Build your annual maintenance budget the way a shop plans it — from a real preventive-maintenance service schedule. Enter your yearly miles and your truck's condition to see your total cost per year, itemized by service (PM oil, tires, brakes, DPF) and split to a monthly set-aside. Most owner-operators land between $12,000 and $24,000 a year.
| Service line (per year) | Per mile | Per year |
|---|
A planning estimate, not a guarantee of your repair bills. Scheduled-PM costs are predictable; big unscheduled repairs are lumpy, which is why the budget includes a wear allowance that grows with mileage. Keep receipts — the repairs are deductible in the year you pay them.
At the American Transportation Research Institute's fleet average of about $0.245 per mile for repair, maintenance and tires, a truck running 100,000 miles spends roughly $24,500 a year — but that's the all-ages average. Your number depends heavily on the odometer: a newer truck under warranty runs far below it, a worn-out truck well above. The budget below is built bottom-up from the service schedule, then scaled by your truck's condition.
| Truck condition | Wear allowance | Est. annual budget @ 100k mi | Per mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newer / under warranty (<300k mi) | ~$0.04/mi | ~$12,000 | ~$0.12 |
| Mid-life (300k – 600k mi) | ~$0.09/mi | ~$17,000 | ~$0.17 |
| High-mileage (600k+ mi) | ~$0.16/mi | ~$24,000 | ~$0.24 |
Budgets are TruckMargin estimates that interpolate the schedule below plus a mileage-scaled wear allowance; the high-mileage tier lands near the ATRI $0.245/mi fleet average by design. Your truck, brand, and luck move it.
The predictable part of your budget is the PM schedule — the services that come due on a mileage clock. These are typical 2026 costs including parts and labor (dealer diesel labor runs about $150–$175/hour); independent shops and owner-done work run less.
| Service | Typical interval | Typical 2026 cost |
|---|---|---|
| PM-A — inspection, lube, top-offs | 10,000 – 15,000 mi | ~$100 – $150 |
| PM-B — full oil & filter service | 25,000 – 30,000 mi | ~$300 – $500 |
| PM-C — comprehensive (PM-B + driveline, cooling, brake check) | 50,000 – 60,000 mi | ~$600 – $1,200 |
| PM-D — annual major inspection | 100,000 mi / yearly | ~$1,000 – $1,500 |
| Drive tires (set of 8) | ~100,000 – 120,000 mi | ~$3,200 – $4,500 |
| Steer tires (2) | ~75,000 – 90,000 mi | ~$900 – $1,200 |
| Brake job (per axle set) | ~150,000 mi | ~$1,000 – $1,500 |
| DPF cleaning (off-truck service) | 200,000 – 400,000 mi | ~$300 – $900 |
Typical ranges compiled July 2026 from industry PM and repair-cost guides (ATRI operational-cost data; Pilot/TA PM pricing; fleet PM-tier schedules). A missed interval is expensive: a DPF that gets replaced instead of cleaned is a 6–14× cost jump, which is why on-schedule service is the highest-ROI money in the whole budget.
Roughly $15,000–$25,000 at 100,000 miles, depending on age: about $12,000 (~$0.12/mi) for a newer truck under warranty, ~$17,000 mid-life, and $24,000+ (~$0.24/mi) for a high-mileage truck. It's the sum of scheduled PM (oil, tires, brakes, DPF) plus a wear allowance that grows with the odometer.
A tiered schedule: PM-A (basic inspection & lube) every 10,000–15,000 mi; PM-B (full oil & filter) every 25,000–30,000 mi; PM-C (comprehensive) every 50,000–60,000 mi; PM-D (annual major inspection) at ~100,000 mi or yearly. The schedule table above lists typical 2026 costs for each.
Basic PM-A every 10,000–15,000 miles, full oil-service PM-B every 25,000–30,000 (newer full-synthetic trucks can stretch to 40,000–50,000). DPF cleaning every 200,000–400,000 miles, brakes around 150,000, drive tires roughly every 100,000–120,000.
Same money, two views. Yearly cost is for budgeting and cash flow; per-mile cost is for pricing loads. This tool builds the year bottom-up from the schedule — for the per-mile rate and a mileage-scaled repair reserve, use our truck maintenance cost per mile calculator.
Stay on the PM schedule (a skipped oil or DPF service turns a $400 job into a $4,000 one), clean the DPF instead of replacing it, buy tires on cost-per-32nd not sticker, and keep records so warranty claims stick. Preventive maintenance returns an estimated $5+ for every $1 spent.
Benchmark figures from ATRI's An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2025 Update (repair & maintenance $0.198/mi, tires $0.047/mi for 2024). PM-tier intervals and service costs are typical 2026 industry figures (fleet PM-A/B/C/D schedules; Pilot/TA PM pricing; DPF, tire and brake cost guides). The annual budget is a TruckMargin planning model that itemizes the schedule and adds a mileage-scaled wear allowance; it is an estimate, not a quote or a guarantee. Last updated July 2026. Built by TruckMargin.