What is a good rate per mile for truckers in 2026?

Ask ten drivers what a good rate per mile is and you will get ten answers. They are all right, for their own truck. A hotshot with a paid-off pickup and a reefer with a new trailer do not have the same costs, so they cannot have the same good rate.

A good rate is not a number somebody posts in a group. It is any rate above the one your own truck needs.

The three numbers that decide it

1. Cost per mile: everything it costs to run the truck for a year, including your own pay, divided by all the miles you drive.
2. Break-even rate: your cost per mile adjusted for empty miles, because brokers only pay for loaded ones. Below this rate you lose money on the load.
3. Target rate: your break-even rate plus a profit margin. This is the rate to aim for when you negotiate.

Any offer under your break-even rate is a bad rate for you, however good it sounds. Anything at or above your target rate is a good one.

Example rates by truck type

To show how much the truck changes the answer, here is the target rate per loaded mile our calculator gives for five setups in Illinois, each with typical costs for that kind of truck, 12% empty miles, $14,000 a year for insurance and a 10% profit margin, at the Midwest diesel price for the week of October 5, 2026.

These are examples, not market rates and not a promise of what freight pays. Change the truck payment, the miles or the insurance and every one of them moves. That is why the only good rate is the one built from your own numbers.

What moves your rate the most

• Fuel. On a dry van, a one dollar change in diesel moves the rate you need by about 19 cents a mile.
• Empty miles. At 10% empty the example dry van needs about $2.85 a loaded mile. At 20% empty it needs about $3.21.
• Miles per week. Your truck payment and insurance are the same in a slow week, so fewer miles means each one costs more.
• Insurance. A new authority usually pays more than an established one, and that difference lands on every mile.
• Your own pay. Decide what you need to take home, then let the rate follow from it.

For dispatchers

If you book loads for owner-operators, each of your trucks has its own break-even rate. The calculator has a load checker: put in what the load pays, the loaded miles and the empty miles to the pickup, and it tells you whether to take it, negotiate or pass, with a number to counter with. You can send a driver a link with their numbers already filled in.

Stop asking what a good rate is

The useful question is not what other drivers are getting. It is what your truck needs. Once you know that, every offer is a simple yes, no or counter.