Why Are Trucking Insurance Costs Rising as Safety Improves?

For businesses operating their own fleets, transportation risk is becoming increasingly expensive to manage.

According to the American Transportation Research Institute‘s (ATRI) 2026 Operational Costs of Trucking study, to which A. Duie Pyle contributed data, commercial auto liability insurance costs have risen for six consecutive years. In 2025, they reached a record $0.106 per mile, a 49% increase since 2019.

At the same time, heavy-duty truck crash rates have declined. The disconnect points to a larger issue for business leaders: rising transportation costs are not being driven by safety performance alone. Changes in litigation, insurance economics and the growing complexity of fleet operations are fundamentally changing the cost of owning transportation assets.

Litigation Is Reshaping Transportation Risk

One of the most significant factors is the continued rise of nuclear verdicts, generally defined as jury awards exceeding $10 million.

The median nuclear verdict against a trucking company reached $51 million in 2024, more than double the 2020 median. Third-party litigation funding is also adding complexity by introducing outside investors that finance lawsuits in exchange for a portion of the settlement.

For businesses operating their own fleets, these trends can increase exposure regardless of how well the fleet itself is performing.

Scale Matters

Fleet size also plays an important role in insurance economics.

ATRI data shows that fleets operating 5 to 25 trucks paid an average of $0.174 per mile for insurance, compared with $0.090 per mile for fleets operating more than 1,000 trucks.

For manufacturers, distributors and retailers, that difference is particularly important. Transportation may be essential to the business, but operating a smaller fleet can mean taking on the insurance economics and risk exposure of a transportation company without the scale of a large carrier.

Looking Beyond the Insurance Premium

Insurance is only one component of transportation risk. Claims management, regulatory compliance, safety technology, driver recruitment and equipment management all contribute to the true cost of fleet ownership.

For business leaders, the question is becoming broader than what it costs to operate a truck. It is whether continuing to own the associated transportation risk makes strategic and financial sense.

Our white paper, The Rising Cost of Transportation Risk, examines the forces reshaping fleet ownership and provides a framework for evaluating the risks your business should continue to own.

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