The soft freight market of 2023 continued to pose many challenges for operational efficiency in the trucking business, as low freight rates strained profitability across the industry, according to a report from The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
The annual report by ATRI—which is the nonprofit research arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA)—found that average operating margins were 6% or lower in all fleet sizes and sectors other than less than truckload (LTL).
Those margins were squeezed for two reasons. First, income is down: the truckload and specialized sectors in particular experienced drops in per-mile or per-truck revenue.
And secondly, costs are up: 2023 expenses rose across most categories. Fortunately, the increase was moderate; average costs across line-items increased at less than half the rates experienced during 2021 and 2022. But still, truck and trailer payments grew by 8.8% to $0.360 per mile, driver wages grew by 7.6% to $0.779 per mile, and repair and maintenance costs grew by 3.1% to $0.202 per mile. And truck insurance premiums grew much faster, rising 12.5% to $0.099 per mile after two years of negligible change.
Other costs also piled on to compound those pains. Deadhead mileage, a critical financial drain, rose to an average of 16.3% for all non-tank operations, and driver turnover rose by five percentage points in the truckload sector, ATRI found.
