“How much should I charge per kilometer?” is one of the most common questions in freight transport – and also one of the questions with no single answer. Your price per km isn’t something you copy from competitors; you set it based on your actual cost per kilometer, plus the profit margin you want.
The reason is simple: two companies running the same route with the same type of vehicle can have completely different costs. One owns its truck outright, the other is paying off a lease. One covers 12,000 km a month, the other 6,000. One comes back loaded, the other drives half the trip empty. A rate that’s profitable for the first can mean a loss for the second.
In this article you’ll find the calculation method, a table with every cost category and a complete worked example. The figures in the example are hypothetical and are meant to show you how the method works – replace them with your own real data.
Why there’s no “right price” per kilometer
Actual market rates vary enormously, depending on factors you can’t fully control:
- Route – a trip on a corridor with plenty of return loads is priced differently from one to an area you’re sure to leave empty.
- Vehicle type – a 3.5-ton van, a 7.5-ton truck and a 40-ton combination have completely different cost structures.
- Season – demand for capacity swings sharply, and spot rates follow demand.
- Customer type – an annual contract with guaranteed volume is negotiated differently from a one-off load taken from a freight exchange.
- Cargo – ADR, temperature-controlled, oversized or high-value loads mean additional insurance and equipment costs.
That’s why the only figure that really matters to you is your cost per kilometer. It tells you the floor you can’t go below, no matter how tempting a load looks.
The cost-per-kilometer formula
Cost per km = (monthly fixed costs ÷ kilometers driven in a month) + variable costs per km
The whole method comes down to splitting expenses correctly into two categories and knowing exactly how many kilometers you drive.
Step 1 – Add up your monthly fixed costs
Fixed costs are the ones you pay whether the vehicle is on the road or parked in the yard: lease payments or depreciation, the driver’s salary and contributions, insurance (MTPL, comprehensive/CASCO, CMR), the transport license and certified true copies, the periodic technical inspection (ITP), tachograph inspection, accounting and other administrative expenses.
Watch out for a common mistake: many hauliers forget to include their own salary as a manager, or their office expenses. If you leave them out, the “profit” you see at the end is just an illusion.
Step 2 – Calculate your variable costs per km
Variable costs rise in direct proportion to the kilometers driven: fuel, AdBlue, road tolls and vignettes, maintenance, tires, and the driver’s per diem and accommodation.
Fuel is the easiest to calculate: (average consumption per 100 km ÷ 100) × price per liter. For maintenance and tires, take the total cost over a full year and divide it by the kilometers driven that year – you’ll get a realistic cost per km that also covers major services.
Step 3 – Use a realistic monthly mileage
This is where most calculations go wrong. If you divide fixed costs by an optimistic mileage, you end up with an artificially low cost per km. Use the actual average over the last 6–12 months, not your best month.
Also factor in the legal limits: driving and rest times set a clear ceiling that a single-driver vehicle cannot exceed. Vacations, technical inspections, unexpected repairs and days without cargo also reduce the number of billable kilometers.
Table: cost categories in freight transport
| Cost category | Type | How to calculate it |
| Vehicle lease payment / depreciation | Fixed | Monthly payment, or purchase price divided by service life |
| Driver salary + contributions | Fixed | Total monthly employer cost |
| Insurance (MTPL, CASCO, CMR) | Fixed | Annual premium divided by 12 |
| Transport license, certified true copies | Fixed | Cost over the validity period, converted to a monthly figure |
| Technical inspection (ITP), tachograph inspection, permits | Fixed | Annual cost divided by 12 |
| Administrative (accounting, office, software, phone) | Fixed | Monthly total divided by the number of vehicles |
| Fuel | Variable | (Consumption per 100 km ÷ 100) × price per liter |
| AdBlue | Variable | Approx. 4–6% of diesel consumption, depending on the vehicle |
| Road tolls, vignettes, bridges | Variable | Total paid per month divided by that month’s kilometers |
| Maintenance and repairs | Variable | Annual cost divided by annual kilometers |
| Tires | Variable | Price of a set divided by its service life in km |
| Driver per diem and accommodation | Variable | Monthly total divided by that month’s kilometers |
| Empty kilometers (deadhead) | Adjustment | Applied at the end: total cost divided by billable kilometers |
Worked example (hypothetical figures)
Important: the figures below are a worked example, not market prices. Replace them with your own real figures. The example uses a 3.5-ton van operating domestically with a single driver.
Monthly fixed costs
- Lease payment: 2,800 lei
- Driver salary + contributions: 4,500 lei
- Insurance (MTPL, CASCO, CMR): 700 lei
- License, technical inspection, tachograph, permits: 200 lei
- Administrative (accounting, software, phone): 800 lei
- Total fixed: 9,000 lei/month
At 9,000 km driven in a month, that gives a fixed cost of 9,000 ÷ 9,000 = 1.00 lei/km.
Variable costs per kilometer
- Fuel (10 l/100 km × 7.50 lei/l): 0.75 lei/km
- Road tolls and vignettes: 0.10 lei/km
- Maintenance and repairs: 0.15 lei/km
- Tires: 0.05 lei/km
- Per diem and accommodation: 0.20 lei/km
- Total variable: 1.25 lei/km
Total cost and minimum price
Total cost per km = 1.00 + 1.25 = 2.25 lei/km. This is your break-even point: below this figure, every kilometer you drive takes money out of your business.
To set your price, add the margin you want. At a 20% margin: 2.25 × 1.20 = 2.70 lei/km. At a 30% margin: 2.25 × 1.30 = 2.93 lei/km. The margin isn’t “guaranteed profit” – it’s what covers slow months, late payments, unexpected repairs and future investments.
Why empty kilometers destroy your margin
The calculation above has a major flaw: it assumes all 9,000 kilometers are billed. In reality, some of them are driven empty – on the way to loading, on the return leg or between two jobs.
Back to the example: if 25% of your kilometers are empty, you only have 6,750 billable km, but your costs stay the same. Total monthly cost = 9,000 lei (fixed) + 9,000 km × 1.25 lei (variable) = 20,250 lei. Divided by 6,750 billable km, that gives 3.00 lei per loaded km – 33% more than the initial figure of 2.25 lei/km.
The conclusion is straightforward: if you negotiate 2.70 lei/km thinking you have a 20% margin but drive empty a quarter of the time, you’re actually operating at a loss. Empty kilometers don’t show up on any invoice, but they burn fuel, wear out the vehicle and eat into the driver’s driving hours.
There are two ways to act: reduce your share of empty kilometers, or build it correctly into your price. For the first, planning return loads and consistently using freight exchanges makes the difference. For the second, you need to know exactly what your real share of empty kilometers is – and that’s something you measure, not estimate.
What public benchmarks say about cost per km
There’s no official “price per km” figure in Romania, but there are useful public benchmarks for validating your cost structure.
The IRU (International Road Transport Union) cites a very wide range for Europe, from 0.50 to 2.00 euros per kilometer, precisely because there are so many variables. A range where one end is four times the other doesn’t tell you what to charge – it tells you that you have to do the math yourself.
The breakdown by category is more useful. According to the analysis published by UNTRR on the cost structure of freight transport, driver pay accounts for 20% to 30% of operating expenses, fuel for 20% to 40% of variable costs, road tolls and vignettes for 3% to 15% of total expenses, and administrative costs for 5% to 10%. Together, fuel and wages dominate the budget of any transport company.
Use these percentages as a sanity check. If fuel comes out at 60% of your costs, either your consumption is a problem or you’ve left expenses out of the calculation.
How to find your real cost per kilometer
The difference between a company that knows it’s profitable and one that just hopes it is comes down to the quality of its data. Back-of-the-envelope estimates are almost always optimistic: consumption is higher than the spec sheet says, there are more empty kilometers than you think, and hours spent idling with the engine running don’t show up anywhere.
You need three sets of data, measured monthly for each vehicle:
- Kilometers driven, split into loaded and empty – the basis of the whole calculation and the only way to find out your real deadhead percentage.
- Actual fuel consumption – not the stated average, but the liters actually used, including while idling. A fuel level sensor shows you the tank level in real time and flags refueling and unusual drops.
- Driving and standstill times – from the tachograph, so you know how many productive kilometers you can legally cover in a month.
A GPS fleet tracking system centralizes exactly this data: actual kilometers per vehicle and per trip, measured consumption, idle times, unscheduled stops and automatic tachograph data download. With it, the formula above stops being a theoretical exercise and becomes a monthly report you can compare against the invoices you issue.
The practical benefit is twofold. In the short term, you know the rate below which you won’t accept a load. In the long term, you identify the vehicles and drivers with above-average costs and take action where your margin is actually being lost.
Recalculate regularly
Cost per kilometer isn’t a figure you calculate once and use for years. Diesel prices change, wages rise, insurance premiums are adjusted, and road tolls in Romania and across Europe are undergoing major changes. Recalculate at least quarterly, and always before signing an annual fixed-rate contract.
If you want to see what this data looks like for your fleet and how it translates into a real cost per kilometer, Contact us and we’ll show you exactly what you can measure.
Frequently asked questions
How is the price per km calculated in freight transport?
You start from your cost per kilometer, calculated with the formula: (monthly fixed costs ÷ monthly kilometers) + variable costs per km. Then you add the profit margin you want. The minimum viable price is your cost per km, and your quoted price is cost plus margin.
How much does transport cost per km in Romania?
There’s no standard rate. The price depends on vehicle type, route, season, type of cargo and the relationship with the customer. The IRU cites an indicative range of 0.50–2.00 euros/km for Europe, but it’s too wide to use as a billing reference. The only figure that matters for your company is your real cost per kilometer.
What is the price per km for 3.5-ton freight transport?
It depends directly on your costs. A 3.5-ton vehicle has lower fixed costs than a truck, but also fewer monthly kilometers to spread them over. Apply the formula with your own figures: lease payment, driver salary, insurance, actual consumption and actual monthly kilometers.
Which costs are fixed and which are variable?
Fixed costs are paid whether or not the vehicle is on the road: lease or depreciation, driver salary, insurance, licenses, technical inspection, administrative expenses. Variable costs rise with the kilometers driven: fuel, AdBlue, road tolls, maintenance, tires, per diems and accommodation.
What profit margin should I apply?
There’s no universal percentage. Your margin has to cover the risks you carry: low-volume months, late payments, unexpected repairs and investment in new vehicles. The smaller your fleet and the fewer customers you have, the higher the risk – and the more substantial your margin needs to be.
How do empty kilometers affect the price per km?
Empty kilometers generate costs but bring in no revenue. If 25% of your kilometers are driven empty, the cost per billable kilometer rises by about 33% compared with the cost per total kilometer. You need to either reduce your share of empty kilometers or include it explicitly in your price.
What share of the total cost is fuel?
According to the UNTRR analysis of the cost structure of freight transport, fuel accounts for 20% to 40% of variable costs, and driver pay for 20% to 30% of operating expenses. Together, they are the main cost components in road transport.
How do I find out my actual fuel consumption?
By measuring it, not estimating it. A fuel level sensor (probe) installed in the tank and connected to a GPS tracking system shows you the fuel level in real time, refueling, unusual drops and idle consumption – data that doesn’t appear on pump receipts.
