NEMT break-even calculator: how many trips cover your costs
Your NEMT break-even point is the number of trips a month at which revenue covers every cost. Divide your fixed monthly costs by what each trip leaves after its own costs, which is average revenue per trip minus variable cost per trip. This calculator shows the trips you need each month and each operating day, and the revenue they bring in.
On this page
The numbers filled in are examples, not averages. Replace each one with your own quotes, rates, and costs.
Break-even point
Example numbersTrips per month to break even
320 trips
Rounded up to whole trips.
- Trips per day
- 15 trips
- Revenue at break-even
- $14,400
How it adds up
- Fixed costs per month
- $8,000
- Left from each tripRevenue minus variable cost
- $25.00
Every trip past this point adds $25.00 of profit.
How to use the break-even calculator
Every field starts with an example value. Replace each one with your own numbers, and the result updates as you type.
- Enter your fixed costs per month: the costs you pay however many trips you run.
- Enter your operating days per month.
- Enter your average revenue per trip, counting each one-way leg as a trip.
- Enter your variable cost per trip: the costs that come with each trip.
- Read the trips you need each month and each day, and the revenue those trips bring in.
Fixed costs and variable costs
The U.S. Small Business Administration defines fixed costs as costs that do not change as your volume rises or falls. Its break-even formula is fixed costs divided by price minus variable cost. The calculator uses the same formula, with a trip as the unit.
Sorting your costs into the right column is most of the work.
| Cost | Column | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance premiums | Fixed | You pay them whatever you run |
| Vehicle loan or lease payments | Fixed | Same payment every month |
| Rent, phone, and software | Fixed | Software priced per vehicle only changes with fleet size |
| Office and dispatch staff | Fixed | Paid whether trips rise or fall |
| Drivers on scheduled hourly shifts | Fixed for the month | You pay the shift whether it fills or not |
| Drivers paid per trip | Variable | Each trip adds pay |
| Fuel | Variable | Rises with miles, and miles rise with trips |
| Maintenance and tires | Variable | Tracks miles driven |
| Tolls and parking | Variable | Charged per trip |
Hourly drivers are the judgment call. If you schedule shifts and pay them regardless of volume, count them as fixed. If you add driver hours as trips grow, count the driver cost of each trip as variable. Add employer payroll taxes either way: 7.65% of wages for Social Security and Medicare.
Where to find your numbers
- Fixed costs per month. Average the last three months of bank or card statements for the fixed lines above.
- Average revenue per trip. Total payments divided by completed trips. If you are still planning, start from published rates in our guides to how much Medicaid pays for NEMT and NEMT broker rates.
- Variable cost per trip. Add fuel for the miles a trip takes, loaded and empty, plus per-trip pay and tolls. For fuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration put regular gasoline at $4.478 a gallon in the week of September 21, 2026. At that price, a van that gets 15 miles per gallon spends about 30 cents on fuel for every mile. The deadhead cost calculator helps you price the empty miles.
- Operating days per month. The days your vehicles run trips.
How to read the result
The headline is the trips per month you need to break even, rounded up to whole trips. Below it are the trips per day and the revenue at break-even. Every trip past that point adds what each trip leaves, its revenue minus its variable cost, to profit.
Compare the result with what your fleet can actually run. Multiply your vehicles by the trips each one can handle in a day. If break-even needs more trips than your vans can carry, more volume will not fix it. You need a better price or a lower cost per trip. The profit per vehicle calculator shows what each van earns at a given number of trips.
The result is only as good as the inputs. Rerun it with last month’s real costs and trip counts, and again when a contract, rate, or fuel price changes.
If a trip costs as much as it earns or more, the calculator shows that break-even is not reachable. No number of trips covers your fixed costs at those prices.
Worked example
These are the calculator’s example numbers, not industry figures:
- Fixed costs: $8,000 a month
- Average revenue per trip: $45
- Variable cost per trip: $20
- Operating days: 22 a month
Each trip leaves $45 minus $20, or $25, toward fixed costs. Dividing $8,000 by $25 gives 320 trips a month to break even. Spread over 22 days, that is 14.5 trips, rounded up to 15 a day. The 320 trips bring in $14,400. Every trip after the 320th adds $25 of profit.
Knowing your real numbers
HealthRide’s payer summary shows completed trips and revenue billed per payer over any period, so your average revenue per trip comes from real results instead of an estimate. At $59 per vehicle per month, the software line is a fixed cost that changes only when your fleet does. See HealthRide reports and pricing.
Frequently asked questions
- How many trips a day does a NEMT business need to break even?
- It depends on your fixed costs and what each trip leaves after its own costs. Divide fixed monthly costs by revenue per trip minus variable cost per trip, then divide by your operating days. With $8,000 of fixed costs, $25 left from each trip, and 22 operating days, that works out to 15 trips a day across the business.
- Are driver wages a fixed or a variable cost?
- It depends on how you pay. Drivers on scheduled hourly shifts are close to fixed for the month, because you pay the shift whether it fills or not. Drivers paid per trip are a variable cost. Put each one in the column that matches how you actually pay.
- What if the calculator says break-even is not reachable?
- It means each trip costs as much as it earns, or more, so running more trips cannot cover your fixed costs. Raise revenue per trip through better rates, a different payer mix, or pricing by level of service. Or lower the cost per trip with shorter routes and fewer empty miles.
- How is break-even different from profit per vehicle?
- Break-even looks at the whole business and asks how many trips cover every cost. Profit per vehicle looks at one van and asks what it earns after the costs it carries. Use break-even to plan the business, and profit per vehicle to decide whether adding a van pays.
