EIA average a year earlier, $3.75 for the week of Sep 29, 2025, the same month left about $5,770. That gap of roughly $1,390 is all fuel, which is why a diesel spike hits a box truck's month so hard.

What a good or bad result means

Watch the break-even number more than the profit. If it is close to the loads you can realistically get in a slow week, one quiet week puts the month in the red. A low break-even gives you room to turn down cheap loads, which is how box truck owners keep their average rate up.

If profit looks thin, the levers are the rate per load, the empty miles to each pickup, and fixed costs. A dispatcher works on the first two. See how earnings differ across equipment in owner-operator income by freight type.

Starting a non-CDL box truck business: checklist

1. Form your business and get an EIN.
2. Get a USDOT number and, for interstate for-hire freight, motor carrier authority.
3. Buy insurance and have it filed with FMCSA; file a BOC-3; register for UCR.
4. Get a DOT medical card if the truck is over 10,000 lb and runs interstate.
5. Check hours-of-service and ELD rules for your operation.
6. Budget the first months with the trucking startup cost calculator, then write it up with the business plan template.

We dispatch box trucks from 26 ft and up, never smaller, on the same terms as every other equipment type. See dispatch for owner-operators, or apply when your numbers work.