How much to charge per km driven? Calculate the cost first

It is important for every driver and fleet manager to know how to calculate the cost per km driven. This calculation includes all expenses, fixed and variable, which help show where each investment is applied.

With more certainty about these costs, it is possible to start projects that seek to optimize services, reduce costs, plan business expansion and increase profits. Nothing but benefits!

Based on this, you can set a fairer basis for charging customers, without affecting the quality of the service provided and without putting negative pressure on the fleet budget. The cost per km alone is not the final price, but it is the starting point for knowing whether the operation's numbers add up. In the end, everyone wins.

So, before finding out the cost per km driven of a truck, learn more about:

Why calculate the cost per km driven in the fleet?

First of all, because the amount the company pays for each kilometer driven needs to be included in the price quoted to the customer who hired the freight transport.

Knowing how much is paid for each of the truck's needs also makes it possible to carry out planning aimed at reducing costs with more accurate results. In other words, expenses need to be measured to help save resources.

With the cost per km driven and the truck's route at hand, a manager can see new possibilities, such as shorter routes, cheaper fuel stations or, even at the same price, stations with better-quality fuel — which goes further.

In addition, you may see the need to invest in other ways of saving, such as driving on roads in better condition that demand less of the vehicle or offering defensive driving courses, which teach techniques and adjust driving behavior to reduce vehicle wear and maintenance and fuel costs.

How to calculate the cost per km driven of a truck?

To carry out the calculation that helps find out the cost of the vehicle's mileage, you need to have some important information at hand and pay close attention. But don't worry, it is not difficult to do.

Let's get started:

The first step is to know what the fixed costs and the variable fleet costs are.

By fixed expenses we mean those that do not change according to the distance driven in the short term. Some examples are insurance, IPVA (Brazil's vehicle ownership tax) and vehicle licensing.

Variable expenses, on the other hand, can be higher or lower: they change monthly and according to the distance driven. The examples here are fuel and vehicle maintenance.

Fixed cost calculation

To find out the fixed costs per kilometer driven, you should add up the expenses and divide them by 12 (months of the year). After that, the result of this first calculation should be divided by the mileage the truck covers per month.

Let's assume the truck has an annual fixed cost of R$ 10,000 and drives 6,000 kilometers per month.

In this case, the calculation is:

R$ 10,000 / 12 = R$ 833

R$ 833 / 6,000 = R$ 0.14

So the fixed cost per kilometer driven is approximately R$ 0.14. The rounding needs to be consistent: R$ 833 divided by 6,000 kilometers does not come to R$ 0.13.

Fixed costs should include amounts for taxes, insurance, depreciation, licensing and other recurring contracts linked to the vehicle, for example.

Variable cost calculation

Variable costs change very often, because they depend on external factors, the truck's needs and the distance driven.

For this, you must have kept all the receipts for purchases and services the truck received.

With this data at hand, add up all those for the current month and divide by the kilometers driven by the truck in the same period.

Let's assume that, in April, the truck spent the equivalent of R$ 3,000 on fuel, preventive maintenance, tires and tolls. In the same month, the truck drove 6,000 kilometers.

So this is the calculation:

R$ 3,000 / 6,000 = R$ 0.50

This results in a variable cost per kilometer, in April, of R$ 0.50.

Cost per km driven calculation

Finally, add the fixed and variable costs individually to get the overall result. Just make sure you use the same mileage base and the same period in both calculations; mixing a rate calculated over 6,000 km with another calculated over 5,000 km distorts the example.

Fixed costs per km driven = R$ 0.14

Variable costs per km driven = R$ 0.50

Total costs per km driven: R$ 0.64

If a truck drove 6,000 kilometers in a month, its monthly cost was approximately R$ 3,840.00. By directly adding up the amounts in the example, you can also check the calculation: R$ 833 in monthly fixed costs plus R$ 3,000 in variable costs come to R$ 3,833, a difference caused only by rounding the amount per kilometer.

How to control and optimize these costs?

Not keeping track of fleet investments and costs can have serious consequences for the business. Always have a system or a spreadsheet that keeps on file the amounts invested in the company and, above all, in the vehicles.

Expenses with IPVA, vehicle licensing, insurance, fuel, maintenance, tires, traffic fines, among others, need to be included in this control, which should be reviewed frequently. It is through it that you can create techniques that generate savings.

Forming partnerships with fuel stations for a lower price, planning shorter routes, putting economical driving into practice and keeping the truck's scheduled servicing up to date are fundamental tasks for managing a fleet and optimizing expenses.

Interested in saving even more? Watch our video about the biggest costs of a transport operation and how to avoid them (video in Portuguese):