Cab math
What is your coffee really costing you?
Two numbers, one honest answer: what your truck-stop coffee costs you per year — and what a $25 thermos saves.
Coffee calculator
Tap the days and type your price. The math uses 52 weeks a year — no tricks, no sign-up.
From the CAB MATH episode: $5 a day, five days a week, is $25 a week — $1,300 a year in paper cups. A $25 thermos ends that.
Match your habit below. The number updates live.
The episode used $5 a day — coffee-shop price at most truck stops. Works between $1 and $20.
Your number
A $25 thermos pays for itself in 5 days — then it’s $1,275 a year back in your pocket.
$1,300/year
Show your work
Math: $5.00/day × 5 days/week × 52 weeks = $1,300/year − $25 thermos = $1,275 saved.
Estimate only. Assumes you buy coffee every week of the year at the same price. Research-based; we did not test thermoses hands-on.
Next up in Cab Math: minutes saved against diesel burned — the real cost of speeding.
The thermos math
The episode said it straight: $5 a day, five days a week, is $25 a week. Fifty-two weeks of that is $1,300 a year — gone in paper cups.
A decent $25 thermos holds heat for 12+ hours, which is a full shift. Payback is the thermos price divided by your daily spend: at $5 a day, that is five days. Everything after that is yours.
The honest footnote: if the truck-stop coffee is your ritual, your break, the one good part of the morning — that is fine. This page is about knowing the number, not about guilt. $1,275 a year is a set of tires, a long weekend, or just coffee you actually wanted.
Also try
More Cab Math — straight numbers for the driver’s seat.
Research-based. We did not test these hands-on. Scores come from published specs and driver reviews. Every default on this page is a published figure or a labelled assumption — change any input and the math re-runs.