CPM → Annual Salary
Convert cents-per-mile, miles-per-week, and working weeks into a real annual-gross number. Compares against BLS median pay so you know where an offer lands.
Source: BLS OOH 53-3032, May 2024
CDL trucker calculators
Every number in these calculators is pulled from BLS, ATRI, EIA, or IRS primary sources with a visible date. Conservative defaults, every input user-overridable, no affiliate bias. Built so a driver can sanity-check the math before signing anything.
Lease vs Company vs Owner-Op
The honest-math trust wedge. Shows what lease-purchase actually nets after fuel, lease payment, maintenance escrow, plates, insurance, and deadhead — compared to a company driver's pre-tax gross.
Sources: ATRI 2024 Op Costs · EIA diesel · BLS
Owner-Operator Net Income
Revenue minus truck note, fuel, maintenance, tires, tolls, insurance, permits, and factoring — with realistic deadhead applied to the cost side only.
Sources: ATRI 2024 Op Costs · EIA diesel
CDL School ROI
Tuition plus lost wages during training, measured against BLS first-year pay. Returns a payback period and 5-year net — no affiliate bias toward any school.
Source: BLS OES 53-3032 percentiles, May 2024
Per Diem Deduction
IRS transportation-industry M&IE rate × eligible overnight days × 80% DOT meals deduction. Estimates your federal tax savings at your marginal bracket.
Source: IRS Notice 2024-68 · Pub 463
Endorsement Worth-It
ROI math for H, N, T, P, S, X endorsements. Tells you honestly when the pay bump is zero and the endorsement isn't worth the TSA fee plus study time at your specific carrier.
Sources: TSA Hazmat program · BLS OOH 53-3032 · state DMVs
Home Time
"Home every weekend" usually means 36 hours. Converts route-type claims (OTR, Regional, Local, Dedicated, Team) into honest days-home-per-month so you can compare offers on apples-to-apples terms.
Source: Carrier recruiting Q1 2026 snapshot + driver survey
Fuel Surcharge
Owner-op broker-negotiation tool. Industry-standard FSC formula indexed to the EIA weekly retail diesel price. Shows the real net fuel subsidy per mile — positive means the surcharge covers your fuel, negative means you're subsidizing the broker.
Sources: EIA Weekly Retail Diesel · DAT · OOIDA Foundation
Salary by State
BLS median pay for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in all 50 states plus DC. Every figure links to its BLS OES state page for direct verification — no self-reported data, no marketing spin.
Source: BLS OES 53-3032, May 2024 release
Carrier Offer Compare
Normalize 3-5 CDL offers side-by-side on true annual comp. Beyond CPM: sign-on amortized over realistic retention, employer health insurance, 401(k) match, per-diem W-2 impact, and home-time-adjusted hourly. What recruiters don't quote.
Sources: BLS OOH 53-3032 · KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey
Why we built these
Most trucker calculators on the web are built to sell something — a lease program, a CDL school, a factoring company, a fuel card. Every input defaults to a number that makes the product look good, and the assumption page is either missing or buried. We built this set differently. Every default is pulled from a federal primary source or a published industry report, every number has a source date, and the Python that powers the math is the same Python that generates the page you're reading — so the schema.org assertions cannot drift from what you see on screen.
The trust wedge is the Lease vs Company vs Owner-Op tool. Lease-purchase programs are the most-advertised and least-honestly-modeled product in trucking. The numbers recruiters quote assume you hit maximum legal miles every week for 52 weeks, pay no maintenance escrow, and run zero deadhead. Our model defaults conservatively on all three and lets you override every cost line. If you're looking at a lease offer, run your own numbers — not the recruiter's.
These calculators are written for drivers, not for optimization. If a number looks wrong for your lane, change it. The assumption table beneath each tool lists the default, the source, and the source date so you can verify the starting point before you override it.
