How To Calculate Fuel Surcharges With PocketFuelCal

• Go to the settings view by tapping the gear icon in the top right corner.
• Set your vehicle’s average fuel efficiency (default is 5.5 mpg).
• Set your base fuel cost – This is what the price of fuel needs to be to earn an acceptable profit at your base rate (default is $2.00 per gallon, $2.50 is commonly used as well).
• Tap Done in the top right corner to go back to the main view.

Calculate Fuel Surcharges

Once the base fuel cost has been set, you can calculate fuel surcharges by entering the current fuel price and distance of trip.

Use Case: If you have contract per mile rates with your customer, say $2.00 mile plus fuel surcharge. This gives you an accurate way to determine what you really need for a fuel surcharge.

Calculate the Increase in Fuel Cost From Last Week

Tap the gas pump icon in the top left to view the DOE fuel price index (if you prefer another website to get your fuel prices, you can bookmark any web page of your choice in the settings). Get the fuel price from the previous week and enter that number in the base fuel cost setting. Now you can calculate the increase in fuel cost by entering the current fuel price and distance of trip.

Use Case: You work with flat rates, say $3500 per load. Fuel goes up 10 cents but your broker still wants to pay $3500. This gives you and your broker an accurate method to compensate you for the price increase. It may only be $27.78 but why should you eat that cost?

Calculate the Total Fuel Cost of a Trip

Set the base fuel cost to zero, then you can quickly estimate the total fuel cost of a trip by entering the current fuel price and distance of trip.

Use Case: You are trying to decide whether or not to take a load into a particular region and you know fuel is more expensive there. This gives you a quick way to estimate how much you will need to spend in fuel expenses if you take the load.