Owner operator expenses: what each mile costs, line by line

Owner operator expenses are easiest to understand per mile, because that is how loads are priced. This page gives the industry averages by category from the latest ATRI data, a column updated for 2026 diesel prices, a sample week, and the costs new owners most often leave out. The data is free to download and cite.

Owner operator cost per mile, by category

Method. The first two columns are ATRI's 2025 industry averages from its 2026 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, based on 182,248 trucks and 14.67 billion miles. ATRI's full $2.336 a mile also includes 81.8 cents of driver wages and 21 cents of benefits, left out here because for an owner operator, pay is what remains after these costs. The last column is our estimate: fuel repriced at the EIA's U.S. retail diesel average of $6.382 for the week of Sep 28, 2026, at 6.8 mpg, with every other line unchanged. ATRI's data comes mostly from fleets, so treat it as a benchmark, not your number.

Download the table (CSV)

SOURCE: ATRI 2026 UPDATE, REPORTED BY FREIGHTWAVES AND TRUCKER NEWS, JUL 2026

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

How the costs show up in a week

Per-mile averages are easier to check against your own records as a week. An EXAMPLE owner operator running 2,500 miles, with costs at the updated averages above:

That is about $4,413 for the week before the owner earns a dollar. Every load has to clear about $1.76 for each mile driven, empty miles included. Whatever the truck grosses above that is the owner's pay, before tax.

Expenses new owners miss

• Empty miles. They cost the same per mile as loaded ones. Count every mile when you work out cost per mile.
• Idle weeks. Payments and insurance don't stop when the truck sits, so fewer miles mean a higher cost per mile.
• The big repair. Averages smooth out engines and transmissions; your year won't. Fund a maintenance reserve.
• Taxes. Self-employment tax and income tax come out of what is left, not out of gross.
• Fees. Dispatch, factoring, load boards, ELD subscriptions and bank charges are small per load and large per year.
• Chargebacks, if you are leased on. Items the carrier pays and deducts from your settlement must be listed in your lease under 49 CFR 376.12. Read that list before signing.

Bookkeeping that makes the numbers usable

Keep a business account separate from personal money, and record every expense weekly with the receipt, the date, the category and the truck's odometer. At month end, divide each category by the miles you ran. Three months of that tells you more than any average, and it is what your accountant needs anyway. Most ordinary and necessary business expenses are deductible; confirm the details, especially for the truck itself, with a tax professional. A spreadsheet works; so does the owner-operator expense tracker.

SOURCE: IRS, DEDUCTING BUSINESS EXPENSES, OCT 2026

Where dispatch fits in the cost picture

A dispatch fee is one more expense, so it has to pay for itself. In the week above, a 5% fee on $6,000 of gross is $300. If better booking adds 15 cents to every mile driven, through higher rates or fewer empty miles, that is $375 more gross, which covers the fee and leaves something over. Check the math with your own numbers on our dispatch pricing page, or see dispatch for owner-operators.

For the bigger picture, see what an owner operator is, how truck payments compare in owner-operator financing, what drives premiums in owner-operator insurance, and the contracts behind many of these costs in owner-operator contracts.

Cite this page

Owner operator expenses per mile, 2025-2026. BuddyLoads owner-operator guides, updated October 2026. Source data: ATRI, Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, 2026 update; U.S. EIA weekly retail diesel price, week of Sep 28, 2026. You are welcome to use the table and the CSV with a link back to this page.