Two numbers control whether your trucking company thrives or barely survives: revenue per mile and cost per mile. Most carriers track one or the other. The profitable ones track both and understand exactly how they interact.

RPM tells you what you earn. CPM tells you what you spend. The gap between them is your actual profit per mile. Without both numbers, you are guessing at profitability instead of measuring it.

What is Revenue Per Mile?

Revenue per mile measures how much money your trucks generate for every mile driven. Divide total revenue by total miles and you get your RPM. A $3,000 load covering 1,000 miles delivers $3.00 RPM.

This metric helps you evaluate loads quickly. When a broker offers a rate, you can instantly calculate whether it meets your minimum threshold. Carriers who know their target RPM negotiate from strength instead of accepting whatever comes their way.

Smart operators track RPM at multiple levels:

• Per load to evaluate individual opportunities

• Per truck to identify top-performing assets

• Per driver to measure team efficiency

• Per lane to spot profitable routes

A solid TMS for carriers calculates all four automatically without manual spreadsheet work.

What is Cost Per Mile?

Cost per mile captures everything you spend to move a truck one mile. If your monthly expenses total $18,000 and you drove 10,000 miles, your CPM is $1.80.

CPM includes more than just fuel. A complete calculation covers:

• Fuel and DEF

• Driver wages and benefits

• Insurance premiums

• Maintenance and repairs

• Permits and licensing

• Tolls and scales

• Equipment payments or depreciation

• Back-office overhead

Many carriers underestimate CPM because they skip hidden costs like compliance fees, accounting services, and software subscriptions. Accurate tracking requires connecting your fuel cards, maintenance systems, and payroll into one place where nothing slips through.

RPM vs CPM: Side-by-Side Comparison

Neither metric tells the full story alone. A carrier with $3.50 RPM sounds successful until you learn their CPM runs $3.40. That leaves just $0.10 per mile for profit, emergencies, and growth.

The Number That Actually Matters: Profit Per Mile

Subtract CPM from RPM and you get profit per mile. This single number determines whether you build wealth or slowly bleed cash.

Profit Per Mile = RPM - CPM

Healthy carriers maintain profit margins of $0.30 to $0.60 per mile after all expenses. Top performers push above $0.75. Struggling fleets often discover their profit per mile hovers near zero or goes negative on certain lanes.

Tracking profit per truck reveals which assets contribute and which ones drain resources.

Why Most Carriers Get These Calculations Wrong

Common RPM mistakes:

• Ignoring deadhead miles in calculations

• Using loaded-mile RPM as if it reflects total performance

• Forgetting detention time eats into effective RPM

Common CPM mistakes:

• Excluding license fees, drug testing, and compliance costs

• Skipping software subscriptions and office overhead

• Ignoring depreciation on owned equipment

Both errors lead to the same problem: accepting loads that feel profitable but actually lose money. This is why so many trucking companies fail despite staying busy.

How to Calculate Your True Numbers

For accurate CPM, pull three months of expenses and categorize everything:

1. Gather all invoices, statements, and receipts

2. Sort into categories (fuel, labor, insurance, maintenance, overhead)

3. Total each category and sum for complete costs

4. Divide by total miles driven in the same period

For RPM, use all-in calculations that include empty miles. Yes, your per-load RPM on paper looks lower. But this approach reflects reality and prevents bad decisions based on inflated numbers.

Run these calculations monthly at minimum. Weekly is better. Real-time is ideal. Analytics dashboards built for trucking update these figures automatically so you always know where you stand.

Using RPM and CPM Together

These metrics work best as a decision framework. Before accepting any load, ask:

• What is the offered RPM including deadhead?

• Does it clear my CPM floor with acceptable margin?

• How does this lane perform historically?

• What is the opportunity cost of tying up this truck?

Over time, patterns emerge. Certain lanes consistently deliver RPM well above your CPM. Others barely break even. Tracking the right metrics helps you pursue winners and avoid repeat mistakes.

The carriers who scaled successfully, like PAVA Logistics growing to 200 trucks, credit this discipline. They know their numbers cold and make decisions accordingly.

What Good Margins Look Like

Where do you fall? If you cannot answer instantly, that gap in visibility is costing you money every week.

Quick Wins to Improve Both Metrics

To increase RPM:

• Reduce empty miles with better load matching

• Negotiate accessorials for detention and layover

• Focus on lanes where you consistently earn above average

• Build direct shipper relationships that bypass broker fees

To reduce CPM:

• Implement preventive maintenance to avoid costly breakdowns

• Optimize routes for fuel efficiency

• Review insurance annually and shop for better rates

• Automate back-office work to reduce administrative overhead

Small improvements on both sides compound quickly. Increasing RPM by $0.10 while cutting CPM by $0.10 adds $0.20 to every mile you run.

Stop Guessing at Profitability

RPM and CPM are not complicated metrics. But tracking them accurately across a growing fleet becomes impossible with spreadsheets. By the time you calculate last month's numbers, you have already made dozens of decisions without that insight.

Datatruck is the carrier-first TMS that calculates RPM, CPM, and profit per mile in real time across every truck, driver, and lane. Our AI-native platform connects dispatch, accounting, and operations so you see exactly where money flows.

Book a free demo and finally know your numbers before you need them.