Fuel Surcharge Calculator (Owner-Op)
Verify whether your broker's fuel surcharge is keeping you whole on diesel. Uses the EIA weekly retail diesel index as the current price, your contract's base peg and assumed MPG as the formula inputs, and your truck's actual MPG to show the real net fuel subsidy per mile.
Is your FSC keeping you whole?
Updates every Monday at eia.gov. Baseline snapshot: $/gal (2026-04-17).
The diesel price at which your FSC starts paying. Check your rate confirmation.
The denominator in the FSC formula. Lower = more money to you. OOIDA reports 6.0 mpg as the owner-op fleet average.
Your real measured fuel economy — check your ELD, fuel card summary, or settlement sheet.
- ⚠ Your FSC is NOT covering your fuel bill
- Net subsidy is negative /mile. You're paying the broker's fuel shortfall. Renegotiate the peg or MPG, or find a broker with a fairer formula.
- ✓ FSC covers your fuel bill
- Net subsidy is +$/mile. Surcharge is keeping you whole on fuel.
- Actual fuel cost per mile
- Net fuel subsidy per mile
- FSC per week
- FSC per year
- Net subsidy per year
- Break-even diesel price
- Diesel above peg by
FSC formula: (current diesel − contract peg) / contract MPG. Surcharges are zero when diesel is at or below the peg. FSC pays per loaded mile only — deadhead miles get no surcharge, but you pay fuel on them anyway.
How broker fuel surcharges work
Nearly every US freight broker computes FSC the same way:
FSC per mile = (current diesel price − contract base peg) / contract assumed MPG
The current diesel price is the Energy Information Administration's weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel Prices index, published every Monday afternoon at eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel. EIA publishes a national average plus five regional averages (East Coast, Midwest, Gulf Coast, Rocky Mountain, West Coast) and PADD-level detail. Your rate confirmation should specify exactly which index anchors your FSC — most contracts use the national average, but if you haul predominantly in one region, specifying the matching regional index can be worth real money.
The contract base peg is the diesel price at which the FSC starts paying. If current diesel is at or below the peg, the surcharge is zero. If diesel rises above the peg by $0.50/gal on a 6.0-mpg contract, the FSC pays $0.50 ÷ 6.0 = $0.083 per loaded mile. Lower peg = earlier surcharges kick in = more money to the driver. Common pegs:
- $1.25 — legacy 2005-era peg. Extremely generous to drivers. Rare today but worth checking on any older contract you inherited from a previous carrier.
- $2.50 — common 2015-2020 peg. Defensible midpoint. Starts paying quickly.
- $3.00 — common 2022-2026 peg. Reflects the diesel price floor that followed the 2022 energy shock.
- $3.50 or higher — broker-favorable. Means you earn zero surcharge until diesel clears $3.50, which has happened only briefly in most of the last decade. Walk or renegotiate.
The contract assumed MPG is the formula's denominator. The lower the MPG, the larger the per-mile FSC. The OOIDA Foundation reports the owner-operator fleet-average MPG at approximately 6.0 for over-the-road sleeper tractors. Defensible contract MPGs: 6.0 (generous), 6.5 (fair). Stingier contracts use 7.0 or higher — which assumes your truck outperforms the industry average, which usually it doesn't.
The trust wedge — why this matters
Fuel is the single biggest variable cost for an owner-op. When diesel sits at $3.80/gal and you run 125,000 paid miles per year at 6.0 real-world MPG, your fuel bill is about $79,000. A broker with a $2.50 peg and 6.0 contract MPG pays you $1.30 / 6.0 = $0.217 per mile in FSC — about $27,000 per year. That covers 34% of your fuel bill.
A broker with a $3.50 peg and 7.0 contract MPG on the same lane pays you $0.30 / 7.0 = $0.043 per mile in FSC — about $5,300 per year. That covers 7% of your fuel bill. Same diesel price, same lane, same driver — but $21,700 less in your pocket because the broker's formula was stingier.
Drivers rarely do this math. Brokers know that. The calculator above exists so you can do it before signing a rate confirmation, and so you can verify every week that your actual settlement matches what the EIA index says you should be earning.
Regional indexes you should ask about
EIA publishes these regional indexes every Monday:
- U.S. National average — the default most contracts reference.
- East Coast (PADD 1) — subdivided into New England, Central Atlantic, Lower Atlantic.
- Midwest (PADD 2) — typically tracks national average closely.
- Gulf Coast (PADD 3) — usually the lowest regional diesel price because of refinery proximity.
- Rocky Mountain (PADD 4) — higher than national.
- West Coast (PADD 5) — highest of the regions, especially California which EIA breaks out separately as West Coast Less California vs the full West Coast series.
If your lanes run heavily on the West Coast or through the Rocky Mountain region, a contract anchored to national average under-pays you on fuel because your actual pump prices are higher than the national index. Asking to be indexed to "West Coast Less California" or "Rocky Mountain" is a reasonable request that can add cents per mile on the right lanes.
Our assumptions and sources
| Assumption | Default | Source |
|---|---|---|
| FSC formula | (diesel − peg) / MPG | DAT Freight Analytics "Fuel Surcharges Explained" — universal broker formula |
| Current diesel baseline | $3.80/gal | EIA Weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel, verified 2026-04-17 |
| Owner-op fleet-average MPG | 6.0 | OOIDA Foundation owner-op cost reports |
| Typical on-highway sleeper MPG | 6.5 | ATRI fleet-average Class 8 sleeper on-highway |
| Legacy peg | $1.25/gal | Pre-2008 broker contracts; carried forward in a minority of legacy deals |
| Modern peg range | $2.50–$3.00/gal | Spot and contract freight agreements 2015–2026 |
| Stingy peg threshold | >$3.50/gal | Broker-favorable; often means zero FSC at normal diesel |
| FSC paid on loaded miles only | Yes | Industry standard — deadhead earns no FSC but incurs fuel cost |
Questions to ask a broker about their FSC
- What is the contract base peg and assumed MPG?
- Which EIA index do you use — national, regional, or PADD-level?
- Which week's EIA release applies — pickup week or delivery week?
- Do you pay FSC on deadhead miles or only loaded miles?
- If diesel drops below the peg, does the surcharge go negative, stay at zero, or trigger a clawback?
- How is FSC shown on the settlement sheet — separate line item or rolled into line-haul?
Frequently asked questions
Does the FSC apply if I run under my own authority?
If you bill a broker directly, yes — the broker's FSC terms flow through to your rate confirmation. If you bill a shipper directly under your own authority, you negotiate the FSC directly with the shipper. Shipper-direct contracts often use a mirror of the DOE/EIA formula with similar peg + MPG values; some shippers offer a flat "all-in" rate that quietly absorbs the FSC into the line-haul rate. Watch for that.
What if diesel drops below my contract peg — do I owe the broker money?
Almost never. Standard FSC clauses set a floor of $0.00 per mile, not a negative surcharge. But some stingy contracts do include a "fuel credit" clause that reduces line-haul if diesel drops — read the fine print. Our calculator models the standard floor-at-zero behavior because that's how 95%+ of broker contracts are written.
How often should I verify my FSC is correct?
Every settlement. The EIA weekly release is public; you can cross-check whether the broker applied the right week's index and calculated the formula correctly. Discrepancies show up often enough to be worth the 30 seconds of review per settlement.
Why does my net subsidy show negative even when the FSC is positive?
Because the FSC is computed from the contract MPG, not your truck's actual MPG. If the contract assumes 7.0 MPG and you get 6.0 in the real world, the broker's formula under-compensates you by the difference — especially when diesel is high. The "net subsidy per mile" output subtracts actual fuel cost (current diesel ÷ actual MPG) from the FSC revenue to show the true math.
What's a reasonable counter-offer if my broker's peg is too high?
Ask for $2.50/gal with 6.0 MPG as your floor counter. If the broker won't move, ask for at least 6.0 MPG denominator even if the peg stays at $3.00 — cutting the MPG is the single highest-leverage ask because it scales with every week's diesel price. If the broker refuses both, walk and find another broker. FSC is one of the few levers you have that can't be disguised as "discount for commitment."
