Trucking · Trucking Cost Per Mile
Average trucking cost per mile
The American Transportation Research Institute puts the average marginal cost of running a truck at $2.336 per mile for 2025, up 3.4 percent from $2.260 in 2024 and the highest in the report's history. Excluding fuel, costs were $1.854 per mile. The figure averages all fleet sizes; one truck's cost depends on its payment, insurance, fuel economy, and miles.
The headline numbers
ATRI, the research arm associated with the American Trucking Associations, has surveyed carriers on their line item costs every year since 2008. The 2025 update, covering calendar 2024, found an average marginal cost of $2.260 per mile, a 0.4 percent decline from 2023. The decline came entirely from cheaper fuel; with fuel excluded, costs rose 3.6 percent to $1.779 per mile, the highest non fuel figure ATRI had recorded at the time.
The 2026 update, covering calendar 2025, found $2.336 per mile, 3.4 percent higher and the highest total in the series. Non fuel costs rose 4.2 percent to $1.854 per mile. Costs were up in every major line item.
These are marginal operating costs: what it costs to run the truck one more mile, including driver, equipment, fuel, insurance, maintenance, tires, tolls, and permits. They do not include carrier overhead such as office staff, dispatch, or profit, so a carrier's fully loaded cost is higher and the rate it needs to charge is higher still.
What is inside the $2.336
ATRI groups costs into vehicle based and driver based line items. Vehicle based: fuel, truck and trailer lease or purchase payments, repair and maintenance, insurance premiums, permits and licenses, tires, and tolls. Driver based: wages and benefits. In the 2024 data, truck and trailer payments averaged $0.390 per mile, up 8.3 percent, and driver benefits $0.197 per mile, up 4.8 percent. Driver wages rose 2.4 percent.
For 2025 the largest percentage increases were tolls at 13.2 percent, repair and maintenance at 8.6 percent, driver benefits at 6.6 percent, and tires at 6.4 percent. Fuel and driver wages rose less than inflation, wages for the second consecutive year. The pattern is that the cost of keeping a truck on the road is rising faster than the cost of the person driving it.
Fuel remains the largest single vehicle cost, which is why ATRI reports the total both with and without it. The difference between the two figures, about $0.48 per mile in both years, is the fuel component of the average, and it swings with the diesel price.
Why the average is not your number
The benchmark blends large fleets with hundreds of trucks and small carriers with a handful. Large fleets buy fuel, insurance, and tires at volume prices and spread fixed overhead across more miles. Small fleets and owner operators pay retail for nearly everything and often run fewer annual miles, which pushes fixed cost per mile up. ATRI noted in the 2026 update that fleets with 1,000 or more trucks increased truck and trailer spending 16.1 percent while small fleets cut it.
Sector matters too. Truckload dry van, refrigerated, flatbed, tank, and less than truckload carriers have different equipment, insurance, and driver cost profiles. ATRI's 2025 data showed operating margins below 1 percent for truckload and refrigerated carriers, 4.0 percent for tank carriers, and an operating loss of 0.5 percent for flatbed, while LTL and the largest fleets were healthy but flat.
An owner operator with a paid off truck, low insurance, and 120,000 miles a year can be well under $2.00 per mile. One with a $3,000 monthly payment, a new authority insurance premium, and 80,000 miles a year can be over $2.60. The only way to know is to total your own fixed and variable costs and divide by your own miles.
Worked comparison against the benchmark
Suppose an owner operator's books show $5,320 of fixed costs and $13,510 of variable costs in a 9,500 mile month, a total of $18,830, which is $1.98 per mile. That is $0.36 below the 2025 benchmark of $2.336. Before celebrating, check the two lines that are most often missing: the driver's own pay and the maintenance reserve. If the $1.98 already includes $0.60 per mile of driver pay and $0.18 of maintenance reserve, it is a genuine advantage, most likely from an older paid off truck.
Next, look at empty miles. ATRI reported an average of 16.7 percent empty miles in 2024. If this operator runs 20 percent empty, the break even rate per loaded mile is $1.98 / 0.80, which is $2.48. If he can bring deadhead down to 10 percent it drops to $2.20. Deadhead moves the break even rate more than most single line items do.
Benchlet's trucking cost per mile calculator takes the two cost columns and the miles and deadhead and reports cost per mile alongside the break even rate, which makes this comparison a two minute check each month rather than a spreadsheet exercise.
What the trend means for rate negotiations
Costs have risen while rates have not kept pace. ATRI's 2025 report described profitability as severely squeezed, with the truckload sector posting a negative 2.3 percent operating margin in 2024 and every other sector below 2 percent. The 2026 report showed carriers responding by cutting: truck counts down 2.4 percent, non driver staff down 7.8 percent, and 10 percent of trucks unseated on average.
For a carrier quoting rates, the benchmark is a floor for the conversation, not a ceiling. If a lane pays $2.20 per loaded mile and the industry average cost is $2.336 per total mile before deadhead, the lane loses money for the average carrier. A shipper or broker who understands this will hear a number backed by the ATRI figure more readily than an unexplained ask.
For a driver deciding whether to lease on or buy a truck, the same numbers say that the margin between cost and rate has been under $0.10 per mile for the industry in two consecutive years. The plan has to include either a cost advantage the average fleet does not have or a lane that pays above the average.
Keeping the benchmark current
ATRI publishes the Operational Costs of Trucking update each summer, with the prior calendar year's data, and posts a summary on its website. Because fuel is the most volatile line, the non fuel figure ($1.779 for 2024, $1.854 for 2025) is the better year to year comparison for your own non fuel costs. Recompute your own cost per mile monthly and compare it with the newest ATRI figure once a year.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average cost per mile to operate a truck?
$2.336 per mile for 2025 according to ATRI's 2026 update, up from $2.260 in 2024. Excluding fuel, $1.854 and $1.779 respectively.
What costs are included in the ATRI figure?
Fuel, truck and trailer payments, repair and maintenance, insurance, permits and licenses, tires, tolls, driver wages, and driver benefits. Overhead and profit are not included.
Which costs rose the most in 2025?
Tolls, up 13.2 percent; repair and maintenance, up 8.6 percent; driver benefits, up 6.6 percent; and tires, up 6.4 percent. Fuel and driver wages rose less than inflation.
Is an owner operator's cost per mile higher or lower than the average?
It can be either. A paid off truck with high annual miles runs below it; a new truck payment with new authority insurance and low miles runs above it. Total your own costs and divide by your own miles.
What percentage of miles are empty?
ATRI reported an average of 16.7 percent empty miles in 2024. Empty miles raise the break even rate per loaded mile because they add cost but no revenue.
