The industry-average cost to operate a truck reached $2.336 per mile in 2025, the highest figure recorded in the history of the American Transportation Research Institute's annual benchmarking study. The 2026 edition of the Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, released in July, puts the increase at 3.4 percent over the prior year.

Stripping fuel out of the calculation shows a sharper climb. Costs excluding fuel rose 4.2 percent to $1.854 per mile, placing the pressure on line items carriers have little room to hedge. Every major category moved higher during the year. Tolls posted the steepest percentage gain at 13.2 percent, followed by repair and maintenance at 8.6 percent, driver benefits at 6.6 percent and tires at 6.4 percent. Fuel and driver pay were the two line items that rose at sub-inflationary rates, with driver pay lagging for a second consecutive year.

Carriers responded by pulling capacity out of the market at the fastest pace since the downturn began in 2022. Truck counts fell 2.4 percent, and roughly 10 percent of remaining tractors sat unseated on average. Non-driver staffing dropped 7.8 percent. Average truck age and annual mileage both rose, and deadhead mileage stayed elevated.

Those measures did little for the bottom line. Operating margins in the truckload and refrigerated segments improved slightly and still finished below 1.0 percent. Tank carriers averaged 4.0 percent. Flatbed operators recorded an average operating loss of 0.5 percent. Less-than-truckload carriers and fleets running more than 1,000 trucks held healthy margins that were flat year over year. First-quarter 2026 figures show most of these cost trends continuing.

Source: American Transportation Research Institute - https://truckingresearch.org/2026/07/new-atri-report-details-accelerating-costs-and-low-profitability-despite-cuts/