The Truckers Domain
Calculators / Deadhead Break-Even

Deadhead Break-Even Calculator

A load board offer is two numbers brokers keep apart on purpose: what it pays, and how far you run empty to get it. This puts them back together. It costs the empty leg at empty-truck fuel burn, ignores miles you were repositioning anyway, and tells you the longest deadhead this load can carry before it goes underwater. Runs in your browser. Numbers stay on your machine.

Your rig Sets starting fuel and running-cost numbers for the rig type. Edit any field after.
The flat dollar amount on the rate con, before fuel surcharge. If the broker quoted a per-mile rate, multiply it by the loaded miles.
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Pickup to delivery, the miles you actually get paid for.
From where the truck sits now to the shipper. Empty miles, the cost the broker is not paying for.
Empty miles that move you toward home or out of a dead market you were leaving regardless. These are not a cost of this load, so they don’t count against it. Leave at 0 if every empty mile is purely to chase this freight.
FSC is almost always paid on loaded miles only, so it does not offset your empty-leg fuel. Leave at 0 for spot freight with no separate FSC line.
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What you actually pay at the pump after discounts. Update this every time it moves — on-highway diesel has run above $5 nationally through 2026, and a dollar swing here changes the break-even by tens of miles.
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Your loaded average. Flatbed Class 8 runs 5.5–7. A 1-ton hotshot runs 9–13.
An empty truck burns less. Most operators run 1–1.5 MPG better deadhead than loaded. Costing the empty leg at loaded burn is the single most common deadhead-math error.
Only what an extra mile actually adds: tires, maintenance and tire reserve, DEF, mileage on the truck’s remaining life. Not your truck payment or insurance — those run whether you take this load or not. Flatbed runs $0.35–$0.45. Hotshot $0.28–$0.36.
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What you need on top of cost for the load to be worth running, not just to break even. Most one-truck operators target $0.30–$0.60.
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Tolls across the empty and loaded legs combined. Empty weight still triggers most toll tiers. Leave at 0 if none.
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Rolling average including the empty leg, fuel, and scales — not your cruise speed. Most one-truck operators average 42–48 over a full run. Used only for the dollars-per-hour read.

The number that matters is the one brokers split apart

A broker pitches the linehaul and the deadhead as two separate facts. You don’t run them separately. The big number on the result card is the all-in rate per total mile: every dollar the load pays divided by every mile the truck turns to earn it, empty included. That is the real rate. A $1,000 load on 500 loaded miles looks like $2.00 a mile until you add 180 deadhead miles to reach it, and it’s actually $1.47.

Empty miles don’t burn loaded fuel

An empty truck is lighter and burns less. This calculator costs the deadhead leg at your empty MPG, not your loaded MPG. Most deadhead math online gets this wrong and uses one blended number, which overstates the cost of going to get a load and talks operators out of freight they should take.

The miles you’d run anyway are free

If 120 of a 180-mile deadhead is just you heading home for a reset, that’s a trip you were making with or without this load. It is not a cost of the load. Enter those miles in the “run anyway” field and they drop out of the break-even. This is the input no other deadhead calculator has, and it’s the difference between turning down a good repositioning load and taking it.

Why fuel price gets its own field

Diesel is the input that moves weekly and the one squeezing one-truck operators hardest right now. A dollar a gallon swing at 6 MPG is about $0.17 on every mile, loaded and empty. Don’t trust a stale default. Put in what the pump charged you this week, every time you run this.

Read the verdict, not just the rate

The result card names the constraint that’s binding: below your floor, clears cost but the hourly is worse than sitting, or a clean take. Use the max-deadhead figure as a standing rule. Once you know this load can carry 140 empty miles and the dispatch is 190 out, you don’t need to run the math again. You pass.

Want the spreadsheet version?

The full Rate Per Mile Calculator (Excel + Google Sheets) handles lane-by-lane deadhead, fuel surcharge, broker mix, and a weekly revenue target. Browse the Shop for launch updates.