CPM is the mileage rate multiplied by the miles the carrier credits for payroll. The word paid matters. Practical miles, dispatched miles, household-goods miles, and odometer miles can produce different totals for the same trip.
At 68 cents per mile, 500 paid miles produces $340 in mileage pay. That is the starting point, not necessarily the entire settlement.
Work that may be paid separately
Depending on the written pay plan, a driver may receive stop pay, detention, hook or drop pay, unload pay, hourly compensation, layover, safety or performance bonuses, and other accessorials. Each item can have conditions. Detention might begin after a waiting period, and a stop may need to meet a particular definition before it pays.
Effective CPM divides total gross compensation by paid miles. Effective hourly pay divides gross by the on-duty hours spent earning it. Those comparisons help show why two jobs with the same advertised CPM can pay differently.
For example, $340 in mileage pay plus $90 in stops and detention is $430 gross. On 500 paid miles, that works out to 86 cents effective CPM. Over 13 on-duty hours, it is about $33.08 per hour. Neither figure changes the written pay plan; they are comparison tools.
Project a normal week
Use a representative mix of miles and paid activities, then check a slower week too. An annual projection should account for expected workweeks rather than automatically multiplying a best week by 52. Taxes, benefits, deductions, reimbursements, and carrier approval rules remain outside a gross-pay estimate.
Do not count reimbursements as earnings unless that is how you intentionally want to compare the checks. Money returned for a scale ticket, parking, or another business expense can increase the deposit without increasing compensation for the work.