This week’s guest is Alex Leslie, Research Analyst at the American Transportation Research Institute.  Alex is the lead author on ATRI’s latest research publication “Analysis of the Operational Costs of Trucking: 2023 Update”.  ATRI has been publishing these very detailed reports on trucking costs for over 15 years now.  Using detailed polling and data analysis, Alex is able to reveal not only the current average per mile costs, but also changes in the individual cost components, the impact of carrier size on costs and underlying trends in trucking activities.  In our conversation, we discuss the report in detail and really focus on trying to determine where the “floor” is for TL carrier costs.  This is something that all shippers, brokers, and carriers are trying to determine.