How it works
- Fuel = miles per month ÷ miles per gallon × price per gallon.
- Truck stock carrying cost = value of the parts on the truck × your yearly carrying cost % ÷ 12. Parts sitting on a truck are cash you can't use elsewhere, and some get lost, damaged, or go out of date.
- Total per month = payment + insurance + fuel + maintenance and tires + truck stock carrying cost + registration, GPS, phone, and other.
- Per year = total per month × 12.
- Per billable hour = total per month ÷ billable hours per month. Per job = total per month ÷ jobs per month. Per mile = total per month ÷ miles per month.
- What-if = total per month ÷ (billable hours × (1 + the increase)). Most truck costs don't go up when the tech bills more hours, so each hour carries less.
Billable hours are the ones that matter: customers only pay for billable hours, so they have to carry the truck's cost for the whole month — drive time, parts runs, and slow days included.
The IRS mileage rate (for comparison only)
The IRS standard mileage rate for business use is 76 cents per mile for July 1 – Dec. 31, 2026 (72.5 cents for Jan. 1 – June 30, 2026). Source: IRS, Standard mileage rates. It's a tax deduction rate for business miles, not what your truck costs. We show it next to your own per-mile cost only as a gut check — ask your tax preparer which deduction method fits you.
Worked example
With the example numbers above: 2,000 miles ÷ 14 MPG × $3.50 = $500 of fuel a month. $8,000 of truck stock at 20% a year costs $133.33 a month. Add the $900 payment, $250 insurance, $200 maintenance and tires, and $100 of extras, and the truck costs $2,083.33 a month — $25,000 a year.
At 100 billable hours a month that's $20.83 of truck cost in every billable hour. At 60 jobs a month it's $34.72 per job, and $1.04 per mile. If the same truck bills 10% more (110 hours), truck cost drops to $18.94 per billable hour — $1.89 less on every hour, with no new truck.
Things this leaves out
- The tech. Wages and payroll taxes aren't truck costs. The HVAC labor burden calculator works out what the tech in the truck costs per billable hour.
- The parts themselves. Parts you install get billed to the job. Only the cost of keeping stock on the truck is counted here.
- Depreciation on a paid-off truck. A paid-off truck still wears out. If you enter $0 for the payment, the truck looks cheaper than it is — consider entering what you set aside each month to replace it.
- Shop tools and equipment. Vacuum pumps, recovery machines, and meters are overhead too. Add them to "other" if you want them in the truck's number.
- More hours can mean more miles. The what-if keeps fuel the same. If more hours means more driving, raise the miles too.
We don't quote typical truck costs, MPG, or carrying-cost percentages here because we haven't found a solid public source for them. That's what the anonymous Owner Numbers survey collects, so owners can compare against real peers.
Where to get your numbers
- Payment, insurance, registration: loan or lease statement and your commercial auto policy.
- Miles, MPG, and fuel price: fuel card or GPS tracking reports.
- Maintenance and tires: last year's repair invoices for the truck ÷ 12.
- Truck stock: a truck inventory count, at your cost.
- Billable hours and jobs: your field service software, filtered to the tech who drives this truck.
To see where truck cost fits into what one job really made, read the HVAC job costing guide.
Related tools
Ready to price? The HVAC break-even hourly rate calculator adds your trucks, office, and other overhead to labor and gives you the rate to charge. Want the labor side? The HVAC labor burden calculator adds payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, and time off to a tech's wage. Checking one finished job? The HVAC job profit calculator shows what it made after overhead.