Trucking Startup Cost Calculator

Most people budget the truck and the authority and run out of money on the working capital. This puts all four groups on one page — paperwork, insurance, equipment and the months you fund before anyone pays you.

Before the first invoice clears

Every line is editable and every optional line can be switched off. Replace a figure with your own quote the moment you have one — the defaults are starting points, not prices.

Paperwork

  • The URS application. Confirm the current fee on FMCSA's registration page.

    $

  • Fixed by §367.50 at $46 for 0-2 vehicles.

    $

  • Quoted by your base jurisdiction from your declared mileage. No national figure exists.

    $

  • One-off filing through a service. Market price.

    $

  • State filing fee for an LLC or corporation. Varies widely by state.

    $

Insurance — quote all of these

  • The cover required is $750,000 (§387.9); what you pay for it is a market price and a credit decision.

    $

  • Commonly $100,000 by shipper contract rather than by regulation.

    $

  • Required by your lender if the truck is financed.

    $

  • Depends on your state and your driver arrangement.

    $

Equipment and setup

  • The single largest line and the most variable. Your own deal.

    $

  • Skip it if you are pulling someone else's.

    $

  • Per truck, per month, on a contract. See the ELD comparison.

    $

  • The things you fix before the first load, not after.

    $

Working capital

  • You pay for fuel weeks before a broker pays you.

    $

  • Truck payment, insurance and parking with no revenue at all.

    $

  • If you are factoring invoices rather than waiting 30 to 45 days.

    $

Total

$45,036

Switch off what does not apply. The last group is the one to leave in: a carrier who can start but cannot wait 45 days for a broker's cheque has not started.

Low-poly render of a lone tractor on an empty lot
One truck, an empty lot, and a spreadsheet that has to be honest.

What it checks

Sixteen lines in four groups. Only the UCR fee and the required insurance limits come from the regulations; everything else is a market price, a state fee or your own deal, and every one of those lines says so in its note.

The insurance lines are down payments, not annual premiums. A new authority with no safety history pays the highest rates in the market, and the monthly figure continues long after the down payment is forgotten.

Worked example

The defaults describe a plausible single-truck for-hire start: about $2,400 of paperwork, roughly $5,000 of insurance down payments, around $21,500 of equipment, and $16,000 of working capital. The working-capital group is a quarter of the total and it is the one people cut first.

The three-months-of-fixed-costs line is not pessimism. It is what covers you when the truck is in a bay for a fortnight in month two, which is a normal thing to happen and not a disaster unless it is unfunded.

Which numbers are real

§367.50 for UCR, §387.9 for the liability limits, and §387.307 for the broker bond if you are brokering as well as hauling. Those are the four you can hold anyone to. Every remaining figure on this page should be replaced with a written quote before it goes in a business plan.

Sources

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