State cost guide · TN
Running in Tennessee.
Our home state, and one of the best-positioned in the country: Memphis and Nashville both sit inside a day's drive of a large share of US freight.
Diesel & fuel tax
Which EIA region applies depends on the pickup city, so our tools resolve it per load and print the region and week on the report.
Diesel is taxed per gallon by the state, and as an interstate carrier you settle it through your quarterly IFTA return rather than at the pump alone. Rates are republished every quarter, so use the current official IFTA rate table for the quarter you are filing instead of any figure quoted on a website.
Tolls
Tennessee has no toll roads for trucks to plan around, which makes routing arithmetic simpler than in the toll-heavy states.
Operating cost
Memphis density means shorter empty runs to the next pickup, and empty miles are where most of the margin is quietly lost.
The trade-off is competition: high-volume markets are also heavily quoted, so a floor rate you will hold matters more than in a thin market.
Common lanes
- Memphis → DallasThe lane we use for the illustrative sample on the homepage, with its assumptions printed.
- Memphis → AtlantaMid-distance with strong reload density on the far end.
- Nashville → ChicagoNorthbound run where winter weather affects both MPG and transit time.
- Memphis → HoustonCommon southbound; check Gulf Coast fuel pricing on the return.
EIA region used for Tennessee pickups: Midwest (PADD 2) for Memphis; varies by pickup city. Fuel prices in our tools are the EIA weekly on-highway diesel average at the moment you score a load, with the week printed on the report; anything you type yourself overrides it. Fuel-tax rates and toll schedules change — confirm the current quarter's official figures before relying on them.
Want the number for a specific load? X-Ray it free or build your own cost per mile with the free calculator.