Owner-Operator Pay: Percentage vs Per Mile, Worked Out in Real Numbers

Every carrier office has had this argument at least once, usually right after a driver walks in waving a rate confirmation and asking why his check looks smaller than he expected. Percentage pay versus per-mile pay isn’t a philosophical debate. It’s a math problem, and most of the time the argument keeps going because nobody actually ran the numbers on the load in front of them. So let’s run them. ...

September 11, 2026 · 8 min · Nikesh Pandya