In 2018 trucking companies saw a surge on per-mile costs.  On average carriers saw an increase of up to 13 cents a mile, according to American Transportation Research Institute‘s (ATRI) annual survey of carrier spending. Carriers pre-mile expenditures are suffering because of the increase.

One of the biggest factors leading to the rising costs for carriers is the higher spending on driver wages and benefits 7 straight years; regardless of the jump in pre-mile fuel cost carriers experienced from 2017 to 2018. ATRI reports show that between fuel, wages, and benefits carrier expenditures grew more than 66% per-mile!

Increased costs a mile carriers spent in 2018

• Driver wages- 59 cents
• Fuel- 43 cents
• Driver benefits- 18 cents
• Drivers wages- 3.9 cents
• Insurance premiums- .9 cents up to 8.4 cents

While all other expenditures were seeing increases, the only category to stay static was tires at 3.8 cents per mile.  Many other categories also stayed around the same with very little increases.  Truck payments & leases up to 26.5 cents, repair/ maintenance 17.1 cents, tolls 3 cents, and licensing up to 2.4 cents per mile.

According to the ATRI, carrier per-mile costs since 2016 have seen an increase of more than 25 cents a mile.  The industry hasn’t seen this much of an increase since 2011 and 2014.  While costs may have dropped in 2015 from 2014, the spending hikes have greatly surpassed previous years.

For 2019, as expected we saw a spike, but not to the highs of 2018.  This year there is much more capacity, and this has helped to keep rates and costs lower.