The cost of operating a truck rose in 2025, as the industry-average cost to operate a truck in 2025 was $2.336 per mile, 3.4% higher than the previous year, according to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI)’s annual benchmarking report.
That cost marked the highest per-mile cost in the history of ATRI’s report, which is titled “2026 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking.” And the trend was even worse without counting gas prices, as excluding fuel, costs rose by 4.2% to $1.854 per mile.
Costs were up in all major line-items in 2025, with the largest percentage gains in tolls (13.2%), repair and maintenance (8.6%), driver benefits (6.6%), and tires (6.4%). Only two line-items rose at sub-inflationary rates: fuel and, for the second year in a row, driver pay.
Faced with rising costs and stagnant rates, carriers executed their largest reduction in freight capacity since the start of the freight recession in 2022 – reducing truck counts by 2.4% and leaving another 10% of trucks unseated on average. Other key metrics show the impact of this prolonged downturn on operations. Average truck age and annual mileage increased, deadhead mileage remained elevated, and non-driver staffing levels were cut by 7.8%.
Despite these austerity efforts, carrier profitability remained poor, ATRI said. Operating margins in the truckload and refrigerated sectors improved slightly but were still below 1.0%, while tank carriers averaged 4.0%. Only LTLs and fleets with more than 1,000 trucks had healthy – but flat year-over-year – margins in 2025. Flatbed carriers, however, had an average operating loss of -0.5%.
