Car hauling rates per mile: what shippers pay, what the carrier gets, and what it keeps.

What shippers pay per mile

Large auto transport brokers publish their customer prices for open transport, per car. Shorter moves cost more per mile because loading, waiting and city driving do not shrink with distance:

• Under about 500 miles: $1.60 to $2.60 a mile (Sherpa's cost guide, April 2026); $1.85 a mile (Montway).
• About 500 to 1,500 miles: $0.85 to $1.25 (Sherpa); $0.91 (Montway).
• Over about 1,500 miles: $0.60 to $0.95 (Sherpa); $0.59 (Montway).

RoadRunner's calculator page puts the median at $1.23 a mile for open transport and $1.83 for enclosed, on a median move of 987 miles (August 2026). At the median, enclosed costs the customer about half as much again as open.

These are prices shippers pay, mostly to brokers, per car. They are not carrier pay.

What the carrier is paid

Between the customer's price and the carrier's rate sits the broker's share, and it is not published in any reliable way. What a carrier sees is the posted rate for the whole load. Take the load from our worked example: three cars, Kansas City to Denver, 620 loaded miles, $1,400.

• For the truck, that is $2.26 per loaded mile, the number the board shows.
• Per car, it is $467, or about $0.75 a mile per car. For a move of that length, the cost guides above price the customer at roughly $0.85 to $1.25 a mile per car. The gap is the broker's share and the negotiation.

The board shows $2.26 a mile. The truck keeps $0.87.

What the carrier keeps

From the same $1,400: fuel on the loaded leg ($347, counting only this load's share of the trailer), fuel for 140 empty miles to the pickup ($77), the driver's 28% ($392) and 3% factoring because the broker pays net 30 ($42). That leaves $542, or $0.87 per loaded mile, before the truck payment, insurance and repairs. The calculator runs it on your own load.

What moves a car hauling rate

• Distance. Per-mile prices fall as the trip gets longer, as the bands above show.
• The lane. Busy interstate routes between big metros fill trucks easily and price lower per mile; rural pickups and dead-end destinations price higher, because the truck may come back empty.
• Open or enclosed. Enclosed carries fewer cars and charges more for each.
• The car. Larger and heavier vehicles take more deck space and weight; inoperable cars need a winch and more time.
• Timing. A tight pickup window or an expedited delivery costs more; a flexible one lets the carrier fit the car into a full load.
• Payment terms. COD costs the carrier nothing; net 30 usually means factoring at around 3%, which is part of the rate whether the posting says so or not.

How to price a load: your floor rate

The number that matters is not the market average but your own floor: the lowest rate at which a load still leaves you money. Work it out once and every posting gets easier.

• Cost per mile driven. Fuel at today's price and your real mileage, plus the share of the truck payment, insurance, tires and repairs per mile.
• Count the empty miles. A load is the trip from where the truck is now to the delivery, not just the loaded leg.
• Take out the driver and the terms. The driver's percentage and the cost of waiting for payment come off before you compare.
• Judge by net per mile driven, loaded and empty together, and by what it does to the week, not by the posting's rate per mile.

On loadez this is automatic. On Growth, every load on the board shows its net for your truck after fuel at today's regional price, deadhead, tolls, driver pay and factoring, and on Pro, Autopilot claims only loads above the floor rate you set. Pricing.

Common questions

What is the average car hauling rate per mile?

For customers shipping one car on an open carrier, published cost guides put the median at about $1.23 a mile (RoadRunner, August 2026), with short moves under 500 miles at $1.60 to $2.60 a mile and long moves over 1,500 miles at $0.60 to $0.95 (Sherpa, April 2026). Enclosed transport had a median of $1.83 a mile. Those are shipper prices; the carrier is paid less after the broker's share.

How much do car haulers charge per mile?

Per car, published customer prices run from about $0.59 a mile on long moves to $2.60 on short ones. Per truck, a carrier looks at the whole load: three cars for $1,400 over 620 loaded miles is $2.26 per loaded mile on the board, and about $0.87 a mile after fuel, empty miles, driver pay and factoring.

How do you calculate a car hauling rate?

Start from your cost per mile driven: fuel at today's price and your truck's mileage, plus the truck payment, insurance and repairs per mile. Count the empty miles to the pickup, take out the driver's pay and the cost of the payment terms, and compare the net per mile driven against your floor. The loadez calculator does this on any load.