Dive Brief:
- The American Transportation Research Institute has launched its annual Operational Costs of Trucking survey, inviting motor carriers of all sizes and sectors to participate by April 24, according to a press release.
- The nonprofit research organization asks operators to disclose 2025 cost metrics — including driver pay, equipment expenditures and insurance premiums — along with key performance indicators such as revenue per truck per week.
- As in previous years, participating carriers will receive a customized report comparing their costs and operational metrics with an anonymized peer group of similar size and sector. Additionally, there’s a new incentive for multiyear participants: the customized report will also include year-over-year comparisons, enabling them to track their performance over time.
Dive Insight:
Beyond the basic benchmarking report, ATRI is expanding the analytical tools available to participating fleets.
In this year’s sample report, the new year-over-year analysis includes operational costs per mile from a larger sector-based dataset, rather than a carrier’s specific peer group.
The year-over-year trends cover:
- Fuels
- Truck and trailer payments
- Repair and maintenance
- Tires
- Insurance and crashes
- Driver wages and benefits
The expanded custom reports come as elevated costs continue to pressure carrier margins.
Although fuel and repair expenses declined, last year’s Operational Costs of Trucking report found that the industry’s marginal costs rose 3.6% to $1.78 per mile — the highest non-fuel operating costs recorded in the history of the survey.
Carriers reported significant increases in truck and trailer payments as well as driver benefits costs, weighing on profitability across sectors.
Industry executives say the data is especially valuable as fleets navigate uneven freight conditions.
“There are signs of growing opportunities for trucking in 2026, but only if fleets can maintain disciplined, nimble operations,” Hirschbach Motor Lines CFO Andrew Hadland said in the ATRI release. “ATRI’s Operational Costs of Trucking and the customized report we receive as participants are important inputs for ensuring healthy performance in our costs and operations despite economic headwinds.”
