Empty miles and dear diesel: what a livestock wagon mile really costs
Updated: Oct 28
Ask a livestock haulier the rate for a load, and the answer comes at once. Ask what a mile costs to run, and there is usually a pause. That pause has become expensive. Diesel at the pump is up about 40% on a year ago. A livestock wagon spends roughly half its miles empty. A rate set two or three years ago, out of habit or to match the haulier down the road, may no longer hold. It can now lose money on a good share of the runs. Nobody notices until the year-end accounts arrive.
The remedy is not complicated. Work out what a mile costs. Split the loaded miles from the empty ones. Then set every regular run against that number.
Diesel has risen by two-fifths in a year
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes weekly road fuel prices. They put average UK pump diesel at 199.2p a litre in the week of 26 October 2026. In the same week of 2025 it was 142.4p. Fuel duty stayed at 52.95p throughout, so the rise is in the product itself, not the tax. Most operators reclaim the VAT, which still leaves a price of roughly £1.66 a litre.
It is worth looking back a little. Logistics UK's Manager's Guide to Distribution Costs (October 2024) costed a year of a 33 to 44-tonne artic at between about £149,000 and £169,000. Fuel made up around a quarter of the total. That guide assumed diesel at 104.45p a litre. Whatever your own fuel price was when you last set rates, it was very probably lower than today's. Fuel's share of your cost has grown accordingly.
A mile has standing costs and running costs
Standing costs arrive whether the wagon turns a wheel or not. They are finance or depreciation, insurance, the operator licence, vehicle excise duty, tachograph and compliance time, and the driver if they are salaried. Running costs move with distance: fuel, tyres, AdBlue, repairs, and the wear on a floor and partitions that are washed out after every load. Divide the standing costs by the miles the wagon actually does in a year. Add the running cost per mile. That gives a cost per mile run.
A worked example, with round numbers that are illustrative only:
Standing costs of £45,000 a year over 60,000 miles: 75p a mile.
Fuel at 8 miles per gallon and £1.66 a litre before VAT: about 94p a mile.
Tyres, repairs, AdBlue and washing out: say 25p a mile.
Cost per mile run: about £1.94.
If half the miles are empty, cost per loaded mile: about £3.88.
The last line is the one that counts. The customer sees only the loaded miles. Each of them has to pay for an empty one as well.
Empty running is the hidden half of the bill
Across all road freight, the Department for Transport's 2024 road freight statistics show GB-registered lorries ran 5,843 million of their 19,394 million kilometres empty. That is 30%. Logistics UK noted in December 2025 that the figure had sat at about that level for the three years to 2024. A general haulier at least has a chance of a backload. A livestock haulier rarely does. Animals go to the abattoir or the mart, and very little comes back. A run of 60 loaded miles out and 60 empty miles home is a 50% empty rate. That is well above the national figure, and the price has to reflect it.
Nor are the distances getting shorter. In July 2026 the NFU told a parliamentary roundtable that the number of UK abattoirs fell below 200 in 2024. It warned that closures risk longer trips for livestock. Each local closure turns a short out-and-back into a long one. The empty leg grows with it.
Every loaded mile the customer pays for has to carry an empty one home.
A wagon owned outright still wears out
Where wagons are paid off, the accounts often show little or no depreciation, and nothing set aside for replacement. Haulage then looks more profitable than it is. The illusion lasts until the year a wagon needs replacing and there is no money for it. So put a replacement charge into the cost per mile, even if the accountant does not need one. Take the cost of a like-for-like wagon, less what you expect for the old one, and divide by the years you expect to keep it. In my experience this one line is the most common reason a family haulage business believes a lane pays when it does not.
Price each lane against its loaded-mile cost
Livestock runs are short on average. The same DfT figures put the average length of haul for a rigid lorry at 58 kilometres in 2024, against 134 kilometres for an artic. On short runs the time can cost more than the distance: loading at the farm, queuing at the abattoir, washing out. So add a cost per hour for wagon and driver alongside the cost per mile. Record the time from leaving the yard to getting back, not merely the miles.
With a cost per loaded mile and a cost per hour in hand, take each regular run and set it against what you charge. Some will pay well. Others are being carried by the rest. You need not drop the poor ones, and some are worth keeping for the customer they bring. But you should know which they are, and price the next renewal with your eyes open. If your rates are not linked to fuel, consider a surcharge tied to the government's weekly diesel price. It is published every Monday, and a customer will find it hard to argue with.
Where to begin
Pull a year of fuel, insurance, finance, licence, repair and wage costs for each wagon, and split them into standing and running costs.
For one month, have drivers record loaded miles, empty miles and hours away from the yard for every run.
Work out your cost per mile run, cost per loaded mile and cost per hour, using today's diesel price, not last year's.
List your ten most frequent runs, and set the cost of each against the rate you charge.
Add a replacement charge for every wagon you own outright, and check whether your rates still cover it.
None of this needs new software. A month of honest records and a spreadsheet will show which runs pay, and which are quietly being carried by the rest.
Sources
Figures are taken from the sources listed and were correct at the time of writing. Where rules are described, check the latest official guidance and take qualified advice before acting.
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