20 October 2026 · 6 min read
How to calculate a trip charge: the mileage rate changed in July, and it was never the whole cost
Start with the IRS rate, the guides say. Most of them have the wrong one, and for a crew it is less than half the trip.
Search how to calculate a trip charge and the advice is to start from the IRS mileage rate and add something for time. That is a reasonable method. The trouble is in the inputs: the rate the guides quote is stale, and the time they add is one person's.
What the ranking guides say
We read the six pages we could load for that search on 11 October 2026; a seventh refused. All six are written for single-technician trades. Counted:
- 2 of 6 cite the IRS mileage rate. One gives the 2012 figure. The other gives a 2026 figure that is in fact 2025's.
- 0 of 6 have the rate in force today.
- 0 of 6 price a crew of more than one.
- 5 of 6 say to tell the customer before the visit. 2 of 6 say to put the fee on the website.
The rate, and what it is
The IRS set the 2026 business rate at 72.5 cents a mile in December. Then it changed it. The agency's rate table now has two rows for the year:
| Period | Business use, per mile |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 70¢ |
| 1 January – 30 June 2026 | 72.5¢ |
| 1 July – 31 December 2026 | 76¢ |
The reason is fuel. The EIA's weekly survey for 5 October 2026 has regular gasoline at $4.354 a gallon, up $1.23 on the year, and on-highway diesel at $6.199, up $2.49.
It also helps to know what the rate measures. Notice 2026-10 describes it as coming from an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile, and treats 35 cents of each mile as depreciation. It is a car's cost, set for tax purposes. It is not an estimate for a loaded work truck.
AAA's 2026 driving-cost study, published in September, puts a half-ton pickup at $1.10 a mile — the highest of any category it measures, and that is for a new truck in personal use. For a work truck the IRS figure is a floor.
The part the guides leave in the cab
A plumber drives alone. A junk removal, moving or roofing job sends two people or more, and both are on the clock for the drive. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for hand laborers and material movers at $18.38 an hour and for roofers at $26.65, both May 2025.
Take a job 25 miles out: 50 miles round trip, two people, an assumed 35 miles an hour on mixed roads. That is 1.43 hours of driving and 2.86 paid hours.
- Truck at the IRS rate: 50 × 76¢ = $38.00. At AAA's pickup figure: $55.00.
- Crew at the labourer median: 2.86 × $18.38 = $52.51. At the roofer median: $76.14.
- Together: between $90.51 and $131.14, before payroll taxes, workers' comp, or the job the crew is not doing while it drives.
At the IRS rate, wages are 58 to 67 percent of that trip. A fee built on mileage alone recovers well under half of it.
Turning it into a fee
- Use your own two numbers. Your truck's real cost per mile, and what your crew costs per hour with burden. The figures above are medians and floors; yours are in your books.
- Price by distance band, not by mile. Inside your normal area, nothing. Beyond it, a stated amount per band. The customer needs one number, not a formula.
- Date the fuel assumption. The IRS moved its rate mid-year for the first time since 2022. A trip charge set in January was 3.5 cents a mile short by July.
- Show it before the booking, as its own line. A travel line the customer sees with the price is a fact about where they live. The same amount appearing on the invoice is a dispute.
- Decide where it stops. Past some distance the honest answer is not a bigger fee. It is a conversation, or a no.
Distance is the one input a customer can supply without thinking — it is their address. That makes travel the easiest line on a quote to compute up front, and the least excusable to spring later.
Where these figures come from
Mileage rates are from the IRS rate table (updated 28 July 2026) and Notice 2026-10; the mid-year change is Announcement 2026-11. Vehicle costs are from AAA's 2026 Your Driving Costs fact sheet. Fuel prices are EIA's for the week of 5 October 2026. Wages are BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook medians for May 2025, without taxes or benefits. All were read on 11 October 2026. The 35 miles an hour and everything per trip is our assumption and arithmetic. The count of guides is our own; they are counted, not named.
This is the product, if you want it.
Quote Engine puts a real price on a service business's own website — built from what you already charge, and honest enough to hand over the jobs it should not price.