The short version
Search what a truckload costs and you get a number between two and four dollars a mile with no date and no source on it. In September 2026 DAT put spot rates with fuel at $3.01 a mile for dry van, $3.62 for reefer and $3.61 for flatbed, and the linehaul underneath those at $2.17, $2.70 and $2.60. ATRI put the average cost of running a truck in 2025 at $2.336 a mile, or $1.854 once fuel is stripped out. The space between the linehaul and that cost floor is the carrier's entire margin, and on dry van it is about 32 cents a mile.
Search what a truckload costs and you will get a number between two and four dollars a mile, usually with no date on it, no source, and no explanation of what it includes.
That is not useful when you have a real lane and a real budget. A rate is not a fixed price. It is the outcome of what a carrier has to cover, what else is moving that week, and how far they have to drive empty to reach you.
So this page does it the other way round: the published figures, where each came from and which month it describes, and then the arithmetic, so you can redo it on your own lane instead of trusting an average.
How much does it cost to ship a full truckload?
In September 2026, DAT put the national average spot rate with fuel included at $3.01 a mile for dry van, $3.62 for reefer and $3.61 for flatbed. Strip the fuel surcharge out and the linehaul underneath was $2.17, $2.70 and $2.60. On an 800-mile dry van lane that is roughly $2,400 all in, before any accessorial charge.
| Truck type | Linehaul, fuel excluded | With fuel surcharge | 800-mile lane, with fuel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry van | $2.17 | $3.01 | ~$2,408 |
| Reefer | $2.70 | $3.62 | ~$2,896 |
| Flatbed | $2.60 | $3.61 | ~$2,888 |
Source: DAT, September 2026 monthly rate release. The last column is the with-fuel rate multiplied by 800 and is our own arithmetic; it ignores accessorials entirely. These are spot rates. DAT's contract rates for the same month were higher — $3.24, $3.58 and $4.04 with fuel — and describe a committed volume agreement rather than a load you post this week.
The fuel surcharge is doing more work in those numbers than it usually does. DAT put September’s average diesel price at $6.291 a gallon, a record, and the flatbed fuel surcharge alone at $1.01 a mile. That is why the linehaul column fell for van and flatbed in a month when the all-in rate rose: the freight did not get more expensive, the diesel did.
Why will a carrier not go much lower?
Because of what it costs them to turn the wheels. ATRI put the average cost of operating a truck at $2.336 a mile in 2025, the highest in the report’s history, or $1.854 a mile once fuel is stripped out. Against that floor, a dry van moving at a $2.17 linehaul is clearing about 32 cents a mile — and that is before a single empty mile.
Those two figures describe different periods and should be read as a floor rather than a subtraction: ATRI’s is a 2025 annual average and DAT’s is a single month of 2026. The gap is the shape of the thing, not a precise margin.
It is still the part that explains most negotiations. The carrier is usually not holding a margin they could give up if pushed. On a lot of lanes there is very little there at all, which is why the cheapest quote is often the one most likely to fall through, get re-brokered, or arrive on a truck nobody checked.
It also tells you where a rate has genuine room in it. If your lane has freight moving in both directions, the carrier is not pricing in a long empty drive home, and the number can come down honestly rather than at somebody’s expense. The carrier’s side of this arithmetic, in full, is in what it costs to run a truck per mile.
Why is freight shipping so expensive right now?
Because the cost side rose faster than the rate side. ATRI recorded its highest-ever cost per mile in 2025, up 3.4% on the year, with tolls up 13.2%, repair and maintenance up 8.6%, driver benefits up 6.6% and tires up 6.4%. Diesel then passed $6 a gallon in September 2026. Those costs reach you eventually, because carriers running below cost stop running.
The second reason is structural, and it is the one shippers can actually act on. Your rate is paying for every mile the truck turns, not only the loaded ones. If a carrier has to drive 150 empty miles to reach your dock, that distance is in your price whether or not it appears on the invoice.
Which is why the most effective thing a shipper can do about price has very little to do with negotiating: give more notice, be flexible on the pickup day, and be easy to load. Each of those reduces the carrier’s real cost of serving you, and a cost you remove is a cost that can come out of the rate.
What actually moves the price on a lane?
- Distance, and not in a straight line. Short hauls cost more per mile, because loading, unloading and paperwork take the same time whether the run is 200 miles or 900.
- Truck type. Flatbed and reefer carry real extra cost: securement gear on one, a refrigeration unit burning its own diesel on the other.
- Lane balance. A lane with freight moving back the other way prices better than one that strands the truck.
- Notice. Same-day and next-day pickups are priced as expedited, because somebody has to rearrange their week.
- Season. Produce seasons and retail peaks pull trucks onto other lanes and lift the price on yours.
- How easy you are to deal with. Fast loading, accurate weights and paperwork that is ready all reduce a carrier’s cost of serving you.
How do I work out the cost of my own lane?
Take the real driving mileage, multiply by the benchmark rate for your truck type, then sanity-check the result against the carrier’s cost floor. If your number lands near $1.85 a mile before fuel, it is at what the average truck costs to run, and you should expect either no takers or an unreliable one.
- Get the real driving mileage between the two points, not the straight-line distance.
- Multiply by the benchmark for the truck type you need, using the table above as the starting point.
- Add the fuel surcharge and anything your freight will trigger, which is where accessorial charges live.
- Check the linehaul against $1.854 a mile. Below it, you are asking a truck to work for nothing.
The honest answer after all of that is still that your lane sets your price. The fastest way to find out what yours pays is to post it and see what comes back, which costs nothing and tells you more than any national average can.
Use these figures
You are welcome to quote or chart this page. Link to this page so readers get the version with the current month on it, and cite DAT and ATRI for their own numbers. If you are weighing up handling the freight yourself rather than through a broker, what you take on and what you save covers the whole trade.
The bottom lineA rate is not a price list. It is the carrier’s cost plus whatever that month allows. Work from the cost floor up rather than from the cheapest quote down, because a rate that does not cover the truck is a rate that does not move your freight.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to ship a full truckload?
In September 2026, DAT put national average spot rates with fuel at $3.01 a mile for dry van, $3.62 for reefer and $3.61 for flatbed. Excluding the fuel surcharge the linehaul rates were $2.17, $2.70 and $2.60. On an 800-mile dry van lane that works out around $2,400 with fuel, before any accessorial charges.
How is freight cost calculated?
Mileage multiplied by a rate per mile for the truck type, plus a fuel surcharge, plus any accessorial charges your freight triggers, such as detention or a liftgate. The rate per mile itself moves with distance, lane balance, truck type, how much notice you give and the season.
Why is freight shipping so expensive?
Because carrier costs rose to record levels. ATRI put the average cost of operating a truck at $2.336 a mile in 2025, up 3.4%, with tolls up 13.2% and repair and maintenance up 8.6%; diesel then passed $6 a gallon in September 2026. Your rate also pays for empty miles, so a carrier driving a long way to reach you prices that distance in.
Sources
Every figure in this article is linked in place. The full list, for anyone who wants to check the working.
- DAT, truckload rates for September 2026. Spot and contract rates by equipment type, with and without the fuel surcharge, and the month’s average diesel price. Read at source on 24 October 2026.
- ATRI, An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, 2026 update. Cost per mile for 2025 and the line-item changes behind it. Read at source on 24 October 2026.
- ATRI press release, 15 July 2026. The headline figures: $2.336 a mile, $1.854 excluding fuel, and the percentage rises by line item.
