IndustriesTrucking
A trucking business plan underwritten on revenue per mile
Trucking is a capital-intensive business with a thin margin and a volatile top line. A lender reads three numbers: revenue per loaded mile, deadhead percentage, and the fixed cost of the truck whether it moves or not.
Written for an SBA or bank loan, which is where most plans in this sector goNAICS 484121
Where the money goes
Typical shares of revenue in this sector. Shown as a starting point to argue with, never as a target to hit — your own figures replace all of these at intake.
- Driver pay
- 32%
- Per mile or percentage of load. The single largest line.
- Fuel
- 22%
- Moves with diesel. A fixed assumption across five years will be challenged.
- Maintenance and tyres
- 9%
- Modelled per mile, not per month — it is a variable cost, and it rises sharply after the warranty period.
- Insurance and permits
- 8%
- Authority, cargo and liability. New authorities pay materially more.
A worked model
One plausible trucking, built out in full.
Not an illustration. These assumptions were run through the same engine the product uses, and the plan review was run over the result. It is here so you can see the shape of the answer before you start.
- Year 1 revenue
- $547.2K
- Year 3 revenue
- $650.9K
- Operating profit from
- Month 1
- Year 3 net margin
- 4.9%
- Coverage, first full year
- 1.46×EBITDA less tax, over debt service
Balance sheet ties in all 60 periodsNo blocking findings — this model would exportLowest cash $37.4K in month 10
The revenue build
Not a growth rate. These are the drivers a reader can argue with, which is the only kind worth putting in a plan.
Loaded miles
Units × price
- Units in month one
- 17,000
- Price per unit
- $3
- Cost per unit
- $1
- Monthly growth
- 0.0%
Sixty months of it
Monthly revenue against monthly EBITDA. Both are flows, so they share an axis honestly — plotting a cumulative cash balance beside a monthly figure would flatten the one that matters. The cash trough is in the strip above.
- Monthly revenue
- Monthly EBITDA
Year by year
| Year | Revenue | EBITDA | Net income | Closing cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $547.2K | $41.2K | -$10.4K | $38.1K |
| Year 2 | $602.2K | $58K | $10.9K | $56.5K |
| Year 3 | $650.9K | $82.7K | $31.8K | $93K |
| Year 4 | $693.5K | $103K | $49K | $143.4K |
| Year 5 | $730.6K | $119.3K | $64.8K | $206K |
Sources and uses: $170K debt, $70K owner capital, $215K of fit-out and equipment. 3 people on the payroll by month 36.
Against the trucking and freight band
Benchmarks warn; they never overwrite. An assumption outside the band is flagged with its source so you can justify it — substituting an industry median would destroy the specificity that makes a plan credible.
- Gross margin
- 43.5%in band
- 20.0%median 32.0%45.0%
- Net margin
- 4.9%in band
- 2.0%median 6.0%12.0%
Source: Motor carrier operating cost surveys, 2026 · NAICS 484121 · secondary tier. Secondary-tier bands are usable as ranges, not as something a lender will read; where a figure has to survive scrutiny we substitute RMA Annual Statement Studies or IRS SOI data.
What they will ask first
A plan that answers these before they are asked reads as competent. One that does not gets sent back with them attached.
- What is your revenue per loaded mile, and your deadhead rate?
- Gross revenue means nothing without both. Fifteen per cent deadhead against ten per cent is the difference between a profitable truck and a loss-making one.
- What happens when a truck is off the road for three weeks?
- With one or two units that is a material share of annual revenue. A reader wants the cash cushion or the arrangement that covers it.
Where these plans get sent back
Fuel exposure
A fifty-cent move in diesel can take the whole margin. Fuel surcharge arrangements belong in the plan explicitly.
New authority insurance
Carriers under two years old pay substantially more for insurance. Plans built on established-carrier quotes understate cost badly.
Licences and filings to budget for
These belong in the use of funds, not in a footnote. A missing permit line is the cheapest possible reason to be sent back.
- USDOT number and operating authority before the first load
- Commercial vehicle insurance at the filing minimums for the authority type
- Hours-of-service and electronic logging compliance
- International Fuel Tax Agreement registration for interstate operation
Requirements vary by state, county and city, and they change. Treat this as the list to go and verify locally rather than as legal advice — the product tracks the dated ones as configuration with a source and an effective date, and prints which version it assumed.
Start from these defaults, then make them yours.
The intake pre-fills this sector’s drivers and tags each one as your figure or an industry default — and says which in the finished plan.