Trucking accounting basics: invoicing, driver pay and cost per mile

What does a trucking business need to track?

Most trucking companies are profitable or unprofitable one load at a time, then in aggregate. So the unit of record is the load, and everything else attaches to it:

• Revenue per load. Line haul, fuel surcharge and accessorials such as detention or lumper reimbursements, each on its own line.
• Direct costs per load. Driver pay, fuel, tolls and any third-party costs.
• Shared costs. Truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits, maintenance and administration, spread over miles or weeks.
• Cash timing. When each invoice is issued, when it is paid, and who paid it.

Your accountant will decide how this appears in the books. One decision to understand is the accounting method. IRS Publication 583 describes the cash method, where you report income in the year you receive it, and the accrual method, where you generally report income in the year you earn it. The same method used to figure taxable income must be the one used to keep your books, you choose it when you file your first return, and changing it generally needs IRS approval. Ask your CPA which suits you before the first filing.

How should invoicing work load by load?

Invoices get paid slowly or disputed when the supporting documents are missing or disagree with the invoice. Build the invoice only when the load’s document set is complete.

Invoice on the day the last document arrives, not at month end. The time between delivery and invoice is the part of the cash cycle you fully control.

How does factoring affect the books?

This guide takes no position on whether factoring is right for you. What matters for bookkeeping is that your process should work the same either way, because the receivable simply has a different payee.

Under the Uniform Commercial Code, as adopted in each state, the person who owes an assigned receivable (the account debtor) can discharge the debt by paying the assignee once it has received notice that the receivable has been assigned. Before notice, paying the original creditor generally counts. The practical consequence is that remittance instructions on invoices must match the assignment, and your collections routine must know which invoices are assigned. The text of the UCC section varies slightly by state; read your state’s version.

• Record advances, reserves and fees from a factor as separate lines so you can see the true cost of the cash you received.
• Reconcile the factor’s schedule of assigned invoices against your invoice list each week.
• Track whether the arrangement is recourse or non-recourse, which determines what happens to an unpaid invoice. The agreement controls; terms differ.
• Keep customers’ payment history regardless of who gets paid; you still need it for pricing and credit decisions.

How do driver settlements work?

A settlement is the statement that turns delivered loads into driver pay: earnings, additions, deductions and a net figure, with every line traceable to a load or an agreement. The pay model determines how earnings are computed.

Employees and independent contractors

Employees are paid through payroll. Owner-operators and other contractors are paid by settlement and receive Form 1099-NEC where the payments reach the reporting threshold. The IRS says the threshold is $600 for payments made before 2026 and $2,000 for payments made in 2026, with later years to be checked in IRS Publication 1099. Whether a worker is an employee or a contractor is not a label you pick. The IRS looks at three categories of evidence, behavioral control, financial control and the relationship of the parties, and weighs them together. If classification is in doubt, ask an employment or tax professional.

Federal lease rules for owner-operators

When an authorized carrier leases equipment and a driver from an owner-operator, 49 CFR 376.12 sets minimum terms for the written lease. Among them:

• The lease must say payment is made within 15 days after the owner-operator submits the necessary delivery documents. The carrier may not require more than the documents needed to get paid by the shipper and the driver logs, may not condition payment on a clean bill of lading, and may not set time limits for submitting documents.
• Where pay is a percentage of gross revenue, the lease must say the carrier will provide a copy of the rated freight bill before or at the time of settlement. The owner-operator also has the right to examine the carrier’s tariff or, for contract carriers, the documents used to compute rates.
• Charge-backs, meaning items the carrier pays first and deducts later, must be clearly listed in the lease with how each amount is computed, and the owner-operator must be given the documents needed to verify each charge.
• If an escrow fund is required, the lease must specify its amount, what it can be applied to, an accounting of transactions, interest paid at least quarterly, and the return of the fund no later than 45 days after termination.

These duties rest on the carrier. A dispatch company that prepares settlements for a carrier client should know them, because late delivery paperwork or an unexplained deduction is a compliance problem for the client, not just an irritation for the driver. Confirm applicability with counsel.

What does a settlement look like on one load?

The figures below are invented for illustration. They show structure, not market pay. To run your own numbers, use the driver settlement calculator.

Every line is explainable from a load record or an agreement. If a driver asks about a figure, the answer should take less than a minute to find.

How do you calculate cost per mile?

Cost per mile is total operating cost for a period divided by the miles driven in that period. Break it into fixed costs, which stay the same as miles change, and variable costs, which scale with miles.

• Fixed: truck and trailer payments, insurance, permits and licenses, ELD subscription, parking and administration.
• Variable: fuel, driver pay, maintenance and tires, tolls.

The last row uses the same method as the FleetSpire cost per mile calculator: cost divided by one minus the margin you want. Dividing by (1 − margin) is not the same as adding the margin to cost, and it gives a different, higher answer.

Total miles versus loaded miles

The table divides cost by all miles driven. Rates are quoted on loaded miles, so compare them to cost per loaded mile. Suppose 7,650 of the 9,000 miles were loaded. Total cost of about $16,880 divided by 7,650 loaded miles is $2.21 per loaded mile, noticeably higher than $1.88, because empty miles still cost money. Knowing both figures stops you pricing loads against the lower one.

For context only, the American Transportation Research Institute’s 2026 update reports an industry-average operating cost of $2.336 per mile for 2025, and $1.854 per mile excluding fuel. That is an average across many carriers. It is not your number, and it is not a target.

Which tax filings show up in a trucking back office?

This is a checklist of items to raise with a tax professional, not a statement of what you owe.

• Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax, Form 2290. The IRS says it applies to a registered heavy highway vehicle with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. The filing season runs July 1 through June 30, you need an EIN, and e-filing is required if you report 25 or more vehicles. See the IRS Trucking tax center.
• Fuel tax. IFTA credentials and returns go through your base jurisdiction; IFTA, Inc. directs questions about them there.
• Information returns. Form 1099-NEC for contractors at the threshold above.
• Payroll taxes for employee drivers and office staff.

How long should trucking records be kept?

FMCSA’s schedule in 49 CFR Part 379, Appendix A lists one year for bills of lading and paid freight bills, one year for reports on the age and status of receivables, and three years for items such as paid and cancelled vouchers, receivables registers and bills issued for collection with their supporting data. IRS rules, lease agreements, insurers and lenders may require longer, so use the schedule as a floor.