The cost of a mile: Higher rates collide with rising expenses

Cliff Abbott

It took a while to get here, but small trucking businesses are finally finding higher freight rates and greater revenue opportunities than have been offered in the past few years. The higher rates, however, are at least partially driven by higher costs, especially fuel. It’s vital to your business to know your operational cost so you can determine if higher revenues are covering increased costs.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration publishes average gasoline and diesel fuel prices every Monday (except holidays) at eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel. The report provides national average retail prices, as well as average prices for different regions of the country.

The Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, report showed a national average price of $6.53 per gallon. Although higher prices may have occurred on a spot or temporary basis, it’s the first time the national average gallon price has topped $6. If you purchase your fuel in California, the average price shot above $8 per gallon for the first time. Even in the Gulf Coast region — typically the cheapest area for fuel — pricing exceeded the $6 mark at $6.03 per gallon.

This means record high prices for trucking operations.

Many Class 8 trucks average 6 to 6.5 mpg. Modern trucks can perform significantly better; but idling, traffic congestion and higher speeds can keep any vehicle from reaching maximum fuel economy.

At the national average gallon price of $6.53, small trucking businesses may find their diesel fuel costs have reached $1 per mile or more.

Petroleum-based fluids, like engine and other oils, see price increases, too. Oil-derived products, like plastics, cost more to manufacture. This impacts the cost of parts — and the cost of shipping those parts to maintenance facilities has gone up, too. Tires are more expensive, too.

Even the interest rate paid on your next truck loan could be impacted.

On Sept. 16, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to increase the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point. It was the first such increase in three years. The action came as inflation remained elevated, with crude oil prices above $100 per barrel contributing to increased price pressures. Fed policymakers indicated that another rate increase could come before the end of the year.

So, where do freight rates fit into the profitability picture?

According to data received from DAT Freight & Analytics, the seven-day rolling average linehaul freight rate for dry van, as determined from the DAT load board, was $2.17 per mile, excluding fuel surcharge. That figure is up 31.5% from the same week of 2025, an increase of 52 cents per mile. In contrast, the third week of September 2025 only rose 4 cents per mile from the same week in 2024.

Rates are definitely improving.

Refrigerated rates rose from $2 to $2.73 over the past year, according to DAT, an increase of 36.5%. Flatbed linehaul rates for the same period rose 55 cents, landing at $2.60 (that’s up 26.8%. However, expenses for these segments may be different from dry van expenses: Refrigerated trailers require fueling, and flatbed operations incur expenses for tarps, dunnage and securement equipment.

Here’s how owner-operators can work to maintain (or even improve) their bottom line.

The first order of business when considering a load is to make sure the fuel surcharge is covered. If the rate does not specify a surcharge amount, visit the EIA website and make a note of the current national average for diesel fuel in the U.S.

For example: The national average for diesel fuel in the third week of September 2025 was $3.75. This year, it’s shot up more than $2.50 per gallon (that’s a 67.8% increase) for the same time frame.

Now, it’s time to pull out your calculator. You should be able to divide that $2.54 increase by your average fuel mileage to determine how much your fuel cost per mile has increased.

Ask yourself: Have your freight rates, including any fuel surcharge, increased enough to cover the difference? If you’re tracking your other operational costs (as you should be), you can calculate how much more revenue you’ll need to cover your increased expenses.

There are resources to help you decide what’s needed.

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released its 2026 update to its Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking in July, providing some average trucking costs increases reported by survey respondents. The report is free, and it can provide some guidelines even if you don’t detail expenses for your operation.

The average operational cost per mile in the truckload sector in 2025 was $1.72, according to ATRI. That figure includes driver pay and benefits cost. Additionally, truck insurance, tolls, maintenance and truck lease or purchase payments continued to rise through the first quarter of 2026. It’s safe to assume that the 2025 cost of $1.72 has already grown to $1.80 per mile and is likely to be even higher, considering fuel increases.

Taking the DAT average dry van freight rate of $2.17 per mile, excluding fuel surcharge, and assuming operational cost of $1.80 per mile leaves just 37 cents per mile for driver pay and benefits — an amount many trucking business owners would determine isn’t worth their time and effort to manage the business.

Fuel efficiency can make a big difference.

It’s important to note that the ATRI operational cost estimates include fuel costs, so the fuel mileage achieved by your equipment can make a huge difference.

At the current EIA national average of $6.53, a truck that gets 5 mpg consumes about $1.31 in fuel every mile. If your truck gets 6 mpg, your fuel cost drops by about 22 cents per mile. Multiplied by a month’s worth of miles or more, the savings for just 1 mpg of added efficiency add up quickly.

For example: If your truck runs 100,000 miles in a year, the difference between achieving 5 mpg and 6 mpg is 3,333 gallons of fuel. Multiply those gallons by $6.523 and you’ll see that the truck getting 5 mpg will burn nearly $22,000 in additional fuel expenses in a single year.

Drivers know that keeping speed down and avoiding idling help increase fuel mileage. So does investment in aftermarket aero products such as wheel covers, fairings, trailer skirts, flow-through mud flaps and other products.

It all begins, however, with knowing your operational cost per mile.

Knowing where your business revenue is being spent helps you determine the areas where cost savings will have the largest impact. It also helps you make sound decisions about which loads, and which rates, will help your business profit.

Danger of social isolation OTR: Truckers don’t have to be alone

Clifford Petersen

With apologies to the women in the audience, it’s no news that the vast majority of working truckers are men — here’s looking at (most of) you, readers. And if you’ve followed my fulminations here, you’ll know I’m passionate about health, about well-being, about truckers’ efforts to truly improve their lives by focusing on both.

And if there’s a single aspect of health I’m especially impassioned about, it’s the mental variety. Bear with me. I know it’s a subject difficult for many among us truckers to talk about — we’re supposed to be strong, dare I say the most independent, self-sufficient people on the planet, right? If not for us, this country would come to a grinding halt… You know it.

When we have a problem, we saddle up and get back on the horse. We keep our issues to ourselves, keep rolling the miles.

It can go on endlessly, with the toll on relationships back home mounting. Home fires begin to die. It’s easy to fall into the trap of just rolling on, playing out worst-case scenarios on our big-screen windshield like a late-night movie.

Social isolation can hit any of us unawares with huge destructive force, building stress, anxiety, even capital-D Depression. Combined with the constant push of the job, it can be a literal killer.

Suicide rates have been on the rise among workers in male-dominated trades like trucking in recent years. For veterans, the rate’s even higher at an annual 35.2 per 100,000 vets. Truckers and veterans, who already deal with increased risks of social isolation, can easily find themselves behind this eightball, particularly if yet another wrench is thrown into the gears.

I’ve been a trucker myself now for 27 years, and I’ve experienced it. Chronic pain, an illness, financial problems, bullying even — all primary reasons we might tiptoe closer to the edge. I have spent most of my life with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and spent several years dealing with suicidal ideation. When I was finally diagnosed at 43 years of age, I began to learn about the tools I needed to live with it, and just when I thought I had finally beaten that monster into submission, he snuck around the corner and almost ended my life.

Fortunately, I had a support system in place, and God intervened. But I had traveled well down that path of hopelessness.

We can help each other, and ourselves 

You can help yourself, or your fellow trucker in need, by simply recognizing the risk. It’s not easy when we spend 95% of our time on the road alone. I can go weeks without talking to anyone other than those at the company I haul for. (Dispatchers among you reading here can be a lifeline.)

Still, truckers can be tight-knit with their fellow haulers — pay attention to shifts in behavior, speech, or mood among those you interact with regularly.

Changes can come on quickly or more slowly — a friend may start to self-isolate, with activities they usually enjoy no longer pursued. Increased risk-taking — yes, as my own experience on a motorcycle in the past proved, that may well include aggressive or foolhardy driving — could be a sign, too.

Changes in mood could range from subtle expressions of loss of control or feeling trapped to more extreme hopelessness. Personality shifts from near depression to extreme happiness or calm, detached reactions might signal something more serious.

Starker warning signs:

• Giving away once-treasured personal items/property.
• Extreme rage/anxiety.
• Direct complaints of emotional or physical pain.
• Morbid fascination with death.
• Frank or not-so-frank talking about wanting to die.
• Expression of just how much of a burden someone is to everyone in their life.

If someone begins to say goodbye to friends and family, sometimes precipitated by sleeping a lot less or a great deal more than usual, or big dietary changes, they’re at a critical point.

While it may be difficult for truckers to spot, you may also notice a decline in personal hygiene. (I’m not saying that truckers lack personal hygiene in general, but we all have probably been that guy who goes too long without a shower.)

Today, the World Health Organization’s Suicide Prevention Day, the thing I want you to truly understand is that it is not a weakness to ask for help, or to ask on someone’s behalf. If in doubt, it is always better to share your concerns with someone who can assist in intervening.

If you know someone or are struggling yourself, you can use the suicide hotline by calling or texting 988. When you do, you’ll be connected to a trained crisis counselor who will listen without judgment to your concerns, provide support, and help you explore options for resources and safety. This service operates 24/7, and is strictly confidential.

You may be the saving grace for someone truly in need.

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