Haulage rates per mile: how to price a haulage job

First, add up your fixed costs

Fixed costs are what the vehicle and the business cost you whether the wheels turn or not. Take them over a period you can measure, such as a month or a year.

• Vehicle finance or lease payments, or depreciation if you own the vehicle outright.
• Insurance for the vehicle and for the goods you carry.
• Driver wages, or your own drawings as an owner-driver.
• Vehicle tax and the cost of annual testing and inspections.
• Yard or parking rent, phone, software, accountancy and load board subscriptions.

1. Fixed cost per mile = total fixed costs for the period ÷ total miles run in the same period.

Then add your running costs per mile

Running costs rise with every mile. Work them out per mile from your own fuel cards, invoices and mileage records rather than from someone else’s figures.

• Fuel and AdBlue: fuel cost per mile = (fuel price per litre × 4.546) ÷ miles per gallon your vehicle actually returns (4.546 litres = 1 UK gallon).
• Tyres, servicing, repairs and wear parts.
• Bridge, tunnel and crossing charges, and ferry fares, as a cost item for the route of each job.

1. Running cost per mile = fuel, tyres, maintenance and other running costs for the period ÷ miles run in that period.

Count empty miles and waiting time

Empty miles cost the same as loaded miles but earn nothing. Count the miles to the collection point and, if there is no load home, the miles back. A return load turns those empty miles into paid ones, which is why haulage rates and return loads belong in the same calculation.

Waiting time is cost too. Price it as hours waited × your cost per hour, and agree before you accept the job how long the loading slot is and how waiting is charged after that.

• Find return loads

Build the rate for one job

A worked example with placeholders: if your total cost per mile is X, the job is L loaded miles plus E empty miles and the crossing charges are C, the job costs X × (L + E) + C before your margin.

1. Total cost per mile = fixed cost per mile + running cost per mile.
2. Job miles = loaded miles + empty miles to the collection + empty miles home if there is no return load.
3. Job cost = total cost per mile × job miles + waiting time + crossing, bridge, tunnel and ferry charges on the route.
4. Rate for the job = job cost + your margin.
5. Rate per loaded mile = rate for the job ÷ loaded miles. This is the figure to compare with the price a poster offers.

Rate per mile for vans and HGVs

The method is the same for a van and an HGV; the inputs differ. A van has lower fixed and running costs and a smaller payload, and courier or same-day jobs are priced on urgency as well as distance. Short multi-drop work is often easier to judge per hour than per mile.

An HGV carries higher fixed costs, so the share of empty miles and the hours spent waiting move its rate per mile a great deal. Price both from your own records, not from a figure quoted for another vehicle.

• Van loads UK

Comparing your rate with posted prices on the UK 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 UK board, each load shows its route, distance, weight and the price the poster offers, and the board works out the price per km from the distance.

The UK board shows distances in kilometres. To compare a posted price with your rate per mile, divide the distance in km by the number of kilometres in a mile, then divide the posted price by those miles. In the “Price” section of the filters you can also set a maximum rate per km.

Rates are agreed between the poster and the carrier for each job; 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.

• Open the UK load board
• UK freight exchange

Frequently asked questions