How much it really costs you every kilometer (and why the notebook doesn't reach)

Many businesses charge the dispatch with a number that once made sense: "$3,000 inside the commune." The problem is that that number is not updated alone. In 2026 the fuel changed several times, the tolls and the TAG increased 3.4% in January, and the INE Transport Cost Index accumulates 8.7% to August. A price set in March today may be losing silver without anyone noticing it.

All three parts of the cost

• What is spent on walking: fuel, tyres and maintenance. It grows with every kilometer.
• What is paid for even if the vehicle does not move: insurance, movement permit, technical review, quota or depreciation, parking and services such as GPS. It is distributed between the kilometers of the month.
• The time of the driver: salary and contributions, per hour of route. It weighs more in the city, where little progress is made per hour.

The method in five steps

• Real consumption. Fill the pond and score the odometer. In the next full load, divide the charged liters for the miles. Repeat three and average times.
• Fuel per kilometer. Multiply the price you paid per litre for the litres per kilometer of the previous step.
• It's a waste of the last 12 months and it's been divided by the miles of the year.
• It adds up the fixed costs of one month and divulges them for the miles of that month.
• Time. Calculates the hourly cost of the driver, multiply it by the time of the day and divide it by the miles of that day.

The sum of steps 2 to 5 is your cost per kilometre. The tolls and the TAG should not measure them: they add to each route that passes through a highway, because a delivery on the other end of the city does not cost the same as one to ten blocks.

What the notebook doesn't see

With that number you can already make a better contribution. But there are miles that do not appear in any handmade account: the empty return to the premises, the apple turn because the address was miswritten, the client who was not and had to return, the minutes with the engine on waiting. They are paid the same.

Those miles are only seen when each route is recorded with its time, distance and result. There is the difference between what you think is going through your vehicle and what is going on.

How to use it when quoting

A reasonable release price covers the miles of return per kilometre, plus the time of delivery, plus the tolls of that route, plus your margin. Check it every time the fuel changes: ENAP publishes its report on Wednesday and the change has been in place since Thursday.