The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today called on motor carriers to participate in its annual Operational Costs of Trucking report.

ATRI’s Operational Costs of Trucking is the industry’s leading public benchmarking tool. ATRI collects data confidentially from for-hire motor carriers of all sectors, regions, and sizes – from 1-truck owner-operators to 10,000+ truck fleets – to document changing cost patterns in truck operations and how fleets can leverage the cost data to achieve higher profitability and improved operational efficiencies.

Cost metrics requested by ATRI include driver pay, insurance premiums, and equipment lease or purchase payments. Additional questions relate to key performance indicators such as non-revenue mileage, dwell time per stop, and miles between breakdowns.

Carriers can confidentially submit these data for the year 2024 on a per-mile or per-hour basis with an easy-to-use online data entry form or an emailed PDF form. A new, streamlined version of the form for owner-operators makes it easier than ever for one-truck companies to leverage the benefits of benchmarking.

All participating motor carriers receive a customized report that compares their fleet’s costs and operations to an anonymized peer group of the same sector and size, as well as an advance copy of the full report.

"With the industry cost data that comes from ATRI's Operational Costs of Trucking report, our fleet is able to apply the operational metrics to better manage our expenses," said Dr. Robert Howard, Dohrn Transfer Company President and COO. "This information will help every carrier benchmark their financials and prepare them for contract negotiations. Equally valuable are the customized insights into how our costs and performance measure up to our peers in this challenging freight market.”

For-hire motor carriers are invited to submit operational cost data by Friday, April 25.  ATRI’s data collection form is available online here, along with a sample customized report and support via Frequently Answered Questions. All confidential information is protected and published only in anonymized, aggregate form.