NOT SURPRISINGLY THE ECONOMY ONCE AGAIN IDENTIFIED AS TRUCKING’S TOP CONCERN

This year’s list includes the Economy, Truck Parking, Lawsuit Abuse Reform, Insurance Cost and Availability, and rising four spots from last year, Battery Electric Vehicles

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization, released its 20th annual Top Industry Issues report that identifies the trucking industry’s leading concerns. This year’s list includes the Economy, Truck Parking, Lawsuit Abuse Reform, Insurance Cost and Availability, and rising four spots from last year, Battery Electric Vehicles.

“Without question, this has been another tough year for the trucking industry,” said Gregg Troian, PGT Trucking President. “Our costs continued to climb while freight demand struggled. But each year we can count on ATRI’s analysis to not only quantify the issues, but more importantly, what we can collectively do as an industry to address each.”

This year saw the state of the Economy and the lack of available Truck Parking retain their #1 and #2 rankings on the overall list, respectively. However, growing concern over the proliferation of nuclear verdicts led to Lawsuit Abuse Reform rising to the #3 spot this year. The largest climb in ranking this year came in Insurance Cost and Availability, which rose 8 spots to be the industry’s #4 concern overall. Rounding out the top five this year was Driver Compensation. 

The continued focus on transitioning the nation’s truck fleet to battery electric – and the aggressive timelines and significant cost for doing so – drove Battery Electric Vehicles into the industry’s 6th overall concern, up four spots from last year. 

Over 45 percent of the survey respondents were motor carrier executives and personnel, while truck drivers represented 31 percent. Among truck driver respondents, Truck Parking, Driver Compensation and the Economy were the top three concerns, while motor carriers ranked the Economy, Lawsuit Abuse Reform, and the Driver Shortage as the top three concerns. The report also includes a ranking of the top concerns of motor carrier enforcement personnel. 

Over 3,700 trucking industry stakeholders participated in this year’s survey, including motor carriers, truck drivers, industry suppliers, driver trainers, and law enforcement among other groups.   

The complete results of the annual survey were released as part of 2024 American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition. The full report can be found at ATRI’s website here. 

 

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