The short version
ATRI puts the average cost of running a truck in 2025 at $2.336 a mile, or $1.854 without fuel. That average was built on 2025 diesel. In the week of 5 October 2026 the U.S. average diesel price was $6.199 a gallon, $2.488 more than a year earlier, which puts fuel alone at about $0.77 to $1.03 a mile for a truck getting 6 to 8 miles per gallon.
Most cost-per-mile figures you will find are one year old by the time they are published, because the best source, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), surveys carriers on the year before. That is fine for most lines of the budget. It is not fine for fuel, which can move more in a quarter than everything else moves in a year. This page gives the ATRI averages as published, then the fuel line recalculated at this week’s diesel price, with the arithmetic shown so you can redo it at yours.
What is the average cost per mile for a truck?
ATRI puts the industry-average cost to operate a truck in 2025 at $2.336 per mile, 3.4% higher than 2024 and the highest since its cost series began. Excluding fuel, the average was $1.854 per mile, up 4.2%. Those are fleet averages from ATRI’s operational costs report published on 15 July 2026.
