The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) is calling on motor carriers to participate in the annual update to its Operational Costs of Trucking report.
The report is a trusted resource for benchmarking costs and operations, ATRI said. The association 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 produce insights on industry trends that guide decision-makers of all kinds.
Cost metrics requested by ATRI include driver pay, insurance premiums, and equipment lease or purchase payments. Carriers and owner-operators can submit these costs for the year 2023 on a per-mile or per-hour basis with an easy-to-use online data entry form or emailed PDF form. Additional questions cover operational metrics such as the percentage of empty miles, dwell time per stop, and driver turnover.
All participating carriers receive a customized report that compares their fleet’s costs and operations to peer carriers of the same sector and size, as well as an advance copy of the full report.
“We contribute data to ATRI’s Operational Costs every year because its findings are indispensable to our operations,” Jason Higginbotham, Ozark Motor Lines chief financial officer, said in a news release. “The customized peer-group analysis provides us an essential update on how our fleet performs, while the full report allows us to identify industry-wide trends and communicate them to our partners.”
For-hire motor carriers are encouraged to provide operational cost data to ATRI by April 26. ATRI’s data collection form is available online, along with a sample customized report and FAQ.
All confidential information is protected, and it is published only in anonymized, aggregate form, ATRI said.