DTL to own 75 Kodiak driverless trucks, pay per mile

The News

DTL Transport, a Fresno, California, carrier with more than 100 trucks, signed a binding agreement to run 75 driverless trucks with Kodiak’s software. DTL will own and operate the trucks and pay Kodiak a fee for every mile the Kodiak Driver drives them.

Deliveries start in 2028. Kodiak calls it the first publicly announced definitive agreement by an interstate trucking company to run driverless trucks in its own fleet. Neither company disclosed the fee or the value of the deal.
The first lanes are I-10 from Dallas to El Paso, and I-20 from Dallas to Atlanta, both routes Kodiak has already tested. More lanes are to follow.

The details

The two lanes let DTL keep a truck moving after a driver would have to stop. Kodiak said the routes give DTL “the opportunity to operate beyond current service hour limitations.”

Federal rules cap a truck driver at 11 hours of driving after 10 hours off duty.
Kodiak’s 2025 investor presentation modeled a driverless truck running 18 hours a day, 275 days a year, for about 225,000 miles. The average US truck ran 85,991 miles in 2025, up 4% on the year.

DTL has hauled freight with Kodiak in California since September, with a safety driver in the cab. The pilot moved perishable goods 225 miles on I-5 and CA-99 between Fresno and Los Angeles under a California DMV testing permit.

DTL has operated for more than 36 years and hauls dry and refrigerated freight for grocers, meat processors and produce customers.
CEO Lucky Dosanjh said the trucks will complement “our experienced, professional workforce” and let DTL “expand capacity.”

Kodiak’s driverless trucks still run off the highway. All 35 at the end of June worked for Atlas Energy Solutions in the Permian Basin, owned by Atlas under the same per-mile model. Kodiak has committed to 100 there by mid-2027.

On highways, Kodiak owns and runs the trucks itself for Charger, Roehl and Werner on three Texas routes, still at pilot stage.
Kodiak plans to take the safety driver out and start driverless highway service by year-end, hauling IKEA goods on I-45 between Dallas and Houston.
“We don’t want to be in the business of running a trucking company,” CEO Don Burnette said.

The fee is priced against the driver. Kodiak’s 2025 deck put the cost of a human driver at $0.97 a mile, ATRI’s 2023 wages and benefits. It modeled savings of 15% to 35% for customers after the fee, and $150,000 to $190,000 a year in fees per truck. These were forecasts; DTL’s rate is not public.

Driver wages and benefits rose to $1.03 a mile in 2025, 44% of the $2.34 it cost to run a truck a mile.
Without fuel, the driver is 55% of the cost.

Aurora’s carrier deals are bigger and not yet binding. Charger Logistics and Hirschbach have each signed nonbinding memorandums for as many as 500 Aurora trucks, with deliveries from 2027.

Aurora had 20+ driverless trucks built and coming into its fleet at its Q3 results. It now expects to pass 200 by the end of February, after aiming for that by year-end.
Aurora still expects more than 1,000 driverless trucks by the end of 2027.

My notes

The carrier now carries the asset. DTL buys the trucks and pays Kodiak only for the miles driven, so an idle truck is DTL’s cost. The case for owning one rests on hours: the truck keeps running after a driver would have to stop.
A 100-truck carrier went first. Burnette said midmarket carriers “move with fast execution speed.” Kodiak’s other highway customers have so far left the trucks on Kodiak’s books.