The American Transportation Research Institute's annual Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking found the industry-average cost to operate a truck hit $2.336 per mile in 2025 — up 3.4% from $2.260 in 2024, and the highest per-mile figure since ATRI began the study in 2016. Costs climbed across nearly every category tracked, including tolls, maintenance, and driver benefits, squeezing margins in the third straight year of a difficult freight market.
Source: ATRI, Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking.
What This Looks Like for Owner-Operators Specifically
ATRI's $2.336 figure is a broad industry average spanning fleets of every size. For owner-operators, cost data from ATBS (American Trucking Business Services) shows a much wider range — and the difference between the low end and the high end largely comes down to two things: insurance and truck payment.
Why Insurance Swings So Widely Between Operators
Fuel prices and equipment costs are largely set by the broader market — an individual carrier has limited control over either one. Insurance is different. New authorities, thinner safety histories, and being shopped through only two or three markets by a generalist agent all push a carrier toward the high end of that range. An experienced operator with a clean inspection record who's been shopped broadly across many markets tends to land much closer to the low end — for the same truck, the same freight, and often the same driver.
What to Do With a Record-Cost Environment
When operating costs hit a record high across the board, the instinct is often to feel like nothing is within your control. That's not quite true. Fuel, tolls, and equipment costs move with the broader market regardless of what any individual carrier does. Insurance is one of the few costs where genuinely shopping the market — not accepting the first renewal number, and making sure a clean safety record actually gets used as leverage — can move the number meaningfully in your favor.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What did ATRI find about trucking's cost per mile in 2025?
ATRI's Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking found the industry-average cost to operate a truck in 2025 was $2.336 per mile, up 3.4% from $2.260 in 2024 — the highest per-mile cost since ATRI launched the study in 2016. Costs rose across nearly every major category, including tolls, maintenance, and driver benefits.
How does that compare to what owner-operators actually pay?
ATRI's $2.336 figure is a broad industry average across all carrier types. Owner-operator cost data from ATBS shows a wider range depending on the individual's situation: roughly $1.40 to $1.55 per mile for experienced operators with low insurance costs and no truck payment, around $1.82 per mile for a typical full cost stack, and $2.10 to $2.30 per mile for newer authorities carrying higher insurance costs and a new truck payment.
Why does insurance vary so much between owner-operators?
New authorities, thinner safety histories, and being shopped through only two or three markets by a generalist agent all push insurance costs toward the high end of that range. An experienced operator with a clean record who's been shopped broadly across many markets tends to land closer to the low end — insurance is one of the more variable line items in the entire cost stack, and how it's shopped matters as much as the underlying risk.
Is insurance the biggest cost in that per-mile figure?
No — fuel, driver pay, and equipment costs are typically larger line items in the overall cost stack. But insurance is one of the few costs where an individual carrier has meaningful, direct control over the outcome through how thoroughly it's shopped, whereas fuel prices and equipment costs are largely set by the broader market.
What should carriers do with record operating costs?
Focus on the cost line items you can actually influence. You can't control diesel prices, but you can control how many markets your insurance gets shopped against, whether your safety record is being used as leverage at renewal, and whether you're paying for coverage that doesn't match your actual operation.
Read more: our guide to 7 proven ways to lower your trucking insurance premium and how much trucking insurance actually costs.