Fuel Surcharge Calculator
Work out a fuel surcharge per mile, per trip and as a percent of the linehaul from the base price, today's diesel price and MPG. Use the MPG formula or your step table, add the miles and the linehaul rate, and see the surcharge for the load, the percent and the total with the working.
Your numbers
The price in your rate agreement at which the surcharge starts.
Usually the EIA weekly U.S. on-highway diesel average, or the regional figure your contract names. Type it in; the calculator does not fetch it.
The MPG in your schedule, not the truck's real figure, if the two differ.
Optional: per mile or flat for the load, as chosen above; for the percent and the total.
Fuel surcharge per mile
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- Fuel surcharge for the trip
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- Linehaul
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- Surcharge as % of linehaul
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- Total with fuel surcharge
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Your rate agreement decides: the base price, the MPG or table, which week's price applies and how the figure is rounded. Many schedules round the per-mile figure to the cent or the tenth of a cent; the trip figure here uses the exact value.
The calculation runs in your browser and ParrotNotes does not store your numbers. They sit in the page address so you can bookmark or share the result.
How to calculate a fuel surcharge
A fuel surcharge (FSC) passes the change in diesel prices through to the freight bill. The usual U.S. method compares this week's diesel price with a base price agreed in the contract and spreads the difference over the miles a truck gets from a gallon: FSC per mile = (current price − base price) ÷ MPG. The surcharge for the load is that figure times the miles.
Worked example: base $1.25, diesel $3.75, 6.5 MPG. (3.75 − 1.25) ÷ 6.5 = $0.385 per mile. On a 500-mile load that is $192.31. With a linehaul of $2.50 a mile, the load pays $1,250 linehaul plus $192.31 fuel, $1,442.31 in all, and the surcharge is 15.4% of the linehaul.
The base price and the MPG
The base price is the zero point: at or under it, there is no surcharge, and the calculator shows zero with a note. A lower base means a bigger surcharge at the same diesel price, and so does a lower MPG, because each gallon covers fewer miles. Both are negotiated, which is why two carriers quoting the same lane in the same week can show different surcharges.
The MPG in a schedule is an agreed figure, not a measured one. If your trucks do better or worse than the schedule says, the surcharge still follows the schedule.
Step tables
Some schedules are tables rather than a formula: every full step above the base adds a fixed amount per mile, for example one cent per mile for every 5 cents a gallon. The step-table tab counts the full steps, (current − base) ÷ step rounded down, and multiplies by the amount per step. A price inside the first step adds nothing.
With a $1.25 base, 5-cent steps and 1 cent per step, diesel at $3.75 is 50 full steps above the base, so $0.50 a mile. Enter your own table's step and amount: both fields are open.
Which diesel price to use
The EIA's weekly U.S. on-highway diesel average is the common reference. It is the cash self-serve pump price, taxes included, as of 8:00 a.m. local time on Monday, published around 10:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The contract says which week's figure applies to a load, for example the week of pickup, and whether a regional average replaces the national one.
The calculator does not fetch the price. Look up the figure on the EIA page, type it in, and the page address keeps your inputs, so you can save or share the working with the invoice.
For carrier, broker and distribution sales
The base price, the MPG, the index week and the rate get agreed on calls with the shipper, and months later someone has to check an invoice against them. When those terms live in memory or a half-written email, the surcharge becomes an argument.
Sources, each read on 2026-10-25. The results are arithmetic on your inputs; your rate agreement decides the terms:
More for freight and distribution sales: Freight broker sales: shipper calls and follow-ups, Distributor sales, Industrial distributor sales.
The terms get agreed on a call
The peg, the lane and the rate get agreed on a call. Record it in ParrotNotes and keep the terms as a structured note with a summary and action items, so the invoice matches what was agreed. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.
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