Texas moves more freight than any other state, from the Dallas and Houston markets to the border crossings at Laredo and El Paso. Loads are easy to find. Loads that pay what your truck needs are a different matter, and you can only tell them apart if you know your number.
There is no single Texas rate. There is the rate your truck needs, which comes from your costs. Below are example numbers to show the range.
Example rates for Texas trucks
These come from our rate per mile calculator, using the Gulf Coast average diesel price for the week of October 5, 2026 ($5.82 a gallon), typical costs for each kind of truck, 12% empty miles, $14,000 a year for insurance, $70,000 a year of take-home pay for the owner and a 10% profit margin.
- Hotshot
- cost $1.77 / mile · break-even $2.01 · target $2.23
- Box truck
- cost $2.09 / mile · break-even $2.38 · target $2.64
- Dry van
- cost $2.24 / mile · break-even $2.54 · target $2.83
- Flatbed
- cost $2.38 / mile · break-even $2.71 · target $3.01
- Reefer
- cost $2.42 / mile · break-even $2.75 · target $3.06
Cost is per mile driven. Break-even and target are per loaded mile, because brokers do not pay for empty miles. These are examples, not market rates: your truck payment, your miles and your insurance will move every one of them.
What is different about running out of Texas
- Diesel. Gulf Coast fuel is usually cheaper than the Midwest. In these examples that is worth about 7 cents a mile on a dry van compared with an Illinois truck.
- Distance. Texas is big. A load across the state can be 800 miles without leaving it, and a long empty run to the next pickup raises the rate you need on the loaded miles.
- Hotshots. Texas has a large hotshot market. A pickup and gooseneck costs less per mile than a semi, which is why its break-even rate is lower, but it also hauls less.
- Insurance. Where the truck is garaged and where it runs both affect the premium, and a new authority usually pays more than an established one.
New authority in Texas
If you are just starting, you do not have an insurance price yet. The calculator handles that by showing a low and a high rate: for the example dry van, a target of about $2.76 to $3.05 a loaded mile, depending on where your insurance lands. Once you have a real quote, put it in and the range closes to one number.
Use it before you book
Once you know your break-even rate, checking a load takes seconds. The calculator's load checker takes the pay, the loaded miles and the empty miles to the pickup, and tells you to take it, negotiate or pass.