HaulNumbers Review: Free Trucking Cost Per Mile, Load Profit, IFTA and Per Diem Calculators

HaulNumbers is a free website that gives owner-operators and small trucking carriers the one thing most rate negotiations are missing: their real numbers. It bundles ten trucking calculators, from cost per mile and load profit to IFTA fuel tax and per diem, with plain-English guides that explain the math behind each result. We spent a week running real-world loads through every tool to see whether HaulNumbers is a trustworthy replacement for the spreadsheet in your cab.

The pitch on the homepage is simple: know your numbers before you book the load. There is no sign-up, no phone number and no sales call, which immediately sets it apart from the many factoring and dispatch sites that hide a basic cost-per-mile calculator behind a lead form. Everything runs in your browser, and your figures are saved only on your own device.

What is HaulNumbers?

HaulNumbers is a web-based toolkit for the business side of trucking. It is aimed squarely at US owner-operators and small fleets who need to decide quickly whether a load on the board is worth taking, what a quarter of IFTA will cost, or how much take-home pay is left after fuel, insurance, truck payments and self-employment tax. The tools are organised into four groups, Costs, Revenue, Taxes and Business, and a Start Here path walks new users from cost per mile to load checks to tax deductions in the right order.

The site is independently run, and the default figures it uses are sourced from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the IRS, the FMCSA and the US Energy Information Administration. Each calculator links to its sources, shows its formula and includes a worked example, so you can check the arithmetic yourself instead of trusting a black box.

The 10 trucking calculators

• Trucking Cost Per Mile: your break-even rate from fixed and variable costs, the number every other tool builds on.
• Truck Fuel Cost: diesel and DEF spend for a trip at your real MPG.
• Deadhead Miles: what empty miles actually cost you and how they change a load’s true rate.
• Load Profit: whether a load pays, including deadhead, with a suggested counter-offer if the rate is low.
• Owner-Operator Income: realistic take-home pay after operating costs and tax.
• Truck Driver Per Diem: the 2026 per diem deduction, with the 80% rule applied.
• IFTA Fuel Tax: quarterly fuel tax owed by state.
• Freight Factoring: the yearly cost of a factoring agreement in real dollars.
• Semi Truck Loan: monthly payment and the loan’s cost per mile.
• Truck Dispatcher Fee: percentage versus flat-fee dispatch compared side by side.

Design and ease of use

HaulNumbers is a static site with no app to install, so it loads instantly on a phone in a truck stop with one bar of signal. The layout is clean and uncluttered: a short description, the inputs, a results panel and the formula. Inputs come pre-filled with sensible national averages, so you get a useful answer within seconds and can refine it with your own figures afterwards.

The best usability decision is that your numbers carry between tools. Enter your cost per mile once and the Load Profit, Deadhead and Income calculators all pick it up automatically. The homepage Quick Load Check is the feature we used most: paste in the offered rate, loaded miles and deadhead miles and it tells you in one line whether the load clears your break-even and what to counter with.

Guides and glossary

Alongside the calculators are eight guides and a trucking glossary. They are written in plain English rather than accountant-speak, each one links to the matching calculator, and every page shows a last-updated date. The per diem and IFTA guides in particular do a good job of explaining rules that trip up first-year owner-operators.

Accuracy, privacy and ads

We cross-checked the per diem, IFTA and loan results against our own spreadsheets and the IRS figures, and the math held up. The site states that benchmarks are reviewed at least yearly and whenever the IRS publishes new per diem rates, and it invites corrections through its contact page. Privacy is a strong point: calculations run in the browser and nothing you type is sent to the site’s servers. HaulNumbers is ad-supported, and it states that advertising and affiliate partners do not influence calculator results. Note the clear disclaimer that every output is a planning estimate, not tax, legal or financial advice.

What could be better

The site is US-only, so Canadian and Mexican operators will find the tax tools less useful. Because your saved figures live in your browser, they do not sync between your phone and laptop, and clearing your browser data wipes them. We would also like to see a load history or export option so you can keep a record of the loads you checked. Finally, the site is young, so the guide library is still small compared with established trucking forums.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Ten focused calculators that cover the whole owner-operator business, all free.
• Pro: No sign-up, no lead forms, no sales calls.
• Pro: Formulas, sources and worked examples shown on every tool.
• Pro: Figures carry between calculators and stay on your device.
• Con: US-only tax and benchmark data.
• Con: No cloud sync or load history yet.
• Con: Ad-supported, and the guide library is still growing.

HaulNumbers review verdict

HaulNumbers does exactly what a trucking numbers site should do: it gives you an honest break-even rate and a fast yes-or-no on every load, without asking for your phone number first. The transparent formulas and cited sources make it easy to trust, and the browser-only privacy model is rare in this space. If you run your own truck in the US, bookmark it before your next load board session.

Frequently asked questions

Is HaulNumbers free?

Yes. All ten calculators, the guides and the glossary are free to use. The site is supported by ads and affiliate links, and no account is required.

Does HaulNumbers store my numbers?

Your inputs are processed in your browser and saved only on your device so they carry between tools. According to the site, nothing you enter is sent to HaulNumbers.

Where do the default figures come from?

Default benchmarks are drawn from ATRI, the IRS, the FMCSA and the EIA, and are reviewed at least once a year or whenever the IRS updates per diem rates.

Is HaulNumbers tax advice?

No. The site is clear that its tools provide planning estimates only and are not a substitute for a tax professional, lawyer or financial advisor.