Ops Costs Ex-Fuel Continue to Rise

According to new research published by American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the “average cost” to operate a commercial truck in 2024 was $2.260 per mile, a whopping 4/10% decline compared with 2023. However, when ATRI excluded lower fuel costs from the equation, all other marginal costs rose 3.6% to $1.779 per mile – the highest non-fuel operating costs ever recorded by ATRI in the many years they have surveyed carriers’ operating costs.

Data for the report came directly through an extensive carrier survey, the one ICSA strongly suggests you fill out each year so that single-truck operators and small fleets continue to be represented. Every carrier who responds to the survey receives a customized report from ATRI that directly compares their operations to an anonymized peer group of the same sector and size.

Below we summarize some of the key points in the report, but if you’d like to read the report yourself, the full report is available on ATRI’s website here. 

Broken down by common line items, cost trends varied in 2024. For example:

• Fuel, along with repair and maintenance expenses, declined from 2023 to 2024;
• Driver wages – the biggest factor in cost increases in the three years following the pandemic – rose by just 2.4%, half a percentage point less than inflation;
• Truck and trailer payments increased by 8.3% percent to a record-high $0.39/mile;
• Driver benefits costs rose 4.8% to $0.197/mile.

Given the ongoing trucking recession, profitability suffered across all industry sectors except LTL, with average operating margins under 2%. Truckload sector operating margins averaged a minus 2.3%.

Capacity dropped 2.2% as carriers sold trucks and empty miles rose to an average of 16.7. and the number of drivers per truck fell to 0.93 as carriers parked trucks. To better manage costs, carriers reduced non-driver staff by an average 6.8%.

ATRI reported some good news in the survey, declaring that “average truck age, average dwell time per stop, and mileage between breakdowns improved – all testaments to industry performance despite economic headwinds.”

ATRI is the trucking industry’s 501c3 not-for-profit research organization. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation’s essential role in maintaining a safe and efficient transportation system.