Operational Costs Jump Over 6% in 2023

In its 2024 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) reported that trucking’s operational costs rose an average of 6.6 percent to $1.716 per mile in 2023. Some examples of costs that have increased are:

• 8.8% increase in truck and trailer payments, or $0.36/mile
• 7.6% increase in driver wages, or $0.779/mile
• 3.1% increase in repair and maintenance costs, or $0.202/mile

Truck insurance rose by 12.5 % to $0.099/mile, after experiencing modest increases in 2021 and 2022. (If you haven’t requested a truck insurance quote from ICSA’s risk purchase group, you can do so here.)

The report also cited the soft freight market for reducing operational efficiency as seen through an average 16.3% increase in deadhead mileage. Combined with lower freight rates, average operating margins were 6% or lower in all fleet sizes and sectors except LTL.

In the report ATRI also conducted an analysis of cost trends in 2024 and beyond, including carrier- reported changes in Q1 2024 costs. The full report is available at no charge on ATRI’s website here.