ATRI reports that industry costs have increased by more than 6% in the last few years during the freight recession.

The American Transportation Research Institute has released its 2024 Analysis on the Operational Costs for Trucking. It details how fleets will face rising expenses and falling freight rates by 2023.

The annual report provides benchmarking for motor carriers, as well as a comprehensive overview for decision makers in industry and government.

In 2023, the overall marginal costs for operating a truck will reach $2.270 per kilometer. When surcharge-protected costs of fuel are excluded, marginal costs increased 6.6%, to $1.716/mile, despite the 0.8% increase over the previous year.

The average cost of each line item increased at a rate less than half that experienced in 2021 and 2022. Truck and trailer payments increased by 8.8%, to $0.360 per kilometer, driver wages by 7.6%, to $0.779 per kilometer, and repair and maintain costs by 3.1%, to $0.202 per kilometer. Truck insurance premiums were the exception to this trend, growing by 12.5% per mile to $0.099 after two years with negligible changes.

As the report shows, the soft freight market of 2023 posed many challenges to operational efficiency. Deadhead mileage, an important financial drain, increased to an average 16.3% for non-tank operations. Driver turnover in the truckload sector also increased by five percentage points.

These pressures, combined with low freight prices, strained profitability in the industry. All fleet sizes and sectors except LTL had average operating margins of 6% or less. Truckload and specialized sectors saw a drop in revenue per mile or truck, and many saw “other costs,” which are expenses outside of the core margin line items, increase as a percentage of total revenue.

The report includes an analysis of cost trends for 2024 and beyond. For the first time, changes in Q1 2020 costs reported by carriers are included.

Gregg Troian PGT trucking president said that in the current economic climate, cost management is essential for successful operations. “ATRI’s operational costs report provides the targeted cost and operational benchmarks needed to identify opportunities for reducing expenditures and how to best act upon those opportunities in our Fleet.”

You can download the full report for free on ATRI’s site. Participants receive a customized report that compares their operations with an anonymous peer group in the same sector and size.