Box truck business profit calculator
Put in your loads, rates and costs. See your monthly profit, profit per load and true cost per mile.
LOADS
MONTHLY AND PER-MILE COSTS
BOX TRUCK MONTHLY PROFIT
PROFIT PER MONTH, BEFORE TAXES
$9,125
COSTS LEFT TO RIGHT, PROFIT IN AMBER
- Revenue (17.3 loads)
- $15,600
- Fuel
- -$1,733
- Truck payment
- -$1,800
- Insurance
- -$900
- Maintenance
- -$650
- Dispatch fee
- -$1,092
- Other
- -$300
- Profit per load
- $526
- Margin
- 58%
- All-in cost per mile
- $1.49/mi
EXAMPLE starting values. Replace them with your own numbers; taxes, depreciation and your own pay are not included unless you add them.
At $526 profit a load, a better rate or one more load a week moves the month most. That is the dispatch side.
Start box truck dispatchHow the profit is calculated
Everything comes from what you enter. A month is 52 weeks divided by 12, about 4.33 weeks.
- Revenue = loads per week x 4.33 x average rate per load.
- Fuel = (monthly miles / miles per gallon) x fuel price, where monthly miles = loads x miles per load, empty miles included.
- Maintenance = monthly miles x maintenance per mile.
- Driver pay and the dispatch fee are percentages of revenue.
- Profit = revenue - fuel - truck payment - insurance - maintenance - driver pay - dispatch fee - other.
The starting values are an EXAMPLE, not averages. The dispatch fee starts at our rate for a single box truck, 7% of gross; set it to zero if you dispatch yourself.
EXAMPLE MONTH, ONE 26 FT BOX TRUCK
What the result tells you
Profit per load shows what each load is worth to you after every cost. If it is thin, look at the rate first: a small rate increase on every load moves the month more than any single cost cut.
All-in cost per mile is your floor. Any load paying less than that per total mile, empty miles included, loses money. Use our cost per mile calculator for a closer look, and the fill-up cost calculator to check your fuel line.
Fixed costs (truck, insurance, other) do not shrink in a slow week. The fewer loads you run, the bigger the share they take. That is why loads per week matters as much as rate.
Starting a box truck business checklist
Before the profit math matters, the business has to be legal to run. The federal basics for a for-hire carrier:
- Form a business and get an EIN, and open a business bank account.
- Get a USDOT number.
- Get operating authority (an MC number) if you haul for hire across state lines.
- File a BOC-3 to name process agents.
- Buy insurance and have your insurer file it with FMCSA; your authority only stays active while it is on file.
- Register with the Unified Carrier Registration plan each year.
- If the truck needs a CDL, set up DOT drug and alcohol testing before the first load.
- Set up a way to find and book loads, then check every rate against your cost per mile.
SOURCE:eCFR, 49 CFR 390.201, OCT 2026;eCFR, 49 CFR 392.9a, OCT 2026;eCFR, 49 CFR 366.2, OCT 2026;eCFR, 49 CFR 387.301, OCT 2026;Unified Carrier Registration Plan, OCT 2026
Our guides on start-up costs and box truck business statistics cover the rest. When the truck is ready, box truck dispatch finds and negotiates the loads.
Questions about this calculator
Q-01How much profit does a box truck business make?
It depends on the loads, rates and costs of each truck, which is why this calculator uses your numbers instead of an average. The main levers are rate per load, how many loads you run a week, and the miles each load takes. Fixed costs like the truck payment and insurance are paid whether the truck runs or not.
Q-02What is a good profit margin for a box truck?
There is no official benchmark for box trucks. Look at it from the other side: your profit has to pay you, cover taxes and build a repair fund. If the margin in the calculator leaves too little for those, the rate per load is too low or the costs are too high.
Q-03Does the calculator include my own pay?
No, unless you add it. For an owner operator the profit line is your pay before taxes. If you want to see the business pay you a set wage, add it to Other monthly or set driver pay as a percentage, and see what is left after that.
Q-04How to start a box truck business in Florida?
The federal steps are the same in every state: a USDOT number, operating authority if you haul for hire across state lines, a BOC-3, insurance on file and UCR registration. Then check Florida's own registration and tax rules with the state before you run. The profit math on this page works the same in any state.
Ryan, TruckSwing dispatch desk
UPDATED OCTOBER 2026 · EDITORIAL POLICY
More profit per load starts with the rate
We dispatch 26 ft and larger box trucks and negotiate every load. You approve every one.