Per-Mile Pay to Hourly Rate: How to Calculate What a Truck Driver Really Earns per Hour on Duty
A job ad says 55 cents a mile. Another says 60. It is easy to compare those two numbers and pick the bigger one. But a per-mile rate is not an hourly wage. It is a price per mile, and the part of your day that is not miles, such as waiting at a dock, inspecting the truck, fueling and loading, is paid at whatever the rate works out to once you divide by the whole clock.
So the useful question is not "how many cents per mile?" It is "what does my week pay for each hour I am on duty?"
The formula
Effective hourly rate = total pay for the week ÷ total on-duty hours for the week
That is the same move the Department of Labor uses for pieceworkers. In its regular-rate rules, the week's earnings are added up and "divided by the number of hours worked in the week for which such compensation was paid" (29 CFR 778.111). Mileage pay behaves like a piece rate, so the same division gives you a number you can compare with an hourly job. (That rule is written for overtime math. Here it is only borrowed as the method for turning per-unit pay into a per-hour figure.)
There is a shortcut worth memorizing:
Effective hourly rate = cents per mile × miles per on-duty hour
"Miles per on-duty hour" is your total miles divided by every hour you were on duty, not only the hours the wheels were turning.
Which hours count as on duty
For the hours-of-service rules, on-duty time is broader than driving. Under 49 CFR 395.2, it includes time waiting to be dispatched at a facility (unless you have been relieved from duty), inspecting or servicing the vehicle, and loading, unloading or attending the vehicle while it is loaded or unloaded. Time resting in a parked vehicle or in a sleeper berth is not on-duty time.
For pay, a separate federal principle points the same way: a person who is required to wait is working while waiting. The Department of Labor's example is a messenger who does a crossword puzzle while awaiting assignments and is still working (29 CFR 785.15). A real off-duty break, where you are free to leave, is a different thing and should stay out of your hours.
A worked day (all numbers hypothetical)
Say a carrier pays $0.55 per mile. On one day you drive 11 hours at an average of 50 mph, which is 550 miles. You also spend 2 more hours on duty on inspection, fueling and waiting at a dock. That is 13 hours on duty, inside the 14-hour window, and 11 hours of driving, which is the daily driving limit in 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3).
- Pay: 550 miles × $0.55 = $302.50
- Driving hours only: $302.50 ÷ 11 = $27.50 per hour (the same as 50 mph × $0.55)
- All on-duty hours: $302.50 ÷ 13 = $23.27 per hour (rounded)
The two hours that are not driving cost $4.23 an hour on that day. Nothing about the rate changed. The denominator grew.
A worked week
Same hypothetical rate, $0.55 per mile, for a week of 2,500 miles.
- Pay: 2,500 × $0.55 = $1,375.00
- Driving time at 50 mph: 2,500 ÷ 50 = 50 hours
- Other on-duty time (inspections, fueling, loading): 4 hours
- On-duty total: 54 hours. Effective rate: $1,375 ÷ 54 = $25.46 per hour (rounded)
Now suppose the same week includes 5 more hours of waiting at docks that the carrier does not pay for separately. The miles and the paycheck are identical, $1,375, but the on-duty total is 59 hours.
- $1,375 ÷ 59 = $23.31 per hour (rounded)
That is $2.15 less per hour for a week where you did exactly the same driving. To get back near $25.46 over 59 hours, the rate would have to be about 60 cents a mile: 2,500 × $0.60 = $1,500, and $1,500 ÷ 59 = $25.42.
Both weeks stay under the 60-hour limit in 7 days that applies to carriers that do not operate every day. A carrier that runs seven days a week has a 70-hour limit in 8 days (49 CFR 395.3(b)). Waiting time counts toward those limits whether or not it is paid, which is why long detention can hurt twice. It is covered in the detention pay guide.
The shortcut table
At a hypothetical rate of $0.55 per mile, the effective hourly rate depends only on how many miles you cover per on-duty hour:
| Miles per on-duty hour | Effective hourly rate |
|---|---|
| 30 | $16.50 |
| 35 | $19.25 |
| 40 | $22.00 |
| 45 | $24.75 |
| 50 | $27.50 |
Each row is 0.55 times the miles. In the worked week, 2,500 ÷ 54 is about 46.3 miles per on-duty hour, and 2,500 ÷ 59 is about 42.4. A driver who loses three or four miles per on-duty hour to waiting gives up roughly $2 an hour at this rate.
What the law does and does not say
- Overtime. Many drivers of large vehicles in interstate commerce are exempt from federal overtime under the motor carrier exemption, 29 U.S.C. 213(b)(1), explained in DOL Fact Sheet #19. The Fact Sheet also describes a small-vehicle exception for work on vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less. So a 59-hour week does not automatically produce time-and-a-half, and the formula above is a straight division with no premium.
- Minimum wage. The exemption is from the overtime rules only. 29 CFR 782.1 says it is not an exemption from the minimum wage requirements of section 6. The federal minimum is $7.25 an hour. For comparison, 59 hours at $7.25 is $427.75, far below the $1,375 in the example. The point is only that a floor exists. Some states set their own rules for how non-driving time must be paid, so check yours.
- Employer contracts. Whether waiting, orientation, or layover is paid separately is a matter of your pay policy and contract, not a federal formula.
If you are an owner-operator, the pay is revenue, not wages. Subtract fuel, insurance, maintenance and other costs first, then divide.
Check your own number in five steps
- Add up the week's pay from your settlement, before deductions, including any pay for stops, detention or layover.
- Add up your on-duty hours from your log, including waiting, inspections and loading. Leave out sleeper berth and real off-duty time.
- Divide pay by hours. That is the effective rate.
- Divide miles by hours and multiply by the cents per mile as a cross-check. The two answers should match apart from stop pay.
- Compare offers on the same basis. To compare a 55-cent job with a 60-cent job, estimate miles per on-duty hour for each. A lower rate with less waiting can beat a higher rate with more.
The figures here are invented for illustration. General information on federal rules, not legal or pay advice. Your contract and your state's law decide your actual pay.
Tracking on-duty days and hours on a calendar makes step 2 faster. Duty Pals, a shift calendar for Android, is now on Google Play, and the free shift pattern calculator on this site lays a repeating schedule against real dates so you can count each week's hours.
Sources: 29 CFR 778.111 · 29 CFR 785.15 · 29 CFR 782.1 · 29 U.S.C. 213 · DOL Fact Sheet #19 · DOL, Minimum Wage · 49 CFR 395.2 · 49 CFR 395.3