Truck Cost per Km in 2026: Fuel, Driver, Tolls and How to Price a Load

The short version

• About EUR 1.59 per km. That is what a 40 t Euro 6 tractor-trailer costs on a Kaunas-Hamburg round trip in our worked example, at late October 2026 diesel prices, loaded both ways.
• Diesel is the biggest single cost, about 35% of the trip. In Lithuania it cost EUR 2.222 a litre on 26 October 2026, half as much again as a year earlier.
• Time is a cost too. The driver, the lease, insurance and the office cost about EUR 307 for every day the truck is out, moving or not.
• Allowance rules changed on 1 October 2026. Without a collective agreement, drivers' allowances can be cut only on trips of 7 days or more, and never below 65% of the norm.
• The return leg sets the price. If the truck comes back empty, the outbound load has to pay twice as much per kilometre.

Below: the cost blocks with sourced figures, a worked example to redo with your own numbers, and how to turn cost into a price. Figures that depend on the company are labelled as assumptions.

Two kinds of cost: per kilometre and per day

Diesel, AdBlue, tyres, maintenance and tolls grow with distance. The driver, the lease, insurance and overheads grow with time. Keep them apart: a truck waiting a day at a warehouse burns no diesel but still costs its day rate, and a price worked out only per kilometre hides that.

Diesel and AdBlue

Pump prices from the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin:

We worked out the prices without VAT from the rates the Bulletin lists: 21% in Lithuania and Latvia, 24% in Estonia, 19% in Germany and a reduced 8% in Poland. A VAT-registered carrier gets the VAT back, so that is the price to calculate with.

In the 2024 survey by CNR, the French road haulage cost body, long-distance tractor-trailers averaged 29.8 litres per 100 km: 28.2 for tractors under three years old and 31.3 for those over four and a half. A full load uses more, an empty trailer less. Our example uses 30 litres.

AdBlue is small but not zero. CNR measured 5.2 litres per 100 litres of diesel, and in July 2026 the IRU put prices at EUR 0.65 to 0.90 a litre in bulk and EUR 0.90 to 1.20 at the pump. That is about 1 cent per km.

Driver pay and daily allowances

Lithuania's minimum monthly wage is EUR 1,153 in 2026. On foreign trips the employer also pays daily allowances (dienpinigiai), capped per country by Government Resolution No. 526: EUR 62 a day for Germany, 48 for Poland, 44 for Latvia, 47 for Estonia and 64 for the Netherlands.

Two rules decide how salary and allowances fit together:

• Tax. Allowances up to the norm are tax-free. But if the salary is below 1.65 times the minimum wage, EUR 1,902.45 a month in 2026, only allowances up to half the salary stay tax-free and the rest is taxed as pay. Our example sets the salary just above that line.
• Cuts. Since 1 October 2026 a collective agreement may set allowances at no less than 50% of the norm. Without one, the employer's internal rules may reduce them only for trips of at least 7 days, and to no less than 65%. The driver must be told the reduced rate in writing before the trip.

Posting under the Mobility Package. A bilateral trip, such as Kaunas to Hamburg and back, is not posting, even with one extra loading or unloading on the way (two on the way home if the outbound trip had none). Nor is transit. Cabotage and cross-trade, such as a load from Germany to France, are: the host country's pay rules apply for that time, and the carrier files a posting declaration in the EU's IMI system. In Germany that means at least the minimum wage of EUR 13.90 an hour in 2026 and EUR 14.60 from 1 January 2027. A salary of EUR 1,910 is about EUR 11 an hour on a 40-hour week, so cross-trade days cost more than they seem.

Tolls

On most main lanes tolls are charged per kilometre, the same whether the trailer is full or empty. For a five-axle Euro 6 truck:

• Germany: EUR 0.348 per km in CO2 class 1, of which 45.4% is the CO2 component, by the IRU's count.
• Lithuania: from 1 January 2027 Via Toll charges EUR 0.118 per km on average for vehicles over 12 t with five or more axles, according to the LTSA's table.
• Poland: besides e-TOLL, the privately run A2 between Konin and Nowy Tomyśl charges a truck PLN 165 for each 50 km since 11 September 2026, PLN 495 for the 150 km.

Other countries and the changes coming in 2027 are in our guide to truck tolls.

Tyres, maintenance, the truck and insurance

These vary most between companies, so here are French reference figures, not Baltic averages:

• Tyres and maintenance. CNR found EUR 0.035 per km for tyres and EUR 0.095 for maintenance and repairs in 2024. Workshop labour is cheaper in the Baltics, so your figures may be lower.
• The truck. French hauliers paid on average EUR 114,465 for a new tractor and EUR 35,314 for a semi-trailer in 2024. Leased or bought, the monthly cost is a day cost: it does not stop while the truck waits.
• Insurance. CNR counted EUR 3,057 a year per vehicle (EUR 2,658 for the vehicle and EUR 399 for goods), and EUR 4,407 in firms with fewer than 20 staff. Under the CMR Convention a carrier's liability for lost or damaged goods is capped at 8.33 SDR, the IMF's unit of account, per kg of gross weight. CMR insurance covers that liability.
• Overheads. Dispatch, office, accounting, software and licences: CNR counted EUR 24,665 per truck a year in France.

Empty kilometres

According to Eurostat, 21.8% of the kilometres driven by goods vehicles in the EU in 2025 were empty. Trucks registered in Lithuania did better, at 10.9%. An empty kilometre costs almost as much as a loaded one, so at 10.9% each loaded kilometre carries about 12% more cost. Our guide to partial loads shows how to fill the gaps.

Worked example: Kaunas to Hamburg and back

Our assumptions; replace them with your own:

• Route: about 1,250 km each way: 95 km in Lithuania, 775 in Poland, 380 in Germany. Five days for the round trip, including loading and unloading, with a load both ways.
• Fuel: 30 litres per 100 km at EUR 1.84, the Lithuanian price without VAT. AdBlue at 5% of diesel and EUR 0.80 a litre.
• Driver: salary EUR 1,910, about 2% employer social insurance, and allowances for 22 days a month at EUR 55, the average of the German and Polish norms. That is EUR 3,158.20 a month, or EUR 143.55 per working day over 22 days.
• Truck and office: leasing of tractor and trailer EUR 2,300, insurance EUR 300, overheads EUR 1,000: EUR 3,600 a month, or EUR 163.64 per working day.
• Tolls: Lithuania 90 tolled km at the 2027 Via Toll rate, because quotes made now run into January (vignettes apply until 31 December 2026). Poland EUR 210 each way, our estimate for e-TOLL plus the A2 concession. Germany 380 km at EUR 0.348.

That is EUR 1.59 per km over 2,500 km, and diesel alone is 35% of it. For comparison, CNR put the average French long-distance truck at EUR 1.62 per km in 2024, with French wages and 2024 diesel prices.

From cost to price

Add a margin

Cost is the floor, not the price. The example adds 10% for profit and risk (an assumption: set your own), so the round trip has to earn EUR 4,374.

Price the return leg first

An empty trailer burns a little less fuel, but the driver, the truck and the tolls cost the same. Before quoting the outbound load, look at what is posted for the way back.

Charge for waiting

Each extra day costs about EUR 307 (EUR 143.55 for the driver, EUR 163.64 for the truck and office), even when the wheels do not turn. One day of waiting at a ramp takes the example from EUR 1.59 to EUR 1.71 per km. Agree in the order how many hours of loading and unloading are included and what each extra hour or day costs.

Price the payment term

If no payment period is agreed, EU rules make late payment interest due 30 days after the customer receives the invoice. In Lithuania the statutory rate is 10.15% a year from July to December 2026, plus a flat EUR 40 per late invoice. On a EUR 2,187 invoice paid 30 days late, that is about EUR 18 of interest. The bigger risk is not being paid at all, so know who you work with: on Start2Load every company is reviewed before it gets access and verified with documents before it can post.

Keep diesel in the contract

At 30 litres per 100 km, every 10 cents on a litre of diesel changes the cost by 3 cents per km, or EUR 75 on this round trip. A fuel clause tied to the Weekly Oil Bulletin moves the price with it; our overview of freight rates explains how.