Owner-operator pay after expenses: how to work it out

Owner-operator salary vs take-home pay

A company driver earns a wage. An owner-operator runs a business: the gross revenue from loads is not pay, because the truck’s costs come out of it first. Take-home is the profit after expenses; income and self-employment tax come out of that.

When you are leased to a carrier, you are usually paid a percentage of the line-haul or a rate per mile, and the carrier’s settlement deducts agreed items such as fuel advances or insurance before you are paid. That is why two owner-operators with the same gross can take home very different amounts: the truck, the lanes, the empty miles and the time waiting all change the result.

Fixed costs, including insurance

Fixed costs are paid every month whether the truck runs or not. Divide them by the miles you run in the same period to get a fixed cost per mile.

• Truck and trailer payments or lease, or depreciation if you own them outright.
• Insurance: with your own authority, primary auto liability and cargo; when leased to a carrier, non-trucking (bobtail) liability, with primary liability usually held by the carrier under the lease; physical damage on your own truck in both cases. Ask your agent for a monthly quote for your own truck, lanes and history.
• Other monthly costs: phone, telematics subscription, load board subscriptions, accounting and parking.
• Your own health cover and retirement savings, which a company driver may get from an employer.

Running costs per mile

• Fuel: fuel cost per mile = diesel price per gallon ÷ the miles per gallon your truck actually returns.
• Tires, maintenance and repairs: total spend over a period ÷ miles in that period, plus a reserve for large repairs.
• Road, bridge and crossing charges, scales and parking on the route of each load.

• Fuel surcharge explained

A take-home model you can fill in

With placeholders: if you ran M miles, billed R in total and your costs were C, your take-home before tax is R − C, and your profit per mile is (R − C) ÷ M. Compare it month by month rather than load by load.

1. Revenue per mile = total line-haul and fuel surcharge for the period ÷ all miles run, loaded and empty.
2. Cost per mile = (fixed costs for the period ÷ all miles) + running cost per mile.
3. Profit per mile = revenue per mile − cost per mile.
4. Take-home before tax = profit per mile × all miles run in the period.

What moves owner-operator pay per mile

• Deadhead: empty miles to the pickup add cost and no revenue. A backhaul from the delivery area fixes part of that.
• Waiting time: detention and layover pay only what you agreed in the rate confirmation.
• Days without a load: the fixed costs keep running, so plan the next load before you deliver.
• Accessorials you did not agree in writing are hard to collect later.

• Backhaul loads and deadhead
• Accessorial charges

Comparing loads on the US board

Load boards can be browsed without an account. Visitors see the route, dates, equipment and price of each load, but not the poster’s contact details. On the US board each load shows its miles, the posted rate and the rate per mile, and you can sort loads by rate per mile. Compare that figure with your own cost per mile after adding the deadhead to the pickup.

Rates are agreed between the poster and the carrier for each load; GigFreight publishes no rate index and no recommended rates. No commission per load. Broker and shipper contact details on a load are shown only to members with a fully paid, active subscription. A trial gives access to the platform but not to load contact details.

• Owner-operator loads

Frequently asked questions