Newark, NJ to Philadelphia, PA Freight Rates

The Newark, NJ to Philadelphia, PA lane runs 83 miles and currently averages $450 per truckload, or about $5.42 per mile. Typical transit is 1 day and lane demand is high.

What drives the rate on this lane

Rate per mile on shorter lanes runs higher because loading, unloading and detention time is spread over fewer miles. At 83 miles, Newark, NJ to Philadelphia, PA prices as a short-haul run, and brokers price it against the high-demand market for this corridor.

Port Newark import volumes surge in Q3-Q4.

Cost breakdown on a single run

Work the numbers before you accept an offer. 83 loaded miles at 6.5 mpg burns roughly 13 gallons of diesel — about $50 at $3.85 per gallon — which is 11% of the average $450 linehaul on this lane. Subtract that and you have about $400 left to cover maintenance reserve, tires, insurance, the truck payment, tolls, and the driver.

Deadhead is what quietly kills margin here. Every empty mile to the Newark pickup is paid out of the same $450, so a 90-mile repositioning drive drops the effective rate per mile from $5.42 to about $2.60. Carriers who quote off total miles rather than loaded miles are the ones who stay profitable on high-demand corridors like this one.

Hours of service on this run

At a realistic 52 mph door-to-door average, the drive is about 1.6 hours. That fits inside a single 11-hour driving window, so the run is a same-day delivery if the pickup appointment is early and the receiver takes late arrivals. Appointment windows matter as much as miles: a receiver that only unloads in a two-hour morning slot turns a legal 1.6-hour drive into a two-day commitment for the truck.

Equipment that moves on this lane

• Container
• Dry Van

Backhaul options

Short-haul drayage keeps trucks moving.

Price this corridor as a round trip. A strong headhaul out of Newark that leaves the truck sitting two days in Philadelphia nets less per week than a slightly cheaper load into a market that reloads daily. Take the combined revenue of both legs, divide by every mile the truck turns including deadhead, and compare that number — not the headhaul rate — against your break-even.

How to quote this lane profitably

Work backwards from cost per mile. Fuel, maintenance, insurance, and payment on the truck give you a break-even number; anything under it on a 83-mile run loses money once you add deadhead to the pickup. Use the cost-per-mile and route-profit calculators to check a specific offer against your own numbers before you book it.

Frequently asked

What is the current truckload rate from Newark, NJ to Philadelphia, PA?

The lane averages $450 per truckload, about $5.42 per mile across 83 miles. Spot offers typically land within 10-15% of that number depending on how much lead time the broker has and whether the pickup is a live load or a drop.

How long does the Newark, NJ to Philadelphia, PA run take?

Roughly 1.6 hours of drive time at a 52 mph average, which works out to 1 transit day once you account for hours-of-service breaks, fueling, and appointment windows on both ends.

How much fuel does this lane burn?

At 6.5 mpg you burn about 13 gallons, roughly $50 at $3.85 per gallon. That leaves about $400 against the average linehaul before maintenance, insurance, tolls, and the truck payment.

What equipment moves best on this lane?

Container, Dry Van. Equipment choice moves the rate more than most carriers expect — specialized trailers on this corridor price above the dry van benchmark because the pool of available trucks is smaller.