Trucking Owner-Operator & Small Fleet Financial Model — Per-Mile (CPM) Engine (Excel + Google Sheets)

Buying a truck and running under your own authority — Dry Van, Reefer or Hot Shot? Every other trucking template makes you type a guessed monthly revenue, or tracks last month's expenses backwards. An owner-operator does not get paid a flat monthly number — they get paid the gap between their rate and what it costs to turn a mile. So this model builds your revenue by the mile instead.

It starts the way you actually earn: rate per loaded mile × loaded miles, with deadhead a first-class driver — loaded miles = total miles × (1 − deadhead%). Then it prices every cost per mile and shows the one number every lender and owner-operator lives by: your cash breakeven CPM against the market rate. The gap between them, times your loaded miles, IS your take-home — and the model proves that identity to the cent.

What it builds for your operation:

• Revenue built by the mile — rate × loaded miles with deadhead in, every cost priced per loaded mile. Drop the rate, raise deadhead or spike diesel and watch your margin of safety and take-home move in real time.
• Live breakeven-CPM gauge — your cash breakeven cost per loaded mile vs the market rate, with the margin of safety that becomes your pay. The default breaks even at $1.466/mi against a $2.30 rate.
• 3-segment toggle — one switch reloads the whole cost stack (rate, MPG, reefer-unit fuel, maintenance, insurance, equipment CAPEX) from an editable preset table: Dry Van, Reefer and Hot Shot all in one file.
• Owner-operator or small fleet — run 1 truck for yourself or 2–3 with hired-driver pay layered in.
• 12-month seasonality + a Year-1 cash runway — see exactly which slow-quarter months you bleed while invoices age, the drain that sinks under-capitalised new authorities.
• 5-year P&L, SDE and owner take-home — EBITDA struck after a market driver wage, SDE added back, take-home as SDE less the loan. The default lands at $71,729 — right on the ATBS 2025 owner-operator average of $71,808.
• DSCR, cash-on-cash and payback — the numbers an equipment lender checks first. DSCR 1.48x at the defaults.

What's inside:

• 10-sheet Excel workbook (works in Google Sheets too — no macros, no add-ins, no external links)
• 17-page PDF user guide — quick start, sheet-by-sheet walkthrough, how the Per-Mile engine works, how a lender reads your DSCR, breakeven CPM and payback, where to find your real numbers, and a full FAQ
• START HERE sheet: your first projection in minutes, only amber cells to fill
• Per-Mile Engine sheet — rate, deadhead and cost-per-mile build your breakeven-CPM gauge
• Setup sheet with a 3-segment preset matrix you can edit to your exact lane and rig
• Dashboard with KPI cards and a 5-year revenue-vs-take-home chart, formatted to share with a lender or partner
• Benchmarks sheet with sourced 2024-26 spot rates, deadhead, diesel, MPG, insurance, factoring and owner-op income ranges

Why this one: every formula is machine-verified — the full calculation graph is recomputed by three independent engines (including Excel itself) before release, and the per-mile engine, the breakeven-CPM gauge and the segment toggle are all stress-tested. The breakeven gauge ties to the take-home to the cent. Models that balance.

Educational planning tool — not financial, legal, tax or investment advice. Freight rates, diesel and insurance are volatile and vary by lane and state; validate your rate confirmations, insurance quote and FMCSA / IRP / IFTA costs before relying on any number.