Free tool, public route and fuel data
State-to-state lane cost calculator: break-even rate per mile
Choose an origin state and a destination state, pick dry van, reefer or flatbed, and enter what your truck really costs per mile. The tool adds truck-route miles from a dated routing snapshot and the regional EIA diesel price, then shows trip cost, the rate per loaded mile you need, and your margin at the rate on the table. Every figure is an estimate.
Estimates, not quotes
Per-mile costs pre-filled below are Example values (EXAMPLE VALUES). Miles are hub city to hub city, one metro per state, from a routing snapshot. Fuel is a regional weekly average. Use your own numbers and your own miles before you quote a load. Prefer a lane-by-lane view of 20 popular city pairs? See the lane true cost calculator.
Result
Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Example numbers are invented (EXAMPLE VALUES). This is a calculator, not financial, tax or legal advice.
Which of the busiest freight flows pay you?
The table joins the 20 largest state-to-state truck flows in the federal Freight Analysis Framework (2022, modelled) with the hub-to-hub miles from the routing snapshot. The last column recalculates your break-even rate per loaded mile for each flow from the costs you entered above. If you leave the form empty it shows nothing.
| Lane (state to state) | Thousand tons, 2022 | Hub-to-hub miles | Your break-even per loaded mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania to New Jersey | 25,910 | 160.0 | enter costs above |
| Illinois to Wisconsin | 25,048 | 89.0 | enter costs above |
| Pennsylvania to Maryland | 22,584 | 79.7 | enter costs above |
| Wisconsin to Illinois | 21,897 | 89.5 | enter costs above |
| New Jersey to Pennsylvania | 21,544 | 160.1 | enter costs above |
| New Jersey to New York | 21,309 | 11.4 | enter costs above |
| Indiana to Ohio | 21,210 | 174.7 | enter costs above |
| Indiana to Illinois | 21,198 | 182.4 | enter costs above |
| Oklahoma to Texas | 20,295 | 205.7 | enter costs above |
| Minnesota to Wisconsin | 19,160 | 336.8 | enter costs above |
| Michigan to Ohio | 18,665 | 198.4 | enter costs above |
| Illinois to Indiana | 18,072 | 185.3 | enter costs above |
| Oregon to Washington | 17,930 | 180.7 | enter costs above |
| Nebraska to Iowa | 17,527 | 134.2 | enter costs above |
| Illinois to Iowa | 17,518 | 333.5 | enter costs above |
| New York to New Jersey | 17,402 | 12.1 | enter costs above |
| Kansas to Missouri | 17,287 | 441.4 | enter costs above |
| Pennsylvania to New York | 16,955 | 170.5 | enter costs above |
| Indiana to Michigan | 16,865 | 282.8 | enter costs above |
| New York to Pennsylvania | 16,338 | 171.2 | enter costs above |
Modelled annual tonnage from 2022. It shows where freight moves, not what it pays and not what is available today. Miles are between one hub city per state.
- $2.383 a gallonGap between the highest and lowest EIA diesel region: California and Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C).EIA, week of Oct 5, 2026
- 17 of 20of the biggest state-to-state truck flows are under 300 hub-to-hub miles. Short hauls are where fixed cost per day and empty miles hurt most.FAF6 2022 with ORS hub miles
- 265 of 335of the National Weather Service alerts active in the snapshot were issued by Alaska offices, so a national alert count says little about your lane.NWS, retrieved Oct 8, 2026, 12:25 UTC
- 3,142 milesThe longest hub pair in the table: Oregon to Massachusetts. Every other pair is shorter.OpenRouteService HGV profile
Diesel by region, the number behind the fuel line
The EIA publishes a weekly average retail diesel price for the U.S., for each Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) and for California. It does not publish a price per state. The tool maps each state to its region and averages the origin and destination regions unless you pick one or type your own price.
| Region | States | Per gallon | Vs U.S. average |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | CA | $8.082 | +$1.883 |
| West Coast except California (PADD 5) | AZ, NV, OR, WA | $6.490 | +$0.291 |
| Central Atlantic (PADD 1B) | DE, DC, MD, NJ, NY, PA | $6.485 | +$0.286 |
| New England (PADD 1A) | CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT | $6.476 | +$0.277 |
| Midwest (PADD 2) | IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, OK, SD, TN, WI | $6.286 | +$0.087 |
| Rocky Mountain (PADD 4) | CO, ID, MT, UT, WY | $6.267 | +$0.068 |
| Gulf Coast (PADD 3) | AL, AR, LA, MS, NM, TX | $5.819 | -$0.380 |
| Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C) | FL, GA, NC, SC, VA, WV | $5.699 | -$0.500 |
| U.S. average | All | $6.199 | base |
PADD 5 except California covers AZ, NV, OR and WA here. Alaska and Hawaii are outside the route table.
How we calculate
all miles = loaded miles / (1 - empty share) fuel = all miles / mpg x diesel price per gallon driver, maintenance, other = rate per mile x all miles reefer fuel (reefer only) = your reefer $ per mile x all miles days = ceil(all miles / miles per day); fixed = days x fixed cost per day trip cost = fuel + driver + maintenance + other + reefer + tolls + per-load costs + fixed break-even rate = trip cost / loaded miles revenue = your rate x loaded miles; margin = revenue - trip cost rate for a target margin = break-even rate / (1 - target margin)
Each dollar line is rounded to the cent and the trip cost adds the rounded lines. Rates show three decimals. The diesel sensitivity row is simply 0.50 x gallons burned, so it moves with your mpg and empty share.
Where the public data comes in
- Miles. One OpenRouteService matrix request for the HGV (truck) profile between one hub city in each of the 49 areas (48 states and DC), 2,352 ordered pairs. Retrieved Oct 9, 2026, 21:59 UTC. Free-flow, no live traffic, hub centre to hub centre.
- Diesel. EIA weekly retail No. 2 diesel by region, retrieved Oct 8, 2026, 12:25 UTC.
- Weather context. NWS active alerts, retrieved Oct 8, 2026, 12:25 UTC, counted by the state of the issuing office. Alerts expire within hours, so this is context, never a delay forecast.
- Freight flows. FHWA and BTS Freight Analysis Framework FAF6, 2022 benchmark, top 200 truck flows between states.
What this does not do
- It does not find your route. The dashed line on the map joins the middle of two states. The corridor is a visual aid, not a path.
- It does not know tolls, scales, mountain grades or construction. Add tolls yourself.
- It does not know the market rate. We hold no live freight rates and show none.
- It does not know your door-to-door miles. Hub-to-hub is typically different from a real pickup and delivery. Type your own loaded miles when you have them.
Questions
Why one hub city per state?
A state is not a place a truck drives to. The tool uses one large freight hub per state (for example Chicago for Illinois and Dallas for Texas) so every pair has real road miles. If your pickup and delivery are elsewhere, type your own loaded miles.
Why does it ask for miles when origin and destination are the same state?
A hub-to-hub distance inside one state is zero by construction. Enter the loaded miles of your intrastate load and the rest of the maths works.
How is the diesel price chosen?
Each state belongs to an EIA region. By default the tool averages the origin and destination regions, because you buy fuel on both ends of a lane. You can pick one region, the U.S. average, or type your own price, which wins over everything else.
What do the weather alert counts mean?
They count active NWS alerts at the moment the snapshot was taken, by the state of the issuing office. Most alerts expire within hours and many are marine or coastal. They are context for a lane and do not predict delay.
Is my rate a good rate?
The tool only compares your rate with your own break-even. A rate above break-even is a positive margin on the numbers you typed, not a market judgement. See the true rate per mile guide.
Is anything I type sent or saved?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is posted, stored or logged. The route and fuel data are files that load with the page.
Related: cost per mile, deadhead, fuel surcharge, diesel prices by region. Want your real lanes checked? Get the free audit or see an example report.
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