A 150-mile haul billed round trip costs exactly what a 300-mile haul billed one way costs. Check that before you compare fuel hauling rates.
Carriers quote per mile, per gallon, or as a flat charge per load. Buyers often compare delivered prices in cents per gallon. Three inputs decide whether those numbers match: which miles are billed, how many gallons the cost is spread over, and how the fuel surcharge is calculated.
How do you convert a per-mile rate to cents per gallon?
cents per gallon = 100 × (rate per mile × billed miles + surcharge in dollars) ÷ gallons
The table uses $1.00 a mile, so it works for any rate. Multiply by yours: at $4.00 a mile, the 2.000 in the 150-mile row becomes 8.000 cents.
| Distance, terminal to drop | Miles billed | 7,500 gal load | 8,500 gal load |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 miles | 50 (one way) | 0.667¢ | 0.588¢ |
| 50 miles | 100 (round trip) | 1.333¢ | 1.176¢ |
| 150 miles | 150 (one way) | 2.000¢ | 1.765¢ |
| 150 miles | 300 (round trip) | 4.000¢ | 3.529¢ |
| 300 miles | 300 (one way) | 4.000¢ | 3.529¢ |
| 300 miles | 600 (round trip) | 8.000¢ | 7.059¢ |
Cents per gallon for each $1.00 of rate per mile. Example: 100 × $1.00 × 150 ÷ 7,500 = 2.000¢.
Round trip vs one way. A rate may bill loaded miles with the empty return priced in, or bill the round trip at a lower rate. Both can be fair. The mistake is comparing a one-way rate with a round-trip rate as if they were the same, or leaving the empty return out of a one-way price.
Truck fill. The same trip over 8,500 gallons costs about 12% less per gallon than over 7,500 (7,500 ÷ 8,500 = 0.882). This example assumes the trip costs about the same to run either way. A short load costs more per gallon at the same rate.
Run your own numbers in the freight cost per gallon calculator.
Where does the fuel surcharge fit?
A surcharge quoted as a percent of linehaul grows with the haul. One quoted in cents per gallon stays the same at 20 miles or 200.
Here is a 150-mile one-way haul at $4.00 a mile with a 12% surcharge. These rates are inputs chosen to show the math, not market rates.
| Step | 7,500 gal | 8,500 gal |
|---|---|---|
| Linehaul: 150 mi × $4.00 | $600.00 | $600.00 |
| Fuel surcharge: 12% × $600 | $72.00 | $72.00 |
| Total freight | $672.00 | $672.00 |
| Surcharge alone, per gallon | 0.960¢ | 0.847¢ |
| Freight per gallon | 8.960¢ | 7.906¢ |
If the surcharge tracks diesel, ask which published price it uses and when it resets. The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes a U.S. on-highway diesel price, and its Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update page states the next release date.
Does a minimum charge change the per-gallon figure?
On short hauls, the minimum is what you pay. At $4.00 a mile, a 50-mile haul is $200. With an illustrative $350 minimum, the carrier bills $350: 4.667 cents a gallon on 7,500 gallons and 4.118 on 8,500. Check whether any percent surcharge applies to $200 or $350.
Why does tank-wagon delivery cost more per gallon?
A delivery carries trip costs: the driver’s hours, the truck, and time at the rack and the drop. Those costs don’t shrink with gallons, so a tank wagon spreads them over far fewer. Take $300 in trip cost (hypothetical): 12.0 cents a gallon on a 2,500-gallon drop, and 3.5 cents on an 8,500-gallon transport load.
EIA’s glossary draws the same line. It defines rack sales as “Wholesale truckload sales or smaller of gasoline where title transfers at a terminal.” It defines dealer tank wagon sales as “Wholesale sales of gasoline priced on a delivered basis to a retail outlet.” A rack price is a terminal sale. A tank-wagon price is delivered, and its freight is still trip cost divided by gallons.
Ordered or delivered gallons?
Freight per gallon depends on which gallons you divide by. On a $600 load, spreading it over 8,000 ordered gallons gives 7.500 cents. Over 7,850 delivered gallons at the same total, it’s 7.643 cents. Check which basis your rate uses, and whether it’s gross or net gallons.
What does a split load cost per stop?
A split load is one pickup with several drops. Take an illustrative $800 linehaul from one terminal to three drops: 3,000, 2,500 and 2,500 gallons, 8,000 in total.
On ordered gallons, every stop pays 10.000 cents: $300 for the first drop and $250 for each of the others. If the third drop receives 2,400 gallons, it still pays $250, which is 10.417 cents on what it got. Spread over the 7,900 delivered gallons, the rate is 10.127 cents, and the stops pay $303.80, $253.16 and $243.04. Those still total $800. The allocation basis decides who absorbs the shortfall, so agree it before the load.
Five questions to ask before you accept a rate
- Billed miles: one way or round trip, and from which terminal to which drop?
- Gallons: the full truck, the ordered quantity or the delivered quantity, and gross or net?
- Surcharge: percent of linehaul or cents per gallon, which index, and which reset day?
- Minimum charge: how much, and is the surcharge taken before or after it?
- Extra stops: how is a split load allocated, and is there a per-stop charge?
For the margin side, see how fuel brokers get paid. If you’re setting up as a carrier, how to start a fuel hauling business covers registration and terminal access.
How Energy Connect handles it
The portal calculator takes gallons and a rate per mile or per gallon, flat or in mileage tiers. The surcharge can be cents per gallon, a percent of the base, or a percent of a fuel price. Picking the origin and destination fills in the one-way distance. The calculator returns base freight, fuel surcharge, total and cost per gallon, and bills contracted minimums before the surcharge.
On contracted orders, the fuel surcharge shows as its own row in the fee breakdown.