The average cost of trucking dipped slightly last year but remains in record territory, according to research published Tuesday from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
In its Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking report, ATRI found the industry’s average cost of operating a truck in 2024 was $2.260 per mile, a 0.4% decline compared with the previous year.
Data from 2024 snaps a streak of three consecutive years where trucking cost hit record levels, but costs remain above the $2 per mile mark – a level first crested in 2022.
Much of the good news in 2024 is owed to lower and more stable fuel prices. When fuel costs are excluded, marginal costs climbed 3.6% to $1.779 per mile – the highest costs ever recorded by ATRI for non-fuel operating costs.
Fuel and repair and maintenance expenses each declined from 2023 to 2024 on the heels of a newer fleet population. Average truck age fell again last year, to 3.4 years from 3.8 years in 2023, reflecting continued 2024 deliveries of aggressive 2023 truck purchases, following truck shortages and delays during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Truck and trailer payments (up 8.3% to a record-high $0.39 per mile) and driver benefits costs (up 4.8% to $0.197 per mile), were particularly crippling expenses given the lingering freight recession.
“The trucking industry is facing the most challenging freight market in years, with loads down and costs increasing,” said Groendyke Transport President and CEO Greg Hodgen.
Driver wages (+2.4%) – the primary contributor to cost increases each of the last the three years – rose just slightly less than the rate of inflation. Only three line-items outpaced inflation (2.9%), ATRI found: truck and trailer payments, driver benefits, and tolls (+.4 cents per mile.)
Truck capacity dropped 2.2% ATRI found last year, and empty miles rose to an average of 16.7%. The number of drivers per truck fell to 0.93 as carriers parked trucks that they did not sell, and fleets reduced non-driver staff by 6.8%.
Truck insurance premiums were up just three-tenths of a cent per mile, making up just more than 10% of a carrier's average cost per mile.
Average operating margins were below 2% in every sector aside from LTL, and the truckload sector had an average operating deficit of -2.3%, according to ATRI.
