What each state really costs per mile for an 80,000-lb truck (fuel tax + weight-distance, 2026)

How these numbers were computed (so you can check them)

Two taxes scale with miles. Weight-distance taxes are charged per mile directly, at rates from each state's published schedule — we use the bracket an 80,000-lb gross weight falls into. Fuel taxbecomes a per-mile cost through IFTA: the quarterly return reallocates tax to each state based on where you drove, not where you bought fuel, so a state's diesel rate divided by your MPG is what its miles cost you. We assume 6.5 MPG; if you run 7.5, scale the fuel column down accordingly. These are the same rate tables our tax engine files returns on — the official Q3 2026 IFTA matrix and each state's current weight-distance schedule — not estimates.

The five weight-distance states, all-in

Read Oregon's row carefully before cursing it: the 25.1¢ looks brutal next to everyone else, but weight-mile payers are exempt from Oregon fuel tax — the official IFTA matrix carries Oregon at $0.00 — so part of that rate is just fuel tax collected a different way. It's still the most expensive pavement in the country for a heavy truck, roughly 7–10 cents a mile above Connecticut once fuel is netted, but the gap is smaller than the sticker suggests. Connecticut has its own cliff: cross 80,000 lbs and the HUF rate jumps from 10¢ to 17.5¢ per mile.

Everywhere else, fuel tax is the whole story

In the other 43 IFTA states the per-mile cost is just the diesel rate over your MPG — and the spread is wider than most people expect:

California at 97.1¢ a gallon costs an 80,000-lb truck more per mile than New York's highway use tax and New York's fuel tax combined. Meanwhile the entire Oklahoma–Texas–Louisiana corridor runs under 3.2¢ a mile. Five hundred loaded miles through California is about $75 in fuel tax; the same distance through Oklahoma is about $15.

What a 100-mile crossing actually costs

Same truck, same load, 100 miles, at Q3 2026 rates: Oregon about $25. Connecticut about $18. California about $15. New York about $11. Kentucky about $8, New Mexico about $7.60, Oklahoma under $3. Over a year, a truck that crosses Oregon twice a week is paying roughly $2,600 in weight-mile tax for those 10,400 miles — which is worth knowing, but usually not worth detouring around: an extra 80 empty miles to dodge a per-mile tax burns more in fuel and time than it saves in tax. The point of the table isn't route gymnastics; it's pricing lanes honestly and not being surprised by the quarterly return.

The fine print that changes your number

• Weight matters: at 60,000 lbs Oregon is 14.4¢/mi, Connecticut 7.1¢, New York 3.1¢ — the table above is the 80,000-lb worst case.
• New York's figure is the gross-weight method on laden miles; the unloaded-weight method produces different numbers for some fleets.
• New Mexico's rate shown is the full-haul rate; registered one-way hauls pay two-thirds.
• Kentucky's KYU only applies at 60,000 lbs and over — a 40,000-lb truck pays Kentucky only the 32.5¢/gal fuel side.
• Fuel rates reset quarterly with the IFTA matrix; weight-distance schedules change less often. We refresh this table when the underlying schedules change — the engine that computes it is the same one that files on it.