NASHVILLE – The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has released its 17th annual Top Industry Issues report, identifying concerns of industry leaders, drivers and owner-operators.
Chief among them: A lack of parking for big rigs, driver shortages and fuel prices. However, the list of concerns varied widely from the industry as a whole to the everyday working trucker.
American Trucking Associations Chair Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president and CEO of Garner Trucking, said of the list: “The ATRI list of top industry issues provides a critical snapshot of the challenges impacting our industry at any given moment … this year is no exception as supply chain constraints dominate the nation’s headlines. ATRI’s annual analysis not only captures the industry’s sentiment on the criticality of each of these issues but also maps out a course for addressing each through the stakeholder-ranked strategies.”
For the fifth year in a row, the driver shortage topped the list of industry concerns, garnering more than four times as many first-place votes as the number two issue, driver retention.
Further reflecting the industry’s workforce challenges, driver compensation was ranked third overall. Lawsuit abuse reform rose three spots this year to take the number four spot and the lack of available truck parking rounded out the top five industry concerns.
The diesel technician shortage made the top 10 list for the first time this year, as the 10th ranked most critical issue in the industry.
Nearly 25 percent of the survey respondents were professional truck drivers. Among their top concerns were driver compensation and truck parking, which tied for the number one industry concern. Detention and delay at customer facilities was ranked by drivers as their second most pressing concern among drivers.
More than 2,500 trucking industry stakeholders participated in this year’s survey, including motor carriers, drivers, industry suppliers, driver trainers, law enforcement, and others.
“This year’s large response shows just how serious our industry is about identifying the most critical concerns and more importantly, figuring out how we collectively deal with each issue,” said ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster.
“It really is no surprise that truck driver-related issues – notably the driver shortage and driver retention – ranked so high on the survey. Coming out of the pandemic, with the increased demand for goods and other pressures on the supply chain, getting and keeping drivers has been a real challenge industrywide,” Brewster said. “We also see the impacts of the current supply chain crunch in how highly issues like driver compensation, truck parking, infrastructure and driver detention ranked on the list.”
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I am a former driver, and current TDT coordinator. In my experience, parking space has always been a problem. The DOT is very self-righteous about limiting drivers to their 11 or 14 hour limits, but when a driver tries to get off the road, and there is no place to park, it puts him in a very serious bind. Parking space is sort of like Mark Twain’s take on the weather – everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it.