ATBS: owner-operator income near record highs — flatbed boom from data-center buildout

Owner-operator income is running near record highs — and the money isn't coming from a freight boom, it's coming from enforcement. In a September 23 presentation of ATBS's mid-year client-data analysis, firm Vice President Mike Hosted reported the average ATBS client gained $7,000 or more on the bottom line for the 12 months ending June 2026 versus the prior 12 months — and for flatbedders, the gains were twice that or more.

"Flatbed's really robust right now," Hosted said, pointing to the massive data-center buildout: "These data centers require an immense amount of flatbed freight. ... It really pushed that market forward." As of June, revenue-per-mile-net-fuel and income-per-mile rivaled post-COVID-era highs across the board. "Fuel's high, but this has been the time you can make the most money per mile," he said, "ever, effectively — even more so with a fuel-efficient truck."

The gains, Hosted said, have been driven by pressure on "illegal capacity" from enforcement: English-proficiency enforcement putting drivers out of service, e-logs with overseas backdoors getting shut out, non-domiciled CDL holders exiting, and the Motus system shutting out fraudulent actors. "While the sun is shining right now, I'd go get after it, save up" while the iron is hot, he advised, while warning: "this isn't probably going to be a long cycle." He expects good conditions through year-end.

ATBS also raised its recommended income benchmark for electing to file taxes as an S corporation: with economy-wide cost inflation, owners should now consider the switch at $90,000 in annual income, up from $80,000.

Why it matters

If you're leased on and your numbers are climbing, you're not imagining it — the enforcement wave is squeezing capacity and rates are following. The playbook from the people who see thousands of owner-op tax returns: bank it while it lasts, run a fuel-efficient truck, and if you're tracking near $90K this year, talk to your accountant about the S-corp election before January.