How much do cargo van owner operators make? The rate-per-mile truth

Checked October 2026

The short answer: there is no single number. Two drivers in the same city can end a month far apart, because pay per mile is only half the story. The other half is how many miles you really run — and how many days you sit with no load at all.

The complaint you hear most

Ask cargo van drivers what hurts and you hear the same words: "One load for the whole week." "I sat for two days waiting." A good rate on a load you never get pays nothing. A fair rate on steady routes pays every week.

One worked example, in plain numbers

A load pays $600. The full run — out loaded, back empty — is 400 miles. $600 ÷ 400 = $1.50 a mile for every mile your cargo van turns. That number does not come from the loaded miles alone. The empty miles burn fuel too, so they go in the count, every time.

Now the week around that load decides your month. Three runs like that in a week is a working week. One run in a week is a sitting week — same rate, very different money.

Work out your own floor

Before you say yes to any load, know the number your cargo van must earn per mile just to cover fuel, repairs, insurance, and the payment on the cargo van itself. That is your cost per mile. Any load under it costs you money to run.

Work your number free with the cost-per-mile checker on FreightVerdict — it does the math load by load. This page does the deciding; that tool does the math.

What moves your number up

• Steady routes beat spot luck. A route that runs five days pays more across a month than a big load you wait a week for.
• Being on more lists. Every company that knows your name is one more call you can get on a slow day.
• Saying no under your floor. A load under your cost per mile is not work. It is paying to drive.