NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The economy is the No. 1 concern for in the trucking industry, according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) 20th annual Top Industry Issues report.
This year’s list of concerns also includes 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, president of PGT Trucking. “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.”
More than 3,700 trucking industry stakeholders participated in this year’s survey, including motor carriers, truck drivers, industry suppliers, driver trainers, law enforcement and other groups.
For motor carriers, this year saw the state of the economy and the lack of available truck parking retain their No. 1 and No. 2 rankings on the overall list, respectively. However, growing concern over the proliferation of nuclear verdicts led to lawsuit abuse reform rising to the No. 3 spot this year.
The largest climb in ranking this year came in insurance cost and availability, which rose eight spots to be the industry’s No. 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 sixth overall concern, up four spots from last year.
Over 45% of the survey respondents were motor carrier executives and personnel, while truck drivers represented 31%. 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. The report also includes a ranking of the top concerns of motor carrier enforcement personnel.
This year’s report was released Oct. 12 during the American Trucking Associations 2024 Management Conference and Exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee.
To download a full copy of the report, free of charge, click here.
Linda Garner-Bunch has been in publishing for more than 30 years. You name it, Linda has written about it. She has served as an editor for a group of national do-it-yourself publications and has coordinated the real estate section of Arkansas’ only statewide newspaper, in addition to working on a variety of niche publications ranging from bridal magazines to high-school sports previews and everything in between. She is also an experienced photographer and copy editor who enjoys telling the stories of the “Knights of the Highway,” as she calls our nation’s truck drivers.
