The RatesReady Delivery Cost Index
The monthly benchmark of what restaurant delivery driving actually costs per mile in America, built from state insurance filings with delivery-use loading, current fuel prices, live vehicle values, and standard maintenance allowances. Baseline: August 2026 = 100. Cite freely with attribution.
Documented cost by region, August 2026
Simple average of state midpoints per Census region, new compact sedan in delivery use.
The five most expensive delivery states
| State | Documented cost | Gap to IRS rate |
|---|---|---|
| California | $0.60/mi | $0.16 below IRS |
| Louisiana | $0.56/mi | $0.20 below IRS |
| Hawaii | $0.55/mi | $0.21 below IRS |
| New York | $0.54/mi | $0.22 below IRS |
| Nevada | $0.53/mi | $0.23 below IRS |
The five least expensive
| State | Documented cost | Gap to IRS rate |
|---|---|---|
| Idaho | $0.42/mi | $0.34 below IRS |
| Iowa | $0.42/mi | $0.34 below IRS |
| North Dakota | $0.42/mi | $0.34 below IRS |
| South Dakota | $0.42/mi | $0.34 below IRS |
| Indiana | $0.43/mi | $0.33 below IRS |
What moved this month
August 2026 is the index baseline, set one month after the IRS's rare mid-year increase to $0.76 widened the national gap between the tax ceiling and documented delivery cost to $0.29 per mile. The structural picture entering the fall: insurance remains the dominant and most local cost component, with California, Louisiana, and Hawaii anchoring the expensive end and the upper Midwest and Mountain West the cheap end; fuel is seasonally stable; and the spread between the most and least expensive states stands at $0.18 per mile, wide enough that a national flat rate misprices most of the country in one direction or the other. Future editions will report month-over-month index movement, the states that moved most, and the components driving them.
Methodology and citation
The index measures the documented cost of operating a representative new compact sedan in restaurant delivery use: insurance from state rate filings (standard-market carriers, delivery-use loading), fuel from current regional prices at city fuel economy, depreciation from live vehicle values over delivery mileage, and per-mile maintenance and tire allowances. State figures are midpoints of documented ranges; full methodology mirrors the rate engine described in our platform overview, and the complete state table lives in our rates-by-state guide. Journalists and researchers: cite as "RatesReady Delivery Cost Index" with a link to this page; ZIP-level and vehicle-class figures for specific markets are available on request via the demo form. Figures are illustrative estimates, not quotes for any specific driver or policy.
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The Delivery Cost Index is an educational benchmark built from public data and RatesReady methodology. It is not insurance, tax, or legal advice, and individual market figures vary by ZIP code, vehicle, and data period.