Trucking costs hit record $2.336 per mile as tariffs squeeze fleets

Average operational trucking costs reached a record $2.336 per mile in 2025, and the fastest-rising line items — tolls up 13.2%, maintenance up 8.6%, driver benefits up 6.6% — are climbing faster than general consumer inflation, according to FleetOwner's annual Trucking by the Numbers series published this week.

The data, compiled by FleetOwner Editor Jeremy Wolfe, sketches an industry moving $14 trillion in goods annually across 4 million miles of highway, hauled by 1.2 million motor carriers operating 3.3 million tractor-trailers. Truck transportation alone contributed more than $1 trillion to U.S. GDP in 2025. Yet the operational picture behind that scale is one of margin compression and planning chaos.

What is driving the cost squeeze?

Diesel is the sharpest pressure point. Average on-highway prices rose more than 30% this year and topped $6 per gallon nationally in September.

Tariff policy compounds the uncertainty. The average U.S. tariff rate has jumped from 1.5% in 2022 to 11.8% today, touching 54% of all goods imports. Policy has changed more than 50 times since President Donald Trump took office, leaving shippers and carriers to plan against chronic unpredictability. Section 232 tariffs add 25% to the cost of imported heavy-duty equipment.

Liability risk adds another layer. A record $604 million nuclear verdict, affirmed by the Supreme Court, could cascade across the fleet industry, FleetOwner reports.

On the demand side, the fundamentals remain soft. Freight-intensive manufacturing production is down 9.6% since 2017, and housing starts fell 13.5% this year. Regulators, not economic growth, are tightening capacity — a shift the publication notes does not generate the organic tailwinds of genuine market demand.

How stressed is the consumer?

Consumer buying power is shrinking. CPI-adjusted median household income sits 19% below its 2008 level, inflation-adjusted credit card debt jumped 25% this decade, and tariffs alone cost the average U.S. household $820 in 2026.

The strain shows up in what trucks actually carry. By weight, bulk and low-value goods such as gravel and cereal grains dominate; mixed freight, electronics and motor vehicles drive freight value.

Where are the tailwinds?

Not every signal points down. Large truck safety metrics are improving — fewer crashes, fewer injuries, fewer fatalities — and total U.S. motor vehicle deaths in 2026 are tracking nearly 10% below last year.

Digital infrastructure is offsetting the housing slump. U.S. businesses spent nearly $50 billion on data center construction last year, driving strong flatbed demand.

Private fleets show particular resilience, expanding freight volume 7.8% in 2025 while holding driver turnover at 17.1% — against an industry-wide for-hire average near 45% — and a DOT recordable accident rate of 0.65.

Broker spot rates also carry momentum, averaging 3.4% monthly increases since October 2025. Fleets averaged 7.43 mpg in 2025, a slight efficiency gain.

Is technology closing the gap?

Nearly 90% of heavy-duty fleets now use some form of generative AI, and 60% of shippers use real-time shipment tracking. But fleet leaders still cite data integration roadblocks, including inaccurate data, as a major barrier — evidence, FleetOwner suggests, that back-office data quality and information management lag behind software spending.

Structurally, little has changed. About 1.23 million active carriers operate in the U.S., and more than half run just one truck. Tractor-trailers logged 192 billion miles in 2024 across a 4.2-million-mile highway network. Alternative fuel trucks remain a niche at just over 4% of registered equipment, led by natural gas; battery-electric units account for 0.43%.

The pattern is one of hard running with little forward motion: costs at records, demand soft, technology adopted but underused. Whether the spot-rate momentum since October 2025 holds into 2027 will depend less on software than on whether manufacturing, housing and consumer balance sheets — all still deteriorating — finally turn.