The 2026 ATRI Operational Costs of Trucking report just dropped a number that stings: repair and maintenance now averages 40.4 cents per mile — up 8.6% year over year — making it one of the fastest-rising line items on any fleet's P&L. But that industry average hides a massive gap. Top-quartile fleets run at $0.12–$0.18 per mile through structured PM programs. Bottom-quartile fleets bleed over $0.30 per mile through reactive-only repair cycles. The difference between those two numbers on a 100-truck fleet doing 100,000 miles per truck per year is $1.2M–$1.8M in preventable spend. This guide gives you the current benchmarks, a live calculator to plot your own cost-per-mile against them, and the specific levers that move you from bottom quartile into top quartile. Ready to see your own CPM on a real dashboard? Start your free trial or reach out to our support team for a walkthrough.
Fleet Maintenance Cost Per Mile: 2026 Benchmarks & Live Calculator
See where your fleet actually sits against the 2026 ATRI benchmarks — and calculate exactly what moving one quartile up would save you. Fresh data, no vendor spin.
The 2026 ATRI Benchmark, at a Glance
Here's where the industry sits right now — from the top-quartile champions to the bottom-quartile bleeders, based on the most recent ATRI Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking.
Calculate Your Fleet's Maintenance Cost Per Mile
Plug in your numbers. The calculator returns your CPM, tells you which quartile you're in, and shows exactly what moving to the next quartile would save.
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Your CPM & Positioning
What the ATRI Cost Breakdown Actually Looks Like
The $2.336 all-in operating cost per mile is made of specific line items. Here's how the 2026 ATRI report breaks it down — and which ones are climbing fastest.
The Planned-vs-Reactive Cost Multiplier
Every fleet knows planned maintenance costs less than emergency repair. What most don't measure is by how much. The multiplier is brutal — and it's the single biggest lever you have.
Move from reactive to planned
Track every PM interval, defect, and work order in one system. Auto-flag due services. Trend cost-per-mile per vehicle.
The 6 Levers That Move CPM
Moving from bottom quartile into top quartile isn't a mystery — it's six specific levers, each with measurable impact.
Structured PM cadence
OEM-spec intervals fired on engine hours, not memory. Missed PM is the single largest source of reactive-repair spend.
Daily DVIR defect capture
Drivers report defects at pre-trip, defects auto-route to the shop as work orders. Small issues stay small.
In-house repair economics
In-house labor runs $45–$75/hr. Outsourced runs $125–$175/hr. LTL carriers doing 78% of work in-house sit well below the industry average.
Predictive maintenance
Trend-based flagging catches failures 2–4 weeks before breakdown. Turns emergency events into planned repairs.
Parts inventory automation
Fast-moving parts stocked, min/max thresholds triggered by consumption data. No more emergency parts spend.
Equipment lifecycle decisions
Vehicles over 10 years cost 5.5x more per mile than vehicles under 5. Cost-per-mile trending flags candidates for replacement before the curve steepens.
What "Good" Looks Like: The Top-Quartile Playbook
Top-quartile fleets share a specific set of operational habits. None of them are secret — they're just executed consistently.
Frequently Asked Questions
Per the 2026 ATRI report, the industry average is $0.202–$0.404 per mile depending on how you cut the data (R&M line item vs. total maintenance including tires and repair labor). Top-quartile fleets hit $0.12–$0.18 per mile. If you're above $0.25/mile, significant optimization opportunity exists.
The 2026 ATRI benchmark puts annual repair and maintenance at $16,192 per heavy-duty truck. This represents 8.9% of total operating costs. Older vehicles run substantially higher — trucks over 10 years old average 5.5x the per-mile maintenance cost of trucks under 5 years old.
R&M rose 8.6% in 2025 alone. ATRI attributes the acceleration to tariffs on imported parts and on steel, aluminum, and copper used in domestic parts manufacturing. Extended equipment life (avg replacement now 634,000 miles) is also structurally increasing per-mile maintenance spend.
Top-performing fleets run less than 20% reactive maintenance. Industry average is roughly 45% reactive. Bottom quartile is 55%+. Every 10% shift from reactive to planned cuts total maintenance cost 15–20%.
Total annual maintenance spend divided by total fleet miles (fleet size × avg miles per vehicle). Include parts, labor (in-house and outsourced), tires, and consumables. Exclude fuel, driver pay, insurance, and equipment payments — those roll up to total operating cost per mile, not maintenance CPM.
Not in the standard maintenance CPM metric. Downtime is tracked separately, typically at $448–$760 per vehicle per day. But downtime is what maintenance CPM is trying to prevent — track both alongside each other for a complete picture of maintenance program effectiveness.
Track your CPM against ATRI benchmarks in real time
Log every work order, part, and labor hour by vehicle. Auto-calculate CPM per truck, per axle position, per driver. Benchmark against industry standards live. Trend from month to month. Turn CPM from a rear-view report into a management dashboard.
