Freight rates are turning a corner in 2026. After three years of a long freight recession, that is the good news the industry has been waiting for. But the costs around that recovery look different from past cycles. Operating expenses, insurance, and hiring have all grown more complicated, and the data heading into Q4 shows it clearly.

This article draws on ATRI's 2026 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, FMCSA's regulatory updates, and current insurance market data for a straightforward look at what trucking businesses are dealing with right now—and what the industry is doing about it.

Operating costs in 2026: what the data shows

ATRI's 2026 Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking, released July 15, 2026, put the average cost to run a truck in 2025 at $2.336 per mile. That is 3.4% higher than the year before and the highest per-mile cost the report has ever recorded. Take fuel out and costs still rose 4.2%, to $1.854 per mile. Every major line item went up.

The largest year-over-year increases:

• Tolls—up 13.2%

• Repair and maintenance—up 8.6%

• Driver benefits—up 6.6%

• Tires—up 6.4%

Only two costs rose slower than inflation: fuel and, for the second year running, driver wages. Wages went up just 2.5% in 2025—less than inflation and less than every other cost category.

Fuel is a different story. Diesel prices are up about 20% from a year ago. For a Class 8 owner-operator, fuel usually makes up 15% to 20% of the cost of every mile—so a 20% jump is one of the bigger cost pressures of recent years.

Put together, fleets are facing costs that have climbed in almost every direction at once, while freight rates are only starting to recover. As PGT Trucking Chief Operating Officer Chad Marsilio put it after the ATRI release: "Freight rates are finally turning a corner in 2026, but the acceleration of industry-wide costs means that fleets must continue with aggressive cost discipline."

Insurance costs—a structural issue, not a one-year spike

Insurance is the cost that gets the most attention, and for good reason. According to ATRI, liability insurance premiums in trucking rose 18.6% between 2021 and 2024, reaching 10.2 cents per mile—and the higher excess-coverage layers rose even faster. This is not one bad year. It is a steady climb, driven by causes that are built into the market rather than part of a passing cycle.

The main cause is litigation. In recent years, nuclear verdicts—jury awards in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars—have grown more common and larger, adding billions to the claims the whole industry has to cover. Lawsuit Abuse Reform ranked second among trucking stakeholders in ATRI's 2025 Critical Issues survey, behind only the general economy—its highest ranking in the survey's 21-year history.

The legal picture shifted again in May 2026. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC that freight brokers can be sued in state court for negligent carrier selection. For years, federal law had kept these cases out of state court. That protection is now gone, and anyone who arranges freight—not just the company hauling it—can be named in a negligence claim. A fuller breakdown of the ruling and what it means for brokers and carriers is in a separate GIA Group article on the Montgomery decision.

Insurance pricing is shaped by litigation across the whole industry. That means a carrier with a clean safety record still pays into a market priced around the claims and verdicts of everyone else. Even so, a carrier's own record still counts. Safety scores, driver history, past claims, documented safety practices, and the coverage already in place all affect where its pricing lands compared with others.

What is happening with insurance pricing specifically

Several things are pushing insurance costs higher in 2026:

Nuclear verdict frequency. Jury awards in trucking cases keep getting bigger and more frequent. A handful of states—including Illinois, California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—account for an outsized share, and carriers and brokers that run heavily in those states tend to feel it first at renewal.

The post-Montgomery environment. Brokers now face possible negligent-hiring claims in state court. Carriers that can show documented safety practices and steady compliance are in a stronger spot—both in court and when their pricing is set at renewal.

CSA and safety scores. FMCSA's Safety Measurement System data is public, and insurers read it. They look at a carrier's Crash Indicator score, driver violations, and how often its trucks are pulled out of service in inspections—alongside its record of past claims, known as loss runs. A carrier with high scores may find fewer insurers willing to quote it.

How the insurance market is built. The trucking insurance market is not one single pool. Insurers do not all want the same business—one may price a hazmat hauler competitively while another avoids it entirely. Because of that, the same operation can get very different quotes depending on how many insurers look at it, and an operation outside the usual profile sees the widest spread. One insurer shows one appetite; several insurers show the full range.

Hiring compliance costs—what 2026 regulatory changes added

Three rule changes took effect in 2026 that add directly to the cost and effort of hiring. Each one adds paperwork, extra steps, or a smaller pool of drivers to choose from—and all of that costs time and money.

Non-domiciled CDL limits—a smaller driver pool. FMCSA's Final Rule on non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses took effect March 16, 2026. It limits non-domiciled CDLs to foreign drivers who hold an H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visa. Operations that had leaned on a wider pool of foreign-domiciled drivers now have fewer candidates to fill the same seats, which stretches out hiring and adds recruiting work.

Clearinghouse enforcement—more steps, more risk. The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse passed 200,000 prohibited drivers in January 2026, according to its own public dashboard. New 2026 rules added automatic state license downgrades for those drivers, tighter reporting deadlines, and live cross-checks between employer records, motor vehicle records, and testing-consortium data. A pre-employment query is required before any CDL driver gets behind the wheel. An operation without a steady Clearinghouse routine risks both an audit finding and the cost of cleaning up gaps later.

National Registry II for medical cards—one more step. In states that have adopted it, FMCSA's National Registry II means a driver's medical status is confirmed through the state's license system instead of a paper medical card. The extra check adds a little time to onboarding and calls for updated driver-qualification file routines—small on its own, but it adds up across a big roster.

The bottom line across all three: hiring a fully compliant CDL driver in 2026 takes more time and paperwork than it did two years ago. Operations that fold these steps into their normal hiring routine tend to handle them with less disruption and lower cost.

One more point worth noting: many commercial auto policies and freight contracts now include driver-eligibility clauses tied to federal CDL rules. If a driver turns out to be ineligible, that gap can affect how the policy responds after a crash—which is worth checking before an incident, not after.

What trucking businesses are doing in response

The industry is not sitting still. A few clear patterns show up among carriers and owner-operators working through the current market.

Knowing the cost of every mile. ATRI's data shows the healthiest carriers track their cost per mile for fuel, insurance, and equipment closely, then adjust lane density, which loads they take, and maintenance timing around it. As one May 2026 analysis put it, an operator who does not know its exact cost per mile is more exposed now than it would be in a soft market.

Investing in safety technology. Telematics, dashcams, and collision-avoidance systems do two jobs at once: they cut down on crashes and they create a record that helps defend a claim when a crash does happen. Both matter to insurance pricing over time. Carriers with a documented safety-tech program tend to have more insurers willing to work with them and may see steadier renewals.

Treating documentation as legal protection. After Montgomery, the records a carrier or broker keeps on driver selection, carrier vetting, and safety are no longer just for audits—they can matter in court too. An operation with consistent, well-kept records is in a stronger position when a claim or dispute comes up.

Getting in front of more insurers. An operation with anything unusual in its profile—past claims, specialized equipment, heavy activity in high-litigation states, or recent growth—tends to see the widest spread in quotes. An operation one insurer turns down may be a good fit for another, so the more insurers that review an account, the wider the range of prices and terms it is likely to see.

Building compliance into the workflow. Clearinghouse queries, driver-qualification files, medical-card tracking, and MVR monitoring are increasingly handled inside everyday hiring and fleet systems rather than scrambled together at audit time. Operations that already work this way tend to absorb rule changes more smoothly—the 2026 updates added steps, but the systems to handle them were already running.

Frequently Asked Questions about Trucking Costs

What are the biggest cost increases for trucking in 2026? 

Per ATRI's 2026 operational costs report, the biggest year-over-year jumps were tolls (up 13.2%), repair and maintenance (up 8.6%), and driver benefits (up 6.6%). The average total cost hit $2.336 per mile, the highest the report has recorded. Without fuel, costs still rose 4.2%, to $1.854 per mile. Diesel is up about 20% from a year ago.

Why do trucking insurance costs keep rising? 

Trucking insurance is priced around the whole industry's lawsuits, not just one carrier's record. Nuclear verdicts—very large jury awards in truck accident cases—have grown more frequent and larger, raising the claims the market has to cover. ATRI reports liability premiums rose 18.6% from 2021 to 2024, with the higher excess layers rising even faster. A carrier's own safety scores, claims history, and documented safety practices still affect where its own pricing lands.

What did the 2026 non-domiciled CDL rule change? 

FMCSA's Final Rule, effective March 16, 2026, limits non-domiciled CDLs to drivers holding an H-2A, H-2B, or E-2 visa. Drivers outside those visa types no longer qualify for a non-domiciled CDL. Carriers confirm the visa type and its expiration date during hiring.

What is the FMCSA Clearinghouse, and why does it matter in 2026? 

The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse is a federal database of drug and alcohol violations for CDL drivers. In 2026, new rules added automatic state license downgrades for prohibited drivers, tighter reporting deadlines, and live cross-checks between employer records, MVRs, and testing-consortium data. A pre-employment query is required before any CDL driver operates a commercial vehicle. The database passed 200,000 prohibited drivers in 2026.

How does the Montgomery ruling affect carriers? 

The Supreme Court's May 2026 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC lets negligent carrier selection lawsuits against freight brokers move forward in state court. For carriers, it raises the value of documented safety practices and steady compliance—because brokers now have a legal reason to vet carefully before handing over a load.

About GIA Group, LLC

GIA Group, LLC is an independent commercial transportation insurance agency serving motor carriers, owner-operators, freight brokers, and logistics operations across the United States. As an independent agency, it works with multiple insurance carriers that specialize in transportation—so coverage is placed across a range of insurers rather than through a single carrier's appetite.

Late 2026 has more moving parts than past cycles, with operating costs, lawsuits, and rule changes all in play at once. Reading how an operation's profile, claims history, safety scores, and compliance records affect its coverage and pricing is part of what an experienced transportation insurance agency brings to the table.

For a coverage review or a quote, contact GIA Group at 855-876-0717 or visit giasure.com.

This article is for educational purposes and reflects publicly available industry research, regulatory guidance, and market data as of October 2026. It does not constitute legal or insurance advice. Motor carriers and brokers seeking guidance specific to their operations are encouraged to consult licensed professionals.