The number that started this
He kept it on paper
for twenty years.
Not because he was careless. It is the opposite. Because nobody ever handed an operation with one truck the arithmetic a fleet with a thousand trucks takes for granted. Bill worked his fuel out by hand, four quarters at a time, in a notebook.
Here is that page, as he wrote it. It is the most honest number on this website, because it is the only one that came out of an actual glovebox.
2025, the notebook of Bill
6.64 mpg His own figures, his own hand, one truck, one year
Transcribed from the handwritten notes of Bill. Miles and gallons are his. The mpg is those two numbers divided. Your own figures will be different. That is the point, and the worksheet does the arithmetic on your device from what you type.
What the research says it costs
Both figures come from the American Transportation Research Institute analysis of 2024 operating cost, not from our own data. It put the average contracted owner and operator rate at $2.09 a mile, against a truckload marginal cost of $2.13 a mile and an industry marginal cost of $2.26 a mile. The annual figure applies that gap to about one hundred thousand miles a year. These describe the average small operator. Not you, and not a prediction about you. Estimate only, confirm with your tax pro.