Free tool
All toolsTrucking startup cost calculator
Build an itemized startup estimate with federal fees, state charges, and your insurance quotes.
Build your estimate
Your itemized estimate
Estimate only, not your actual fees- State intrastate authority
- Pick a base state above
- Liability insurance (your quotes)
- Enter your quotes to include it
Estimated total$346
Not yet counted: your insurance premium, the BOC-3 agent fee.
FMCSA does not set or publish the blanket process agent fee. Blanket companies charge their own one-time fee, and pricing varies by company. No primary source publishes a standard amount, so no figure is quoted here; confirm the fee with the blanket agent you choose.
This is an estimate built from published government fees, not a quote. It leaves out the truck itself, IRP apportioned plates, IFTA fuel tax, business formation charges, and operating costs. Confirm each fee with the agency before you pay anything.
How it works, FAQs & sourcesCalculation details, limitations, and related guides
By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 7, 2026
About this tool
Interstate authority costs $300 per authority type, UCR adds an annual bracket fee, and each heavy truck owes the Form 2290 tax. This calculator stacks those published federal fees with your state's intrastate authority charge and your own insurance quotes to build an itemized startup estimate.
Set your fleet size, authority types, heavy-truck count, and base state. Every government figure carries a source marker; the insurance line stays empty until you type in real quotes, because no agency publishes premiums.
How the state line works
23 jurisdictions publish a flat intrastate authority application fee on an official source, and the calculator adds that amount when you pick one of them. 5 more (IN, KS, NV, NM, NY) require intrastate authority but price it inside their filing systems, so the tool shows “varies, see agency” with the agency link instead of a guessed number. The rest run on the federal registration alone. The full per-state detail, including program names and per-vehicle add-ons, lives in intrastate authority by state.
The insurance floors behind your quotes
A financial responsibility provider (insurance or surety company) must file the required forms on the applicant's behalf. Applicants may not file insurance forms for themselves. The premium is yours to shop; the coverage floor is not. Quotes below these minimums cannot be filed, so hand them to your insurer before comparing prices. How the filings themselves work is covered in BMC-91 and BMC-34 insurance filings.
From estimate to filing
The narrative version of this math, with each fee explained line by line, is how much it costs to start a trucking company. When you are ready to file, follow the sequence in how to get your own authority, check the bracket table on UCR fees, and read the Form 2290 guide before the first heavy truck rolls. Hauling wide or tall loads? Price the permits with the oversize permit cost estimator.