Price of Fuel
The fuel costs faced by the trucking industry are a significant part of the expense to operate a tractor-trailer in North America. According to the 2021 American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) report on the Operating Costs of Trucking, fuel has been as high as $0.65 per mile driven occurring in 2013 and then dropped to $0.34 and $0.31 by 2016 and 2020, respectively.
But throughout 2021, the price per gallon for diesel skyrocketed to an all-time high of $5.81 on June 20, 2022. For a point of reference, using a cost of even $5.00 per gallon and 7 MPG driven over an annual amount of 100,000 miles, the cost to fuel one tractor-trailer for a year would be more than $70,000. A new tractor might cost $150,000, so that tractor will spend in fuel the complete cost of the tractor in its first two years of use.