What are the components of US trucking costs on average, by the mile and by the hour?

We're just catching up with the latest annual report from the American Trasportation Research Institute (ATRI), released in November , which once again answers both those questions.

The study relies on feedback from actual carriers, and can be segmented by size of carrier, type of carrier, region of the country, and more.

But here, we'll publish the charts from the report based on carrier data for 2018 - showing overall costs per mile and per hour by individual cost element:

Carrier Operating Cost Per Mile and Per Hour

Source: ATRI

As can be seen, operating cost per mile rose substantially in 2018, to $1.81 and $71.78, respectively, driven by big jumps in driver wages and benefiits, as many carriers increased pay sharply in a year of a signficant driver shortage.

So it's no surprise why carrier rates rose sharply in 2018 - and why so many carriers went bankrupt in 2019 given rates fell sharply in the face of this much high cost structure.

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