All terms
Finance
CPM (Cost Per Mile)
Cost per mile is total operating cost divided by total miles. It's how carriers know whether a load is profitable.
CPM rolls up every cost — driver pay, fuel, maintenance, insurance, equipment depreciation, fixed overhead — divided by total miles (loaded plus empty). Industry average runs $1.85-$2.20/mile; well-run small fleets hit $1.65; struggling owner-operators run $1.95+.
Two reasons CPM matters: it's the floor for bidding loads, and it surfaces problem trucks. A truck running 20% above fleet-average CPM is usually a maintenance, driver, or duty-cycle problem worth investigating.
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