A compiled reference of 58 statistics on what it costs to keep a commercial or government fleet running: the industry benchmark for repair, maintenance and tire cost per mile from 2013 to 2023 and by region, sector and fleet size; the audited maintenance spending and preventive-maintenance compliance of five public fleets, from the 688,443-vehicle federal fleet to a city that completed 20 percent of its preventive maintenance on time; what actually breaks and what it costs when nobody looks; the diesel technician shortfall behind every deferred inspection; and the inspection, repair and recordkeeping duties 49 CFR Part 396 places on every carrier. Fifty-two figures are quoted from the publisher's own report or rule text and verified against the original; six are RapidEye arithmetic that names its inputs.
Key statistics
7 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Fleet maintenance has one widely quoted number and almost no published context around it. This page puts the eleven-year cost series next to the audited compliance record, the breakdown data and the labor supply that determines whether the work happens at all.
Industry-average repair and maintenance cost per mile rose 36.5 percent between 2013 and 2023, from $0.148 to $0.202; tires went $0.041 to $0.046. Together they were 24.8 cents a mile in 2023.
The cost is not uniform: Northeast carriers spent $0.215 per mile on repair and maintenance against the Southwest's $0.182, less-than-truckload carriers $0.224, and fleets with fewer than five trucks spent the most of any size band.
Maintenance is the largest or second largest line in the federal fleet's budget, $1.44 billion in fiscal 2025 after $1.68 billion in fiscal 2024, and GSA raised leased-vehicle rates 12 percent citing a 99 percent rise in maintenance and repair cost since fiscal 2020.
Where preventive maintenance compliance is audited, it is low: 20 percent on time in San Diego against a 90 percent goal, with 68 percent of overdue safety inspections turning up defects when they finally happened.
The binding constraint is labor. San Diego's delays were 88 percent labor and 2 percent parts, 65.5 percent of diesel shops report being understaffed, and the training pipeline fills under half of annual demand.
Tires and brakes lead both the roadside breakdown list and the crash factor list: five systems account for almost 70 percent of unscheduled roadside repairs, and brake problems were present in 29.4 percent of serious large-truck crashes.
49 CFR Part 396 makes this a records requirement as much as a mechanical one: systematic maintenance records for any vehicle held 30 days, a daily driver inspection report covering 11 parts kept three months, and an annual inspection documented on the vehicle.
How we built this report
Every figure was compiled in September 2026 from the publisher's own report, dataset or rule text and verified against the original before publishing. Where a figure exists only in a report behind a registration form, it is listed as unverified rather than restated from trade coverage.
- One benchmark survey for the per-mile spine
The repair, maintenance and tire cost series comes from the two editions of ATRI's operational costs survey that the institute publishes openly as PDFs, each carrying a ten-year table, which together give an unbroken 2013 to 2023 series from one methodology.
- Audited public fleets over vendor benchmarks
Government fleets publish audited maintenance spending and compliance rates; private fleets do not. GSA, the USPS inspector general, GAO, New York City, San Diego and TxDOT supplied every fleet-level cost and compliance figure here.
- Rule text read at the section level
Each cited part of 49 CFR Part 396 was read from the Government Publishing Office's section text for the 2024 edition rather than paraphrased from a compliance vendor's summary.
- Gated figures excluded, not restated
ATRI's 2026 edition sits behind a registration form. Its openly published growth rates are used; the per-mile values that trade outlets restate from it are listed as unverified.
- Overlap with our other fleet pages removed
Roadside enforcement counts, out-of-service rates and civil penalty schedules live on the two pages linked below and are not repeated here.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
Scope caveat: the ATRI series is a survey of respondent fleets and is a marginal cost per mile, not an accounting total; the government figures are each body's own fiscal year and cover mixed fleets that include passenger vehicles and equipment, so they are not comparable to the trucking series or to each other. The crash causation data is from 2001 to 2003 and remains the only national study of its kind. Roadside enforcement counts and penalty amounts are on our out-of-service order cost and DOT roadside inspection statistics pages.
Eleven years of repair, maintenance and tire cost per mile
Industry-average marginal cost per mile, 2013 to 2023, as reported by ATRIThe strip carries eleven years of data, a ten-year change. Repair and maintenance covers parts, labor and roadside service and excludes tires and towing. Tires are parts and labor. Both are marginal costs per mile from the same survey table, so the two lines are directly comparable year over year. Against the same table's total marginal cost, $1.703 per mile in 2014 and $2.270 in 2023, the two lines together moved from 11.9 to 10.9 percent of the all-in cost.
Five public fleets, audited
The only fleets whose maintenance spending and compliance are published; figures are each body's own, in its own fiscal year| Fleet | Size | Maintenance spend | Unit cost or scale | Condition or compliance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. federal fleet (GSA) | 688,443 vehicles | $1,444,126,509 maintenance in FY 2025, of $5,547,577,953 total | $1.28 per truck-mile all-in; 31.0 cents per mile maintenance only (Computed) | Maintenance and repair cost up 99 percent since FY 2020; leased rates raised 12 percent for FY 2026 |
| New York City (DCAS) | 28,768 vehicles, 7,743 heavy-duty | Not published in the management report | Fleet averages 90.0 months old | 87 percent daily in-service rate against a 90 percent target; the target was met on 64 percent of days |
| City of San Diego | About 4,900 vehicles and motorized equipment | $19.3 million repairs against $2.2 million preventive maintenance, FY 2023 | $46 million budgeted for fleet maintenance in FY 2025 | 20 percent of preventive maintenance on time (39 percent with a grace period) against a 90 percent goal; safety inspections 35 percent on time |
| U.S. Postal Service | 141,057 Long Life Vehicles in FY 2019; about 217,000 delivery vehicles in FY 2021 | $706.2 million on Long Life Vehicles in FY 2019; $1.1 billion fleetwide in FY 2014 | $5,007 per Long Life Vehicle per year; $12,548 for the worst 7 percent; $1,307 for a ProMaster van | 308 vehicle maintenance facilities; undistributed mechanic labor ran 11 percent against a 3 percent target in FY 2014 |
| Texas DOT | About 19,800 assets across 29 shops | About $38.7 million on preventive maintenance, FY 2020 to FY 2023 | $3.2 million spent on non-preventive services on vehicles still under warranty, FY 2021 to FY 2023 | 34 percent of requested pre-trip inspection forms could not be produced; 70 percent of forms noting defects had no supervisory review |
Fiscal years differ and none of these figures is a like-for-like benchmark against another. They are useful as the public record of what maintaining a mixed fleet costs and how much of the scheduled work actually happens.
The technician supply gap, from both published estimates
Two organizations count the diesel technician shortfall differently and reach the same conclusionNew diesel technicians the sector needs each year
TechForce Foundation, 2026Annual supply from the training pipeline
TechForce Foundation, 2026Annual shortfall, 52 percent of demand unmet
TechForce Foundation, 2026Total annual hiring need on ATRI's basis, replacement plus growth
ATRI, 2025New technicians graduated or certified in 2023
ATRI, 2025, citing federal education dataShare of diesel shops reporting they were understaffed in 2025
ATRI, 2025Average technician vacancy rate, rising to 24.5 percent at understaffed shops
ATRI, 2025Wages a shop spends training one untrained first-time technician, over 357 hours
ATRI, 2025TechForce compiles federal employment and education data into a demand-versus-supply gap; ATRI surveys shops and builds its need estimate from projected retirements, occupational exits and demand growth. The two are not the same calculation and should not be averaged.
Fleet maintenance cost, by the numbers
All 58 figures, grouped by theme: 52 quoted from the publisher's own report, dataset or rule text and independently verified, plus six RapidEye computations that name their inputs, followed by the numbers that rank for this query and could not be verified.
Rates the sources imply
Six figures below are RapidEye arithmetic on the verified sources that follow: the decade change in per-mile maintenance and tire cost, the implied hourly economics of ATRI's own tables, the federal fleet's maintenance cost per vehicle and per mile, the ratio between an old postal vehicle and a new van, San Diego's reactive-to-preventive spend ratio, and the two competing estimates of the technician shortfall. Each names its inputs, and every input appears as a cited statistic further down this page.
Statistic 1
Repair and maintenance plus tires cost $0.248 per mile in 2023 ($0.202 + $0.046), up from $0.189 in 2013 ($0.148 + $0.041), a 31.2 percent increase over the decade. Against the same table's 2023 total marginal cost of $2.270 per mile, keeping the truck running was 10.9 percent of the all-in cost of operating it.
RapidEye Research, computed from ATRI's 2023 and 2024 operational costs reports, Table 8
Statistic 2
ATRI's own per-hour and per-mile tables imply the average respondent truck moved 40.2 miles per hour of operation in 2023 ($8.13 per hour of repair and maintenance divided by $0.202 per mile), and 39.0 miles per hour on the tire line ($1.85 divided by $0.046). The two tables are the same annual spend divided by two denominators, so the implied speed is a check on ATRI's own conversion rather than an independent finding.
RapidEye Research, computed from ATRI's 2024 operational costs report, Tables 8 and 9
Statistic 3
The federal fleet's fiscal 2025 maintenance bill works out to $2,098 per vehicle ($1,444,126,509 across 688,443 vehicles) and 31.0 cents per mile ($1,444,126,509 across 4,652,458,247 miles). Maintenance alone is 26.0 percent of the fleet's $5,547,577,953 total operating cost, and trucks account for $1,265,319,276, or 87.6 percent, of that maintenance bill.
RapidEye Research, computed from GSA's fiscal 2025 federal fleet report open data set
Statistic 4
A Postal Service Long Life Vehicle cost 3.8 times what a ProMaster van cost to maintain in fiscal 2019 ($5,007 against $1,307). The worst-performing 7 percent absorbed nearly a fifth of the bill: 9,952 vehicles at an average $12,548 is about $124.9 million of the $706.2 million total, 17.7 percent of the spend on 7.1 percent of the fleet.
RapidEye Research, computed from the USPS Office of Inspector General's 2020 delivery vehicle acquisition audit
Statistic 5
San Diego spent 8.8 times as much on repairs as on preventive maintenance in fiscal 2023 ($19.3 million against $2.2 million), while completing 20 percent of preventive maintenance on time against a 90 percent goal. Its own turnaround figures say the work is not the constraint: three calendar days, 36 times the two hours the job takes.
RapidEye Research, computed from the City of San Diego auditor's January 2025 fleet maintenance audit
Statistic 6
The two published estimates of the diesel technician gap agree on direction and differ on size. TechForce puts annual demand at 26,692 against 12,681 of supply, a 14,011 shortfall or 52.5 percent of demand unmet. ATRI's basis, up to 30,500 hires needed against 11,310 program completions in 2023, implies a 19,190 shortfall, 62.9 percent unmet. Trucking's own 57,300 diesel technicians are 20.0 percent of the 286,500 employed nationally in 2024.
RapidEye Research, computed from TechForce Foundation's 2026 supply and demand report and ATRI's 2025 technician shortage report
What this means: The number a fleet manager will quote is the combined 24.8 cents a mile it took to keep a truck in repair and on tires in 2023, up 31 percent in ten years. The number a finance team will quote is the 31 cents a mile the federal government pays for maintenance alone across 688,443 vehicles.
Repair, maintenance and tire cost per mile
According to the American Transportation Research Institute's 2024 operational costs report (truckingresearch.org), industry-average repair and maintenance cost rose from $0.148 per mile in 2013 to $0.202 in 2023 and tires from $0.041 to $0.046, with the same survey putting repair and maintenance at $8.13 per truck-hour in 2023. According to ATRI's 2023 edition (truckingresearch.org), the line item rose 18.2 percent in 2021 and 12.0 percent in 2022; according to the 2024 edition, it then flattened to 3.1 percent in 2023, and the cost is not uniform: Northeast carriers spent $0.215 per mile against the Southwest's $0.182, and less-than-truckload carriers $0.224. According to ATRI's July 2026 announcement of its next edition (truckingresearch.org), repair and maintenance rose another 8.6 percent in 2025 and tires 6.4 percent, the second and fourth largest increases of any line item.
Statistic 7
Industry-average repair and maintenance cost per mile, 2014-2023 (ATRI Table 8): 2014 $0.158, 2015 $0.156, 2016 $0.166, 2017 $0.167, 2018 $0.171, 2019 $0.149, 2020 $0.148, 2021 $0.175, 2022 $0.196, 2023 $0.202.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report, Table 8
Statistic 8
Industry-average tire cost per mile, 2014-2023 (ATRI Table 8): 2014 $0.044, 2015 $0.043, 2016 $0.035, 2017 $0.038, 2018 $0.038, 2019 $0.039, 2020 $0.043, 2021 $0.041, 2022 $0.045, 2023 $0.046.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report, Table 8, with the 2013 value from the 2023 edition
Statistic 9
Per hour, repair and maintenance cost a fleet $8.13 per truck-hour in 2023 and tires $1.85 per hour (up from $6.31 and $1.76 in 2014).
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report, Table 9
Statistic 10
Repair and maintenance rose 12.0 percent in 2022 (after 18.2 percent in 2021), then only 3.1 percent in 2023.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2023 and 2024 operational costs of trucking reports
Statistic 11
Repair and maintenance cost per mile by region in 2023: Northeast $0.215, Midwest $0.206, West $0.201, Southeast $0.190, Southwest $0.182; tires ranged $0.042 (West) to $0.050 (Northeast, Southeast).
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report, Table 13
Statistic 12
LTL carriers spent $0.224 per mile on repair and maintenance in 2023 and $0.043 per mile on tires; fleets with fewer than five trucks spent the most on R&M.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report
Statistic 13
Specialized fleets spend as much as double what truckload fleets spend on tires; specialized fleets with fewer than 26 trucks spent 73 percent more on tires than the industry average in 2022.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2023 and 2024 operational costs of trucking reports
Statistic 14
Tire cost per mile was nearly flat in 2023 at $0.046, up one tenth of a cent (2.2 percent).
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report
Statistic 15
In 2025 costs rose in every major line item of the industry-average cost to operate a truck, and the largest percentage gains were tolls (13.2 percent), repair and maintenance (8.6 percent), driver benefits (6.6 percent) and tires (6.4 percent).
American Transportation Research Institute, press release announcing its 2026 operational costs report, July 2026
Statistic 16
Trucks in ATRI respondent fleets averaged 50,547 miles between unscheduled breakdowns in 2022; tires, brakes, power plants, cranking systems and exhaust were the leading breakdown causes in order of frequency.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2023 operational costs of trucking report
Statistic 17
59 percent of trucking-industry maintenance was done in-house in 2022, 54 percent in 2023; fleets with 26-100 trucks did 51 percent in-house.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2023 and 2024 operational costs of trucking reports
Statistic 18
The biggest contributors to repair and maintenance spend in 2022 were power plants (35.7%), exhaust (14%) and brake systems (5.1%); combined parts and labor expense rose 13 percent Q4 2021 to Q4 2022.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2023 operational costs of trucking report, citing the ATA Technology & Maintenance Council and Decisiv quarterly benchmarking data
Statistic 19
In 2023 shop labor cost rose 4 percent while parts fell 2.2 percent; time-to-start-repair improved to 2.4 days from 2.9; technician efficiency fell from 84 to 80 percent, and to 67 percent in the Northeast.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2024 operational costs of trucking report, citing the ATA Technology & Maintenance Council, Decisiv and a heavy-duty repair industry survey
Statistic 20
76 percent of service shops raised labor rates in 2022; shops with 3-4 technicians raised hourly rates by an average of $11.80 and shops with 40+ technicians by $12.60; 66 percent of shops saw increased parts delays.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2023 operational costs of trucking report, citing a heavy-duty repair industry survey
What this means: Repair and maintenance is the line item that moved most over the decade, and it is the one a fleet controls. Region, sector and fleet size each move it by two to four cents a mile, which is more spread than any efficiency claim a vendor makes for the category.
What government fleets spend, and what their auditors find
According to the U.S. General Services Administration's fiscal 2025 federal fleet report (gsa.gov), the federal government operated 688,443 vehicles at a cost of $5,547,577,953 across 4,652,458,247 miles, with maintenance the second largest cost category at $1,444,126,509, $2.6 million behind lease payments and after peaking at $1,681,357,813 in fiscal 2024; GSA Fleet then raised leased-vehicle rates 12 percent for fiscal 2026, citing a 99 percent rise in maintenance and repair cost since fiscal 2020. According to the City of San Diego's auditor (sandiego.gov), only 20 percent of preventive maintenance services on the city's roughly 4,900 vehicles were completed on time in fiscal 2023 against an industry goal of 90 percent, while 68 percent of the overdue safety inspections sampled turned up defects. According to the Texas Department of Transportation's internal audit division (dot.state.tx.us), 34 percent of requested pre-trip inspection forms could not be produced at all.
Statistic 21
The U.S. federal fleet numbered 688,443 vehicles in FY 2025 (468,846 agency-owned, 215,603 GSA Fleet leased, 3,994 commercially leased), cost $5,547,577,953 to operate and drove 4,652,458,247 miles.
U.S. General Services Administration, fiscal 2025 federal fleet report open data set, Table 1-1
Statistic 22
Maintenance was the second largest federal fleet cost category in FY 2025 at $1,444,126,509, $2.6 million behind GSA lease payments ($1,446,701,606) and ahead of fuel ($983,955,825) and depreciation ($917,491,323); maintenance had been the largest in FY 2024 at its peak of $1,681,357,813.
U.S. General Services Administration, fiscal 2025 federal fleet report open data set, Table 3-2
Statistic 23
Federal fleet cost per mile in FY 2025: trucks $1.28, passenger vehicles $0.96, overall $1.19 (FY 2021: $1.16, $0.79, $1.05).
U.S. General Services Administration, fiscal 2025 federal fleet report open data set, Table 3-3
Statistic 24
Average age of federally owned light trucks is 20.5 years across all agencies, driven by USPS light trucks averaging 24.2 years; civilian-agency light trucks average 6.3 years.
U.S. General Services Administration, fiscal 2025 federal fleet report open data set, Table 2-9
Statistic 25
GSA Fleet raised its leased-vehicle rates 12 percent in aggregate for FY 2026 (effective Oct. 1, 2025) because maintenance and repair costs had risen 99 percent since FY 2020, with FY 2025 M&R tracking 7 percent above FY 2024.
U.S. General Services Administration Fleet, fiscal 2026 rate change and billing briefing deck, June 2025
Statistic 26
GSA Fleet's FY 2026 CONUS lease rates (monthly + per mile, which the agency states includes all maintenance and fuel expenses): standard pickup regular cab $194 + $0.35/mi, cargo van $328 + $0.29/mi, cut-off-cab delivery van $342 + $0.51/mi, multi-stop van truck $413 + $0.67/mi, midsize sedan $421 + $0.21/mi.
U.S. General Services Administration, 2026 continental U.S. fleet rate bulletin and published vehicle rates
Statistic 27
New York City's fleet of 28,768 vehicles had a daily in-service rate of 87 percent in Fiscal 2025 (target 90), met the daily target on only 64 percent of days, and averaged 90.0 months old.
New York City Mayor's Office of Operations with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, vehicle fleets and maintenance chapter
Statistic 28
In San Diego, only 20 percent of preventive maintenance services on the city's ~4,900 vehicles were completed on time in FY 2023 (39 percent with a 10 percent grace period), against a 90 percent industry goal; the NAFA "100 Best Fleets" average actual PM compliance is about 86 percent.
City of San Diego Office of the City Auditor, fleet maintenance performance audit, January 2025
Statistic 29
San Diego spent about $19.3 million on repairs in FY 2023 versus $2.2 million on preventive maintenance, a roughly 9-to-1 ratio.
City of San Diego Office of the City Auditor, fleet maintenance performance audit, January 2025
Statistic 30
68 percent of overdue safety (BIT) inspections sampled found defects such as brake fluid leaks and broken backup alarms; overdue BIT inspections were late by 99 days on average.
City of San Diego Office of the City Auditor, fleet maintenance performance audit, January 2025
Statistic 31
77 percent of San Diego's preventive maintenance services in FY 2023 were delayed, at least 88 percent of those delays were waiting for labor and only 2 percent waiting for parts; average turnaround was 3 calendar days for about 2 hours of actual work, and 58 percent of PM work orders closed in under 24 hours.
City of San Diego Office of the City Auditor, fleet maintenance performance audit, January 2025
Statistic 32
TxDOT's Fleet Operations Division runs 29 shops maintaining about 19,800 assets, and spent about $38.7 million on preventive maintenance over FY 2020-2023; in an audit sample, 34 percent of pre-trip inspection forms could not be produced, 70 percent of forms noting defects had no supervisory review, and 35 percent had no work order.
Texas Department of Transportation Internal Audit Division, audit of fleet preventive maintenance, August 2024
Statistic 33
The Postal Service spent $706.2 million maintaining 141,057 Long Life Vehicles in FY 2019, an average of $5,007 per LLV; 9,952 LLVs (7 percent) cost more than $10,000 each (average $12,548), while a ProMaster van cost $1,307 a year. The expected service life of those vehicles is 24 years and 69 percent of the fleet was then 25 to 32 years old.
U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, audit of its delivery vehicle acquisition strategy, 2020
Statistic 34
At the end of FY 2021 the Postal Service maintained about 217,000 delivery vehicles through 308 Vehicle Maintenance Facilities; in FY 2014 it ran 316 VMFs for 211,264 vehicles and spent $1.1 billion on vehicle maintenance, with mechanics logging 5,558,250 timecard hours but only 4,977,788 hours on work orders (11 percent undistributed labor vs a 3 percent target).
U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, vehicle maintenance facility audits, 2015 and 2023
Statistic 35
None of the 11 Army ground vehicles GAO reviewed met the Army's 90 percent availability goal in FY 2024; mission capable rates fell for 16 of 18 Army and Marine Corps vehicles since FY 2015; Army depot overhauls dropped from 1,278 in FY 2015 to 12 in FY 2024; the two services spent more than $2.3 billion on depot maintenance of ground vehicles in FY 2023.
U.S. Government Accountability Office, September 2025 review of Army and Marine Corps ground vehicle availability
What this means: Government fleets are the only fleets whose maintenance performance is audited and published. What the audits show is that the failure is administrative rather than mechanical: the work takes two hours and the vehicle waits three days, the inspection is 99 days late, the form cannot be found. That is a documentation problem, and it is the one every private fleet has without an auditor to name it.
What actually breaks, and what it costs when nobody looks
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's large truck crash causation study (fmcsa.dot.gov), brake problems were an associated factor for an estimated 41,000 of the 141,000 large trucks in serious crashes over the study period, 29.4 percent, though vehicle factors were the critical reason for only 10 percent of trucks and concentrated in braking capacity, tire or wheel failure and cargo shift. According to the ATA Technology & Maintenance Council's benchmarking survey with FleetNet America (trucking.org), five vehicle systems, tires first among them, accounted for almost 70 percent of unscheduled roadside repairs and the average mechanical roadside repair cost $491 in the first quarter of 2020, 30 percent more than a year earlier. According to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (cvsa.org), 12.8 percent of vehicles inspected during its 2024 brake enforcement week were placed out of service for brake violations.
Statistic 36
Brake problems ("brake failure, out of adjustment, etc.") were an associated factor for an estimated 41,000 of the 141,000 large trucks in serious crashes (29.4 percent), the single most common vehicle factor in the Large Truck Crash Causation Study; brake problems were coded for almost 30 percent of trucks but only 5 percent of passenger vehicles. "Associated factor" means present in the crash, not the cause of it.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, congressionally mandated large truck crash causation study, data 2001-2003
Statistic 37
Vehicle factors were the critical reason for only 10 percent of trucks assigned a critical reason in LTCCS, concentrated in braking capacity, tire or wheel failure and cargo shift.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, congressionally mandated large truck crash causation study, data 2001-2003
Statistic 38
Five vehicle systems, tires first among them, accounted for almost 70 percent of unscheduled roadside repairs; fleets averaged 33,637 miles between breakdowns in Q1 2020, and the average mechanical roadside repair cost $491, 30 percent more than a year earlier.
ATA Technology & Maintenance Council with FleetNet America, first-quarter 2020 vertical benchmarking survey
Statistic 39
Carriers identified for intervention in one or more safety measurement system categories had a crash rate 61 percent higher than carriers not identified, and carriers meeting the agency's high-risk criteria had a crash rate 178 percent higher than the national average.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, revised carrier safety measurement system notice, 88 FR 9744 (Feb. 15, 2023)
Statistic 40
49 CFR 396.7 forbids operating a vehicle "in such a condition as to likely cause an accident or a breakdown"; a vehicle found unsafe on the road may continue only to the nearest place repairs can be made.
49 CFR 396.7 (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
Statistic 41
FMCSA research found about 7 percent of all commercial vehicle tires are under-inflated by 20 psi or more and only about 44 percent are within 5 psi of target; tire-related costs run about 2 cents per mile, roughly $2,500 a year for a 125,000-mile tractor-trailer, and improper inflation adds an estimated $600-$800 a year per combination. The underlying field data is from 2003 and the tire cost per mile has since roughly doubled.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, commercial vehicle tire pressure monitoring performance report, January 2007, via the National Transportation Library
Statistic 42
A typical Class 8 tractor-trailer in long-haul service using an EPA-designated SmartWay trailer (verified aerodynamics plus verified low-rolling-resistance tires) saves about 1,000 gallons of diesel a year; SmartWay Elite trailers about 1,700 gallons; at least 1 percent of the savings must come from the tires.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SmartWay, designated trailer overview fact sheet, 2015
Statistic 43
During CVSA's 2024 Brake Safety Week, 2,149 of 16,725 inspected vehicles (12.8 percent) were placed out of service for brake violations, 1,216 (56.6 percent) of them for failing the 20 percent defective-brakes criterion.
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, 2024 Brake Safety Week results
What this means: Tires and brakes lead both lists: the roadside breakdown list and the crash factor list. Both are visible in a walkaround, and both are what a driver vehicle inspection report is written to catch before the truck leaves the yard.
The technicians, and whether they exist
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov), 289,960 bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists earned a median $61,770 a year in May 2025, with about 24,400 openings projected annually through 2035. According to ATRI's 2025 technician shortage report (truckingresearch.org), 65.5 percent of diesel shops were understaffed in 2025 at an average vacancy rate of 19.3 percent, 61.8 percent of first-time technicians arrive with no formal training, and shops spend an average of 357 hours and $8,211 in wages bringing an untrained hire up to standard. According to the TechForce Foundation (techforce.org), the diesel sector needs 26,692 new entrants a year against a pipeline supplying about 12,681, leaving 52 percent of demand unmet.
Statistic 44
Bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists (SOC 49-3031) numbered 289,960 in May 2025, with a mean hourly wage of $30.92, median hourly $29.70, mean annual $64,320 and median annual $61,770.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national estimates
Statistic 45
BLS projects diesel technician employment to grow 4 percent from 2025 to 2035 (about 11,400 jobs, from 316,000) with about 24,400 openings a year, mostly replacement.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025-35 projections
Statistic 46
65.5 percent of diesel shops were understaffed in 2025 with an average technician vacancy rate of 19.3 percent (24.5 percent at understaffed shops); annual tech turnover averaged 16.5 percent in 2024 (7.8 percent at fully staffed shops vs 18.1 percent at understaffed shops).
American Transportation Research Institute, 2025 report on the shortage of qualified diesel technicians
Statistic 47
61.8 percent of first-time diesel technicians arrive with no formal training; shops spend an average of 357 hours and $8,211 in wages training an untrained hire versus 172 hours and $3,956 for a formally trained one (at $23 average starting pay).
American Transportation Research Institute, 2025 report on the shortage of qualified diesel technicians
Statistic 48
70 percent or more of untrained first-time techs were unqualified in every one of 20 core skill areas; more than 30 percent of formally trained techs were also unqualified in every area.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2025 report on the shortage of qualified diesel technicians
Statistic 49
Trucking employed 57,300 diesel technicians in 2024 (20.0 percent of the 286,500 bus and truck mechanics nationally); BLS projects 9,700 retirements and 15,100 occupational exits a year, so ATRI puts total annual hiring need at up to 30,500 against 11,310 program completions in 2023.
American Transportation Research Institute, 2025 report on the shortage of qualified diesel technicians, compiling federal employment, separations and education data
Statistic 50
The diesel sector needs 26,692 new-entrant technicians a year but the pipeline supplies about 12,681, a 14,011 shortfall (52 percent of demand unmet); diesel program completions rose 5.6 percent to 11,947 in AY 2023-24.
TechForce Foundation, ninth annual technician supply, demand and opportunity report, May 2026
Statistic 51
The diesel technician workforce is 98.3 percent male.
TechForce Foundation, ninth annual technician supply, demand and opportunity report, May 2026
Statistic 52
The producer price index for truck and bus pneumatic tires (PCU32621132621103) rose from 150.3 (2019 annual average) to 192.6 (2025), up 28 percent, with the jump concentrated in 2021-2022 (159.8 to 187.6).
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index, industry series PCU32621132621103, annual averages
What this means: Every deferred inspection on this page ends at the same constraint. San Diego's own audit found 88 percent of its maintenance delays were waiting for labor and 2 percent waiting for parts. A shop that cannot fill one job in five does not skip repairs; it skips the inspections that would have found them.
What federal law requires of a fleet
According to 49 CFR 396.3(a) as published by the Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov), every motor carrier must systematically inspect, repair and maintain all vehicles under its control and keep parts in safe and proper operating condition at all times, with maintenance records required for any vehicle controlled 30 consecutive days and retained a year plus six months after the vehicle leaves. According to 49 CFR 396.11 (govinfo.gov), a driver vehicle inspection report covering 11 specified parts is required at the end of each day's work, listed safety defects must be repaired before the vehicle runs again, and reports are kept three months. According to 49 CFR 396.17 (govinfo.gov), every commercial motor vehicle, including each unit of a combination, must pass an annual inspection with documentation carried on the vehicle.
Statistic 53
Every motor carrier must "systematically inspect, repair, and maintain" every vehicle under its control, keep parts "in safe and proper operating condition at all times", and inspect bus pushout windows and emergency exits at least every 90 days.
49 CFR 396.3(a) (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
Statistic 54
Maintenance records are required for any vehicle controlled for 30 consecutive days, must show "the nature and due date of the various inspection and maintenance operations to be performed", and must be kept for 1 year plus 6 months after the vehicle leaves the carrier.
49 CFR 396.3(b)-(c) (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
Statistic 55
A driver vehicle inspection report is required at the end of each day's work on each vehicle operated, covering 11 items (service brakes, parking brake, steering, lights, tires, horn, wipers, mirrors, coupling devices, wheels and rims, emergency equipment); no report is required when no defect is found; the carrier must repair listed safety defects before the vehicle runs again and keep the report three months.
49 CFR 396.11(a) (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
Statistic 56
Before driving, a driver must be satisfied the vehicle is safe, review the last DVIR, and sign it to acknowledge required repairs were certified.
49 CFR 396.13 (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
Statistic 57
Every CMV, including each unit of a combination, must pass an Appendix A inspection at least once every 12 months with proof on the vehicle; a state inspection meeting Appendix A counts for 12 months from the last day of the inspection month; failing to perform it triggers 49 U.S.C. 521(b) penalties.
49 CFR 396.17 (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
Statistic 58
Anyone inspecting, maintaining or repairing CMV brakes must meet 49 CFR 396.25 brake-inspector qualifications (apprenticeship/training program, a state or provincial certificate, or at least one year of experience), and the carrier must keep evidence of the qualification for as long as the person does brake work plus one year.
49 CFR 396.25 and 396.19(b) (2024 edition), U.S. Government Publishing Office, Code of Federal Regulations, 2024 edition
What this means: The rule text is a records requirement as much as a mechanical one. A carrier that repairs everything and documents nothing fails 396.3(b) and 396.11(4) exactly as squarely as one that skips the repair, which is why the audited fleets above fail on paperwork rather than on wrenches.
The numbers that rank for this query and could not be verified
These figures are widely repeated online. Each was traced as far as the trail went and is listed here so a writer does not re-chase it.
Unverified claim
Vehicle maintenance-flagged carriers have a 65 percent higher crash rate. Traced to a 2014 agency effectiveness test whose page is blocked to automated retrieval. The 2023 Federal Register notice gives verified equivalents (61 percent for carriers identified for intervention, 178 percent for high-risk carriers) and those are what this page states.
Unverified claim
Repair and maintenance cost 21.5 cents per mile in 2025 and tires 5 cents. Restated consistently by three trade outlets from ATRI's 2026 edition, which sits behind a registration form. This page states only the growth rates ATRI published openly (8.6 percent and 6.4 percent).
Unverified claim
Fleets averaged 36,891 miles between breakdowns in 2025. Same gated 2026 edition. The verified figures on this page are 50,547 miles in 2022 from ATRI's own report and 33,637 miles in the first quarter of 2020 from the ATA Technology & Maintenance Council.
Unverified claim
Tires cause 53.5 percent of roadside breakdowns. Circulates on fleet and inspection vendor sites with no source. The traceable statement is that five systems, tires first, account for almost 70 percent of unscheduled roadside repairs.
Unverified claim
Reactive repairs cost three to nine times what preventive maintenance costs. A vendor claim with no primary behind it. The comparable audited figure is San Diego's $19.3 million of repairs against $2.2 million of preventive maintenance in one fiscal year, which is a spending ratio in one city, not a cost multiple for a repair.
Unverified claim
A heavy-duty truck costs $16,192 a year to maintain, and top-quartile fleets run 12 to 18 cents a mile. Both appear on vendor benchmark pages with no citation of any kind. No per-truck annual figure or quartile band is stated here.
Unverified claim
56 percent of trucks have at least one under-inflated tire. Attributed to a 2003 study whose report was not located. The 2007 successor report is verified above and gives 7 percent under-inflated by 20 psi or more and 44 percent within 5 psi of target.
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
What is the average fleet maintenance cost per mile?
For commercial trucking, the benchmark is the American Transportation Research Institute's annual survey: industry-average repair and maintenance cost was $0.202 per mile in 2023, up from $0.148 in 2013, with tires a further $0.046 per mile. Repair and maintenance covers parts, labor and roadside service and excludes tires and towing. ATRI reported that repair and maintenance rose another 8.6 percent in 2025 and tires 6.4 percent. For government fleets, GSA's fiscal 2025 federal fleet report gives an all-in cost per mile of $1.28 for trucks and $0.96 for passenger vehicles, which includes depreciation, fuel and lease as well as maintenance.
How much does maintenance cost per truck per hour?
ATRI's per-hour table puts repair and maintenance at $8.13 per truck-hour in 2023 and tires at $1.85, up from $6.31 and $1.76 in 2014. The per-hour and per-mile tables are the same annual spend divided by two denominators, so reading one against the other (about 40 miles per hour of operation) is a check on ATRI's own conversion rather than an independent finding.
What percentage of preventive maintenance actually gets done on time?
Where it is audited, far less than the target. The City of San Diego's auditor found only 20 percent of preventive maintenance services were completed on time in fiscal 2023, or 39 percent with a 10 percent grace period, against an industry goal of about 90 percent; the same audit cites an average actual compliance of about 86 percent among fleets recognized as North America's best. New York City's fleet met its daily in-service target on 64 percent of days in fiscal 2025.
What causes most fleet breakdowns?
The ATA Technology & Maintenance Council's benchmarking survey with FleetNet America found five vehicle systems, tires first among them, accounted for almost 70 percent of unscheduled roadside repairs, with fleets averaging 33,637 miles between breakdowns in the first quarter of 2020 and an average mechanical roadside repair costing $491. ATRI reported respondent fleets averaging 50,547 miles between breakdowns in 2022, and identified power plants (35.7 percent), exhaust (14 percent) and brake systems (5.1 percent) as the biggest contributors to repair and maintenance spend.
What does 49 CFR Part 396 require a fleet to do?
Under 49 CFR 396.3(a), every motor carrier must systematically inspect, repair and maintain all vehicles under its control and keep parts in safe and proper operating condition at all times. Records are required for any vehicle controlled 30 consecutive days, must show the nature and due date of each inspection and maintenance operation, and are retained one year plus six months after the vehicle leaves. Under 396.11, a driver vehicle inspection report covering 11 listed parts is required at the end of each day's work and kept three months, with listed safety defects repaired before the vehicle runs again. Under 396.17, every commercial motor vehicle, including each unit of a combination, must pass an annual inspection with documentation on the vehicle.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these publishers' own documents, each checked against the original before publishing. Sources are named at the publisher level and shown by root domain.
American Transportation Research InstituteOperational costs of trucking reports, 2023 and 2024 editions, the 2026 edition press release, and the 2025 diesel technician shortage reporttruckingresearch.org
U.S. Government Accountability OfficeSeptember 2025 review of Army and Marine Corps ground vehicle availability and depot maintenancegao.gov
City of New YorkFiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, vehicle fleets and maintenance chapternyc.gov
Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationCongressionally mandated large truck crash causation study report, data 2001-2003fmcsa.dot.gov
U.S. Government Publishing Office49 CFR Part 396 section texts, 2024 edition, and the revised carrier safety measurement system notice at 88 FR 9744govinfo.gov
U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsOccupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025), Occupational Outlook Handbook 2025-35, and Producer Price Index series PCU32621132621103bls.gov
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance2024 Brake Safety Week enforcement resultscvsa.org
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency SmartWayDesignated trailer overview fact sheet, 2015epa.gov