Fuel overtakes driver pay as top cost line for some Florida fleets

Diesel has overtaken driver pay as the single largest line item on the P&L of some Florida trucking fleets, after a roughly 70% year-over-year jump in fuel costs that Florida Trucking Association CEO Scott Perry calls unsustainable for carriers without strong fuel-surcharge mechanisms.

Perry, an industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience, delivered the warning in an interview with FreightWaves at the WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida. His diagnosis is blunt: fuel, insurance, equipment and wage costs are stacking on top of each other faster than many carriers can recover them from customers.

"Traditionally, driver pay was the number one line item on the P&L," Perry said. "Fuel has surpassed that in many instances, and it's extremely challenging for them to absorb that if they don't have good fuel charge mechanisms or recapture ability with their customers."

For a fleet without a surcharge, a 70% fuel-cost spike is not a margin problem. It is a solvency problem — and Perry called such a surge potentially catastrophic for carriers that cannot pass the expense through.

What is the state of Florida carriers right now?

No known association members have closed or laid off workers specifically because of recent fuel increases, Perry said — but he was careful to note what he could not confirm rather than claim the sector is healthy.

"I've had several that it's definitely compressing their ability to operate," he said, citing insurance premiums absorbed "over the last three, four, five years or more" and wage pressure from driver retention fights. "All of that combined adds up to generally a negative margin business that can't be sustained forever."

The squeeze has a second-order consequence: fleets are deferring equipment replacement. Perry warned that delayed truck purchases threaten reliability, productivity and driver retention — problems that compound precisely when capacity is tightening.

Why are rates rising without demand?

Florida carriers are growing somewhat more optimistic about freight rates heading into 2027 as trucking capacity tightens. Perry's caveat matters more than the optimism: the improvement is being driven by trucks leaving the market, not by freight demand returning.

"I think there is some improved confidence with rates and what they're seeing in rate structures right now," Perry said. "As we've heard and read, there's not a real demand increase in many instances. It's capacity is being taken out of the market."

Higher rates could help carriers recover operating expenses, but much of the additional revenue is currently being absorbed by rising diesel costs.

Are shippers pushing rates back to 2020 levels?

Yes, and Perry rejects the math. Some shippers, he said, have tried to reverse the substantial rate increases granted during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though carriers' cost bases sit far above pre-2020 levels.

"We've seen insurance costs go up substantially. Diesel rates are up substantially. Labor rates are up substantially," Perry said. "Those don't align with the depressing rates back to pre-COVID era. It just doesn't."

His demand from shippers is specific: rates must cover real costs and leave room for reinvestment. "There's got to be realism in the rates," he said. "If they're not able to reinvest in their business, they're just buying time and postponing the inevitable."

Is Florida fixing truck parking?

Partly. Florida entered 2026 with approximately 2,100 public-access truck parking spaces and broke ground in July on a four-phase project to add 922 more, mostly along the Interstate 4 corridor connecting Tampa and Orlando.

"Will 3,000 public access parking spaces serve the entire need for the industry? No, it won't," Perry said. "Is this a significant step in the right direction? It absolutely is."

The shortage forces drivers to choose between federal hours-of-service compliance and parking on shoulders or exit ramps, he noted — a decision that affects both safety and fleet productivity.

Where does enforcement stand?

Perry backs federal efforts to tighten scrutiny of non-domiciled CDLs, English-language proficiency and electronic logging device compliance, and praised FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs, a former Florida Highway Patrol officer. He supports safeguards against ELD manipulation, which lets drivers run beyond legal hours. "Anything we can do to make sure that drivers aren't operating beyond the legally allowable hours... can only improve public safety," Perry said.

Heading into 2027, the question is whether tightening capacity lifts rates enough to cover fuel that now outranks driver pay — before deferred fleet investment catches up with carriers that, in Perry's words, are only buying time.