Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/904267
November 2017 | Overdrive | 25 www.PrestoneCommand.com Since 1927, fl eet owners have trusted Prestone to boost uptime by protecting engines regardless of their heavy-duty demands. For protection against heat, cold, and corrosion, Prestone works! BOOST UPTIME. EVERY TIME. 17-PRES-0375 Prestone Boost Uptime Ad_Overdrive.indd 1 9/8/17 8:55 AM Untitled-54 1 9/11/17 9:39 AM Driver wages for the second straight year topped carriers' cost-per-mile spending in 2016, according to data released last month by the American Transportation Research Institute. The finding reflects continued pressure on driver pay and contin- ued low prices for diesel, which was carriers' highest cost per mile prior to 2015. Carrier costs on the whole climbed 1.5 cents a mile last year, with increases in spending on driver wages and benefits outpacing savings from lower fuel expenditures. That pushed carriers' total cost per mile in 2016 up 1 percent, to $1.592. Spending on driver wages averaged 52.3 cents a mile for the carriers sur- veyed, a 2.4-cent-per-mile increase – 4.8 percent – from 2015. Carriers spent on average 15.5 cents a mile on driver benefits in 2016, also a 2.4- cent increase from the previous year. ATRI predicts costs to rise again in 2017, "with the same driver shortage factors holding firmly in place and a number of indications that average diesel prices will slowly rise," the research firm says. Among other changes from 2015 to 2016: • Expenditures on truck and trailer leasing and purchases climbed 2.5 cents a mile to 25.5 cents. • Repair and maintenance costs rose a penny per mile to 16.6 cents. • Per-mile costs for tolls, permits and insurance premiums all rose a fraction of a penny from 2015. • Spending on fuel fell to 33.6 cents from 2015's 40.3 cents. • Spending on tires fell eight-tenths of a cent to 3.5 cents a mile. ATRI did not say how many carri- ers submitted responses to the survey, but they operate a total of 89,664 power units. – James Jaillet Driver pay pushed carrier costs higher in '16 Carriers' spending on fuel and tires declined on a per-mile basis in 2016, ATRI found.