Highway Express
June 23, 2023
Parking a Lot
July 7, 2023
The Cost of Doing Business
Why Your Milk Costs More
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) recently released a report: An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking.
The study “analyzes a wide variety of line-item costs, operating efficiencies, and revenue benchmarks by fleet size and sector.”
Among its findings:
-
Total marginal costs climbed to a new high in 2022 for the second year in a row, increasing by 21.3 percent over 2021 to $2.251 per mile.
-
Driver wages increased by 15.5 percent, to $0.724 per mile, reflecting the ongoing industry effort to attract and retain drivers.
-
Truck and trailer payments increased by 18.6 percent to $0.331 per mile as carriers paid higher prices, largely due to equipment impediments in the supply chains.
-
Parts shortages and rising technician labor rates pushed repair and maintenance costs up 12 percent to $0.196 per mile.
-
While larger fleets’ average operating margins improved from 2021 to 2022, smaller fleets saw operating margins decline.
ATRI breaks down the average marginal costs per mile for a number of factors. Here’s a selection, comparing costs between 2013 and 2022:
| Motor Carrier Costs | 2013 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel Costs | $0.645 | $0.641 |
| Repair & Maintenance | $0.148 | $0.196 |
| Truck Insurance Premiums | $0.064 | $0.088 |
| Tires | $0.041 | $0.045 |
| Tolls | $0.019 | $0.028 |
| . . . | • • • | • • • |
| TOTAL AVERAGE COSTS PER MILE | $1.676 | $2.251 |
To underscore those numbers, that’s an average cost of $2.25 cents per mile.
Let’s break it down another way, this time with a selection of marginal costs per hour:
| Motor Carrier Costs | 2013 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel Costs | $25.78 | $25.84 |
| Repair & Maintenance | $5.92 | $7.89 |
| Truck Insurance Premiums | $2.57 | $3.57 |
| Tires | $1.65 | $1.81 |
| Tolls | $0.77 | $1.14 |
| . . . | • • • | • • • |
| TOTAL AVERAGE COSTS PER HOUR | $67.00 | $90.78 |