The average truck in the U.S. trucking industry generates approximately $228,575 in revenue per year, though that figure swings from around $170,000 to over $255,000 depending on where the truck runs, what it hauls, how far it travels, and how old it is. This report compiles average revenue per truck per year data from national driver salary benchmarks, year-over-year trends, and vehicle age by tiers.
Average Revenue per Truck per Year by State: 2026
The table below ranks all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., from highest to lowest average revenue per truck per year.
Washington, New York, and the Pacific Northwest lead the country, driven by tighter driver supply and higher freight demand relative to available capacity. The Southeast and Gulf Coast generally sit at the bottom of the list, where a larger driver pool and lower cost of living hold rates down. The spread between the top and bottom states runs about $88,000 per truck per year, which is larger than most owner-operators expect when they compare notes with a driver two states over.
Average Revenue per Truck per Year: 2020 to 2026
The table below tracks swings between years using spot rate benchmarks from ATBS and DAT Freight & Analytics, indexed to the 2026 national average of $228,575 established above.
* = ATBS directly reported this year-over-year percentage.
** = directly reported by ZipRecruiter
No single source publishes a year-by-year revenue-per-truck series the way ATRI tracks operating costs, so we determined the majority of these figures as a modeled trend line from estimates based on research. For the percentage changes that were directly sourced, the dollar figure it’s applied to is still from a modeled base year, meaning the resulting dollar amount goes without also being independently verified.
The pattern breaks into three phases. Spot market rates and load volumes surged from May 2020 through April 2022, one of the sharpest run-ups ATBS has on record, before falling just as fast once demand cooled. That decline stretched into a three-year freight recession, with spot rates hovering around $1.86 per mile for most of 2023 through 2025 and ATBS reporting an actual 1.3% drop in owner-operator gross revenue in 2025 alone. The recovery that started in late 2025 accelerated into 2026, with rates climbing back toward $2.40 per mile by April, a rebound that lines up closely with the swing shown here.
Average Revenue per Truck per Year by Vehicle Age Tier: 2026
The table below displays revenue-generating capacity by vehicle age tier.
A truck does not earn less per mile as it ages. It earns less overall because it spends more days off the road. ATRI’s 2026 operational cost report backs up that pattern: industry-wide repair and maintenance costs rose 8.6% in 2025 alone, the same year average truck age ticked up to 3.6 years from 3.4, and the typical replacement cycle still sits at 7.3 to 7.5 years. That distinction matters for small fleet owners deciding whether to push an aging truck another year or trade it in, since the lost revenue from downtime often outweighs the savings from delaying a replacement.
Conclusion
Revenue per truck varies more than most owner-operators assume, and no single factor explains the full spread. State, freight sector, route type, and equipment age all move the number independently, which means two trucks can gross $80,000 apart while both running full schedules. The clearest pattern across every table is that consistency pays: trucks running specialized freight, dedicated lanes, or newer equipment continuously out-earn trucks that do not.
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Sources
- Truck Writers Research Study. Author: Truck Writers. Blaine, MN. June 2026.
- ZipRecruiter. “What Is the Average Owner Operator Truck Driver Salary by State.” 2026. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-Owner-Operator-Truck-Driver-Salary-by-State
- American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI). “Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2026 Update.” Washington, DC. 2026. https://truckingresearch.org/about-atri/atri-research/operational-costs-of-trucking/
- AtoB. “Owner Operator Statistics & Data Every Trucker Should Know in 2026.” February 2026. https://www.atob.com/blog/owner-operator-statistics
- CloudTrucks. “How Much Do Owner-Operators Get Paid (Per Mile, Per Week, Per Year).” 2025. https://www.cloudtrucks.com/blog-post/how-much-do-owner-operators-get-paid-per-mile-per-week-per-year
- Scale Funding. “Current Freight Rates.” July 2026. https://getscalefunding.com/resources/current-freight-rates/
- Hora Express. “Flatbed Owner Operator Pay: What You Need to Know in 2025.” March 2026. https://horaexpress.com/flatbed-owner-operator-pay/
- Heavy Duty Journal. “Owner Operator Salary: What Truckers Actually Earn.” December 2025. https://heavydutyjournal.com/how-much-do-owner-operators-make-realistic-income-breakdown/