Dray Insight
Know your cost per hour
Drayage is sold by the move and paid for by the hour. If you know the hour, you can price anything.
Jonathan Sinton · Checked November 14, 2026
You need
- Last year's costs for one truck
- Driver pay
- Hours the truck worked on paid moves
Steps
- Add the fixed costsTruck payment or lease, insurance, registration, parking, software, office.
- Add the running costsFuel, maintenance, tires, tolls.
- Add the driverPay and everything on top of it.
- Divide by paid hoursOnly hours on a move a customer paid for. Not hours the truck was available.
- Recheck every quarterInsurance and fuel move. So does the number of paid hours.
The numbers
Example. Use your own numbers.| Fixed costs, per year | $48,000 |
| Running costs, per year | $52,000 |
| Driver, per year | $70,000 |
| Total | $170,000 |
| Paid hours: 250 days × 8 h | 2,000 h |
| Cost per hour | $85 |
Watch out
Dividing by available hours makes every rate too low.
Most drayage drivers run under the short-haul rule: back at the yard within 14 hours.