Owner-operator P&L calculator.
Estimate your weekly net income as an owner-operator. Eight inputs, no signup, no credit pull. The calculator returns weekly revenue, total operating cost, net income, cost per mile, and breakeven miles — the numbers that show whether the lane and the rate actually work.
How the math works
The calculator runs a weekly cash equation. Revenue is rate per loaded mile times loaded miles. Total miles is loaded miles divided by one minus the deadhead fraction — because deadhead miles burn fuel and wear the truck without producing revenue. Fuel cost is total miles divided by MPG, times the price per gallon. Factoring fee is revenue times the factoring rate (factors price on face value of the invoice, not net proceeds). Fixed costs — truck payment, insurance, and the everything-else bucket (permits, IFTA accruals, IRP, parking, ELD) — are normalized to a weekly number. Add it all up: total operating cost. Subtract from revenue: net income.
- Revenue — rate per mile × loaded miles. Deadhead miles do not produce revenue, by definition.
- Total miles — loaded miles ÷ (1 − deadhead%). The fuel side of the equation is computed against this number, not loaded miles, because empty miles still burn diesel.
- Fuel cost — (total miles ÷ MPG) × fuel price per gallon. This is why MPG and deadhead are the two highest-leverage variable inputs.
- Factoring fee — revenue × factoring rate. Set to 0 if you self-fund receivables.
- Fixed costs (weekly) — divide monthly amounts by 4.33 and annual amounts by 52 to get the weekly figure. Insurance is primary liability + cargo + physical damage; other fixed is permits, IFTA, IRP, parking, ELD subscription.
- Net income — revenue minus everything above. Annualized at 50 working weeks, assuming two weeks off for vacation, repairs, and downtime.
What the breakeven number means
The calculator returns two breakeven figures. Breakeven loaded miles is the volume of loaded miles per week where net income equals zero, holding everything else constant. Breakeven rate per mile is the rate at your current loaded-miles volume where net equals zero. Both numbers answer the same question from different sides: how thin is the margin between this lane and the break-even floor?
Cost per total mile is the diagnostic number. Anything above the $1.80 to $2.00 per total-mile range signals operational stress — the fixed-cost base is too heavy relative to miles run, the lane is too short for the fuel burn, or both. Sustainable owner-ops run at twenty percent or more above breakeven. That cushion absorbs the irregular shocks the calculator does not model: a major repair, a slow week on the load board, a fuel spike, a broker pay delay. Operating at breakeven is operating one bad week from a cash crisis.
If the breakeven shows “not viable,” the lane has zero or negative contribution per loaded mile after fuel and factoring — no volume of miles will produce a positive net at that rate. The fix is either a higher rate, a better MPG, less deadhead, a lower factoring rate, or some combination. The number is doing its job by being brutal.
Inputs we don’t include
The calculator estimates the gross weekly contribution. Real take-home is meaningfully lower. The following costs are real and the operator pays them, but they fall outside the weekly-P&L framing this tool uses.
- Federal and state income tax — varies by bracket and state. Assume a working estimate of twenty to twenty-five percent of net for federal income tax on a typical owner-operator profile.
- Self-employment tax — 15.3% on net self-employment income (Social Security + Medicare). This is on top of income tax. An LLC taxed as an S-corp can reduce this; an LLC taxed as a sole prop cannot.
- Depreciation — the truck wears out whether you write it down on the books or not. Reserve a real-dollar amount each week for the next truck or major rebuild.
- Irregular expenses — major repairs (an engine overhaul, a transmission, a DPF replacement), DOT fines, an accident deductible. Reserve for these in advance; the calculator does not.
- Retirement and health insurance— you’re the business and you’re the employee. If you want a retirement plan and a health policy, they come out of net. Budget accordingly.
A working rule of thumb: take the annualized net the calculator returns and assume real take-home is 55 to 65 percent of that number after tax, depreciation reserve, and irregular-expense reserve. See methodology for how we describe ranges across the site.