Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
Business Plan Writer & Financial Projections
How to Write a Trucking Business Plan
Every Mile Has a Cost. Know Yours Before You Haul.
A trucking company can stay busy all month and still lose money on the miles. Business plan writer Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, shows owner-operators and small fleets how to build a plan around cost per mile, lanes, and the cash gap between delivery and payment.
Last Updated: 11/09/2026 · Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA
The Short Version
What Does a Trucking Business Plan Need to Show?
Short Answer
A trucking plan has to show your cost per mile, the rate per mile you can actually get in your lanes, and how you will cover fuel and payroll while you wait 30 to 60 days for brokers and shippers to pay. Add your authority, insurance, and equipment plan, and a lender can follow the money.
Profit per mile = revenue per total mile − (fuel + truck payment + insurance + maintenance + tires + permits + factoring) per total mile
Doctor Owl, in Plain English
“Busy is not the same as paid. Count the empty miles too.”
How This Guide Works
Each question below is one part of a lender-ready trucking plan. Dumpster Dani, a raccoon with a box truck from Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest Business School Series, shows up in short gold notes. The cost-per-mile math sits in one marked section.
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Free guides, videos, and the Fabled Forest books on strategy, cash, and growth.
Start learning →From Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest
Meet Dani: A Truck Full of Everything, Going Everywhere
Dumpster Dani is a raccoon with a rented box truck and endless energy. Her business, Dani on the Run, hauls anything for anybody, anywhere in the forest. Her motto is “Load it up, it’s as good as there!”
Dani never turns down a load. She also never knows which loads made money. Doctor Owl, the forest’s dry-witted consultant, ends up riding shotgun to find out.
Section 1
How Do You Describe the Company and Its Authority?
Start with what you haul, where, and for whom: dry van, reefer, flatbed, box truck, hotshot, or dedicated contract work. State your structure and who drives. List your USDOT number, MC authority status, BOC-3, UCR, IFTA, and IRP plates, and say whether you will run under your own authority or lease onto a carrier first. Lenders want to know you understand the paperwork before the first load.
Name your insurance plan too: primary liability, cargo, physical damage, and occupational accident. New authorities often pay high premiums, so show the quote, not a guess.
In the Fabled Forest
Dani’s truck is rented by the week and her paperwork lives in the glove box under a bag of chips. Doctor Owl asks for her insurance card. She hands him a coupon.
Section 2
How Do You Pick Your Lanes and Customers?
This is where strategy lives. Pick the freight you will focus on and the lanes you will run, then show why: rates in those lanes, how often you get a load back home, and who ships it. Describe your mix of customers: load boards, brokers, direct shippers, or a dedicated contract. A plan that depends only on spot loads should say how you will move toward steadier direct freight. See the market analysis guide for the format.
In the Fabled Forest
Dani hauls hay one day, glass the next, and a piano on Friday. Doctor Owl asks which of the three she would like to haul every week. For once, she is quiet.
Section 3
How Do You Plan Equipment and Drivers?
Explain the truck and trailer: buy, lease, or lease-purchase, the payment, the age, and the expected miles per year. Show your maintenance plan with a set amount per mile put aside for repairs and tires. If you will hire drivers, explain pay per mile or per load, how you will recruit, and how you will keep them. Driver turnover is one of the biggest hidden costs in trucking, so lenders like to see a retention plan.
In the Fabled Forest
Dani’s rented truck costs her more each month than a payment would. Doctor Owl writes both numbers on a napkin. Dani stares at the napkin for a long time.
Section 4
How Do You Win Freight and Get Paid?
Describe how you will find and keep loads: broker relationships, a short list of direct shippers, and a simple pitch about on-time delivery and communication. Then explain how you will get paid. Many brokers pay in 30 to 60 days. If you plan to use factoring, show the fee and how it changes your margin. Track who pays slowly and stop hauling for them.
In the Fabled Forest
Dani has six unpaid invoices from the same badger. She keeps hauling for him because he always has a load. Doctor Owl points out that a load you never get paid for is just a long drive.
Section 5
What Should the Financial Section Include?
Build the numbers on miles, not hopes. Show loaded and empty miles per month, rate per loaded mile, fuel at a stated miles-per-gallon and price, and every cost per mile. Include startup costs such as the down payment, authority filings, insurance deposits, ELD, and three months of working capital. In the loan request, tie each dollar to equipment or cash reserve. The financial projections guide walks through the statements.
In the Fabled Forest
Doctor Owl adds up a month of Dani’s runs. The truck was full almost every day. The account was empty almost every Friday.
The Numbers
How Much Does a One-Truck Owner-Operator Make per Month?
Example numbers only, built to show how cost per mile works. Assumptions: 10,000 total miles a month, 8,500 of them loaded at $2.40 a loaded mile, 6.5 miles per gallon, diesel at $3.80, and 3% factoring.
| Line | How it is figured | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 8,500 loaded miles × $2.40 | $20,400 |
| Fuel | 10,000 miles ÷ 6.5 mpg × $3.80 | $5,846 |
| Truck payment | Lease or loan | $2,600 |
| Insurance | Liability, cargo, physical damage | $1,400 |
| Maintenance | $0.18 × 10,000 miles | $1,800 |
| Tires | $0.04 × 10,000 miles | $400 |
| Permits, ELD, tolls | Average per month | $450 |
| Factoring | 3% of revenue | $612 |
| Profit before driver pay and taxes | Revenue minus all costs | $7,292 |
Step 1: Total cost. $13,108 a month, or about $1.31 for every mile driven, loaded or empty
Step 2: Revenue per total mile. $20,400 ÷ 10,000 = $2.04, not the $2.40 on the rate confirmation
Step 3: Margin per mile. $2.04 − $1.31 = about $0.73 a mile before the driver gets paid
Step 4: Your version. Divide every monthly cost by total miles. Never book a load below that number plus your pay
For a real example, see how Dr. Paul planned a Kansas City hotshot company planning national runs on the Kansas City business plan writer page.
Illustrative numbers. Fuel, insurance, and rates change by lane, season, and authority age.
In the Fabled Forest
Dani thought she earned $2.40 a mile. Counting the empty miles home, she earned $2.04. Doctor Owl circles the difference twice.
Watch
Watch: How to Write a Trucking Business Plan
Dr. Paul walks through a trucking business plan, section by section.
Step by Step
How Do You Write a Trucking Plan, Step by Step?
Six steps, in this order.
Choose your freight and lanes.
Pick what you haul and where, with reasons.
Line up authority and insurance.
DOT, MC, BOC-3, UCR, IFTA, and real quotes.
Plan the equipment.
Buy, lease, or lease-purchase, with a repair reserve per mile.
Build cost per mile.
Every cost divided by total miles, loaded and empty.
Plan how you get paid.
Payment terms, factoring, and a slow-payer rule.
Write the request, then the summary.
Tie the loan to trucks and reserves. Summary goes last.
In the Fabled Forest
Doctor Owl’s last note to Dani fits on the dashboard: pick a lane, price every mile, and stop hauling for the badger.
Go Deeper
Where Can You Learn the Strategy Behind Lane Choice?
Picking a lane is a strategy decision: what you will do, and just as important, what you will stop doing. Dr. Paul’s Fabled Forest Business School teaches strategy through Doctor Owl and the forest’s business owners, one problem at a time.
Each chapter pairs a short story with one idea you can use on Monday and a one-page worksheet.
A Business Consultant’s View
Why Do Trucking Plans Get Turned Down?
Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA · Business Plan Writer
The trucking plans Dr. Paul sees fail most often have one thing in common: they show the rate per loaded mile and skip the empty miles, so profit looks better on paper than in the bank. Lenders also look hard at new authority insurance costs and cash reserves for slow-paying brokers. Dr. Paul builds trucking plans the way he works through every engagement in Organize-Plan-Grow™: organize the real costs of every mile, plan the lanes and customers that cover them, then grow one truck at a time.
FAQ
What Do New Trucking Owners Ask About Their Plan?
How long should a trucking business plan be?
Do I need my own authority before writing the plan?
What do lenders look at first in a trucking plan?
Should a new trucking company use factoring?
Keep Going
What Other Transport Plans Work the Same Way?
Want Dr. Paul to Write Your Trucking Business Plan?
Dr. Paul writes lender-ready trucking plans with cost per mile, lane strategy, equipment, and three years of projections, built for SBA lenders and equipment financing.
Written by Dr. Paul Borosky, DBA, MBA, business plan writer.
Education only. Not legal, tax, or financial advice. Figures are examples. Fabled Forest characters are fictional. Confirm authority, insurance, and lending rules for your own operation.