USDA Grain Transportation Report: ATRI Updates 2022 Report on Operational Costs of Trucking

According to USDA's Grain Transportation report, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) recently updated its 2022 annual report An Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking based on 2021 financial data from motor carriers.

According to the report, the total marginal cost of trucking rose 12.7 percent in 2021 to $1.855 per mile ($74.65 per hour), the highest on record. Much of this increase stemmed from three factors: fuel, (35.4 percent higher than in 2020); repair and maintenance (18.2 percent higher than in 2020); and driver wages (10.8 percent higher than in 2020).

Overall, fleets with 100 trucks or fewer spent 4.9 cents more per mile than fleets with more than 100 trucks—closing the 2020 gap between small and large fleets by 70 percent. Among other findings, empty mileage fell to 14.8 percent, and average truck fuel economy rose to 6.65 miles per gallon. Large fleets spent less than small fleets on insurance premiums per mile, but had higher out-of-pocket incident costs per mile.

The full report can be accessed here.