How do I calculate the cost per kilometre of a trip?
Cost per kilometre is the only indicator that tells you whether a trip is profitable. It is calculated in two steps: monthly fixed costs divided by kilometres run, plus variable costs per kilometre. Below you have the formula and a worked example.
Short answer
- The formula is: cost per km = monthly fixed costs divided by monthly kilometres, plus variable costs per km.
- Fixed costs include the lease instalment, insurance policies, the CMR policy, the driver salary, the certified copy and licensing fees.
- Variable costs include fuel, tyres, road tolls, maintenance and daily allowances.
- Always divide by total kilometres, including the empty ones on the return leg.
- A full articulated truck in Romania is typically priced between 4 and 5.5 lei per kilometre, but your real figure comes from your own fleet.
What goes into the calculation
The components of cost per kilometre
| Type | What it includes | How it is spread |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed costs | Lease, insurance, salary, certified copy, accounting, parking | Divided by the kilometres run that month |
| Variable costs | Diesel, AdBlue, tyres, road tolls, maintenance, allowances | Computed directly per kilometre driven |
| Empty kilometres | Empty return, repositioning to the loading point | Added to the denominator, otherwise the cost comes out falsely low |
Practical example
Example: a truck runs 10,000 km a month. Fixed costs are 18,000 lei, that is 1.80 lei per km. It burns 30 litres per 100 km at 10.20 lei per litre, that is 3.06 lei per km in diesel alone. Tyres, maintenance, tolls and allowances add about 1.20 lei per km. Total cost is about 6.06 lei per km, so a 6 lei per km rate is a loss, not a profit.
Common mistakes
- Counting only fuel and calling the result cost per kilometre.
- Ignoring empty return kilometres, which can be 30% of the total.
- Using the datasheet fuel consumption instead of the real one measured on your fleet.
- Not recomputing the cost when the diesel price or the lease instalment rises.
- Applying the same cost per km to a 40-tonne truck and a 3.5-tonne van.
How 4transports helps
- Each trip holds the price, currency and distance in km you enter, so you can work out revenue per kilometre.
- Maintenance costs sit on each vehicle, separate from the trips.
- 4transports does not compute trip cost automatically (fuel, tolls, allowances): you work out cost per km with the formula above.
- The monthly report shows the current month's revenue against the previous month.