You signed the lease agreement. You are running loads under the carrier's authority. The miles are adding up and the settlements are hitting your account every week. But here is the question that separates the owner-operators who build wealth from the ones who burn out after two years:

Do you actually know what you are keeping?

Gross revenue is not your income. The number on the rate confirmation is not what goes in your pocket. Until you understand the gap between what a load pays and what it costs you to haul it, you are flying blind — and in trucking, flying blind is expensive.

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Why Numbers Matter More Under a Lease

When you lease under a carrier's authority, you are running as an independent contractor. That means every business expense — fuel, maintenance, insurance, permits, tires, breakdowns — comes out of your settlement before you ever see it as income. The carrier handles dispatch, authority, and compliance. You handle the truck and the costs that come with it.

That arrangement can work very well. But it only works if your revenue per mile consistently beats your cost per mile. If it does not, you are subsidizing someone else's freight network with your own labor and equipment.

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The Four Numbers Every Leased Owner-Operator Must Know

1. Gross Revenue Per Mile

This is the total rate on the load divided by the total miles driven — loaded and empty.

Example: A load pays $1,800 and you drive 600 loaded miles plus 80 empty miles to get to the pickup. Your gross revenue per mile is $1,800 ÷ 680 = $2.65/mile.

Most owner-operators only count loaded miles. That is a mistake. Every empty mile costs you fuel and time with zero revenue attached to it. Always calculate on total miles driven.

2. Cost Per Mile

This is the single most important number in your business. It is the total of all your operating expenses divided by total miles driven in a given period.

Common expenses to include:

• Fuel — your largest variable cost; track every fill-up
• Carrier percentage / dispatch fee — the percentage the carrier takes off the top (at MC Transport, that is 20%)
• Truck payment — if you are financing, divide your monthly payment by your monthly miles
• Insurance — occupational accident, physical damage, and any gap coverage you carry
• Maintenance and repairs — oil changes, tires, brakes, unexpected breakdowns; budget a per-mile reserve
• IFTA fuel taxes — your carrier may handle filing, but the tax liability is yours
• ELD and communication — monthly subscription costs
• Factoring fees — if you use a factoring company, that percentage comes off every invoice
• Tolls and scales
• Health insurance and personal expenses — you are self-employed; no one else is covering these

A realistic all-in cost per mile for a leased owner-operator running a late-model semi typically falls between $1.60 and $2.20/mile depending on equipment age, fuel efficiency, and financing. Hot shot operators running a pickup and gooseneck will see different numbers, but the same math applies.

3. Net Revenue Per Mile

Subtract your cost per mile from your gross revenue per mile.

Net Revenue Per Mile = Gross Revenue Per Mile − Cost Per Mile

If your gross is $2.65 and your cost is $1.85, your net is $0.80/mile. At 10,000 miles per month, that is $8,000 in net income before taxes.

If your gross is $2.10 and your cost is $2.05, your net is $0.05/mile. At 10,000 miles, that is $500 — and you have not paid self-employment taxes yet.

The difference between those two scenarios is not luck. It is knowing your numbers and making decisions based on them.

4. Break-Even Rate Per Mile

This is the minimum rate you can accept on a load and still cover your costs. Know this number before you accept a load — not after.

Break-Even Rate = Cost Per Mile × Total Miles (loaded + empty)

If your cost per mile is $1.85 and a load is 500 miles with 60 empty miles to the pickup, you need at least $1.85 × 560 = $1,036 just to break even. Anything below that and you are paying to haul someone else's freight.

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Tracking Your Numbers: Keep It Simple

You do not need expensive accounting software to start. A spreadsheet works fine. Track these things weekly:

Week	Total Miles	Gross Revenue	Fuel Cost	Carrier %	Other Expenses	Net Income
1	2,400	$5,760	$1,080	$1,152	$480	$3,048

At the end of each month, divide every column by total miles. Now you have your per-mile breakdown and you can see exactly where your money is going.

If you are not doing this already, start this week. Pull your last three settlements and reconstruct the numbers. What you find might surprise you.

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The Expenses Most Owner-Operators Undercount

Maintenance Reserve

Trucks break down. It is not a question of if — it is when. If you are not setting aside a per-mile maintenance reserve, the first major breakdown will wipe out weeks of profit.

A common rule of thumb: $0.15–$0.25 per mile into a dedicated maintenance fund. That is $1,500–$2,500 per month at 10,000 miles. It sounds like a lot until your injectors go at mile 450,000 and the repair bill is $6,000.

Deadhead Miles

Every empty mile you drive is a cost with no revenue. If you are consistently running high deadhead percentages — say, 20% or more of your total miles — that is a load planning problem worth solving. Talk to your dispatcher about positioning, or look at where your loads are dropping and whether there are consistent backhaul opportunities.

Taxes

As a 1099 contractor, you owe self-employment tax (15.3% on net earnings) plus federal and state income tax. Many owner-operators get hit hard at tax time because they did not set money aside during the year. A simple approach: set aside 25–30% of your net income in a separate account every week. Pay quarterly estimated taxes. Do not wait until April.

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What Good Numbers Look Like

There is no universal benchmark because equipment costs, fuel prices, and freight rates all vary. But here is a general framework for a leased semi owner-operator:

• Gross revenue per mile: $2.50–$3.50+ (varies heavily by freight type and region)
• Carrier percentage: 15–25% of gross (know yours exactly)
• Fuel cost per mile: $0.45–$0.65 (depends on MPG and diesel price)
• All-in cost per mile: $1.60–$2.20
• Target net per mile: $0.60–$1.00+
• Target net income: $6,000–$10,000+/month at 10,000 miles

If your numbers are consistently below these ranges, something needs to change — either your rates, your expenses, or both.

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Using Your Numbers to Make Better Decisions

Once you know your cost per mile and break-even rate, every load decision gets clearer:

• Short loads with high rates may look good on paper but cost more per mile in fuel and wear than long runs
• Loads that drop you in a bad freight market have a hidden cost — the deadhead to get back to good freight
• Rate negotiations become easier when you know your floor; you can say no to a load that does not pencil out instead of hauling it and wondering why your settlement is thin

The carriers and brokers you work with know their numbers. You should know yours just as well.

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A Note on Leasing Under MC Transport

At MC Transport LLC, our lease-on program is built around transparency. You know the percentage upfront — 20% — and we handle authority, insurance, IFTA filing, and ELD so you can focus on running miles. But we also want the owner-operators on our authority to succeed long-term, and that means running a profitable operation.

If you have questions about how to evaluate whether a load makes sense, or you want to talk through what your numbers look like before you sign on, reach out. We would rather have that conversation upfront than watch a good driver struggle because the math never worked.

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Start Today

Pull your last settlement. Find the total gross revenue and the total miles. Divide. That is your gross revenue per mile.

Now add up what you spent on fuel, your carrier percentage, your truck payment, and any other expenses from that same period. Divide by miles. That is your cost per mile.

Subtract one from the other. That is your net per mile.

If you like the number, keep doing what you are doing. If you do not, now you know exactly where to look.

The drivers who last in this industry are not necessarily the ones who run the most miles. They are the ones who know what every mile is worth.

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MC Transport LLC is a licensed carrier based in Johnson City, TN — USDOT #2923403, MC #986053. We offer lease-on opportunities for owner-operators running semi trucks and hot shot equipment. Learn more about our lease-on program or contact us to talk through whether it is a fit.