The average cost to operate a truck in the United States reached $2.336 per mile in 2025, the highest per-mile figure in the history of the American Transportation Research Institute's annual benchmarking report, according to ATRI's 2026 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking.

Total marginal costs per mile rose from $1.592 in 2016 to $2.336 in 2025. Excluding fuel, per-mile costs rose 4.2% to $1.854 in 2025. Tolls increased 13.2%, repair and maintenance rose 8.6%, driver benefits climbed 6.6%, and tire costs increased 6.4% compared with the prior year. Fuel and driver pay were the only line items that grew more slowly than inflation.

Combined driver wages and benefits reached $1.028 per mile in 2025, the first time the figure has topped one dollar, up 3.3% from 2024. Driver wages alone rose from 52.3 cents per mile in 2016 to 81.8 cents in 2025.

Faced with rising costs and flat freight rates, carriers in the survey reduced truck counts by an average of 2.4% and left another 10% of trucks unseated, the largest capacity reduction since the freight recession began in 2022. Non-driver staffing fell by an average of 7.8%.

Only the tanker sector posted an operating margin of 1% or higher in 2025, while the flatbed sector averaged a 0.5% operating loss, ATRI found. The truckload, refrigerated and tanker sectors each made modest profitability gains compared with 2024.

Source: Heavy Duty Trucking - https://www.truckinginfo.com/news/trucking-fleets-faced-record-operating-costs-during-third-year-of-freight-recession