What does the week actually pay?
Per mile, percentage or hourly — enter what you ran and see the gross, what you truly earn per mile once detention and stop pay are counted, and an annual figure based on the weeks you actually work rather than 52.
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This is gross pay, before taxes and before any deductions. Take-home depends on your filing status, state, and how per diem is handled — this calculator does not estimate it, because a confident wrong number is worse than none. If you are leased on as an owner-operator, use the owner-operator calculator instead: your deductions are the whole story.
The rate is not the pay
Almost every driver-pay comparison goes wrong in the same place: it compares cents-per-mile and stops. A rate only becomes pay when you multiply it by miles that actually ran, and add the money that arrives outside the rate.
$0.70 per mile on 1,800 miles is $1,260. $0.58 on 2,600 miles is $1,508. The higher rate pays less. When you are weighing an offer, the question that matters is not "what does it pay" but "what did drivers on this account average last quarter" — and detention and stop pay belong in that answer too.
Count the miles, not the rate
A high rate on short weeks loses to a modest rate on steady freight. Ask for a quarterly average.
Detention is real money
Whether it is paid, after how many hours, and whether it needs approval changes a week materially.
Weeks off are part of the wage
Annualising a good week by 52 is the oldest trick in trucking recruiting. Use your real home time.
Questions drivers ask about pay
- How is truck driver pay per mile calculated?
- Multiply the miles you ran by your cents-per-mile rate, then add anything paid separately — detention, stop pay, layover, tarp. A driver paid $0.62/mile who runs 2,400 miles and gets $150 in detention grosses $1,638 for the week. The rate alone does not tell you what a week pays; the miles do.
- Is this my take-home pay?
- No. This is gross pay, before taxes and before any deductions. Take-home depends on your filing status, your state, and how your carrier handles per diem — which is why this calculator does not guess at it. A confident wrong number is worse than no number when you are deciding whether to take a job.
- What is a good cents-per-mile rate?
- It depends on experience, freight type and whether you are solo or team — but the rate matters less than the miles behind it. $0.70/mile on 1,800 miles a week pays less than $0.58 on 2,600. When comparing offers, ask what drivers on that account actually averaged last quarter, not what the rate is.
- Why does the annual figure use weeks off?
- Because multiplying a good week by 52 is how recruiting ads produce numbers nobody earns. Home time, holidays, breakdowns and slow weeks are real. Setting your actual weeks off gives you a figure you can plan against.
- I am paid a percentage of the load — can I still use this?
- Yes. Switch the pay type to percentage and enter what the loads grossed. If you also enter your miles, the calculator shows what the percentage actually worked out to per mile, which is the only way to compare a percentage offer against a cents-per-mile one.
- I am an owner-operator, not a company driver.
- Use the owner-operator pay calculator instead. Your gross is not the number that matters — fuel, truck payment, insurance and escrow decide what the week was worth, and that calculator models the whole settlement.
Related: owner-operator pay calculator, cost per mile calculator (what it costs to run the truck, not what it pays), and how to read a settlement sheet.
Carriers: stop rebuilding this in a spreadsheet
Fleetive sets each driver's pay contract once and applies it to every load — itemized statements your drivers can check. Start your 14-day free trial, no card required.