A new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) found that traffic congestion on the United States National Highway System alone caused the trucking industry to lose nearly $74.5 billion in operational costs in 2016.
Such a high cost means that the figures are also rising annually, as that loss represents a 0.5 percent increase over the previous year. Such costs are accrued in a fraction of the highway system, with 86.7 percent of such congestion confined to 17.2 percent of the system. Generally, this coincides with densely populated urban areas.
Congestion is an issue so severe that it has prompted some industry experts to call it the greatest impacting issue on the U.S. supply chain.
“In the face of growing and pervasive congestion, not only does the trucking industry lose billions annually but ultimately the consumer pays the price through higher prices on the shelf,” Benjamin J. McLean, Ruan Transportation Management Systems CEO, said. “Doing nothing to address the state of our nation’s infrastructure will create a significant impediment to the growth of our economy.”
Texas and Florida are currently the states with the highest congestion losses, at more than $5.5 billion each. The top 10 states experiencing these costly scenarios, however, account for more than half of the nation’s congestion costs.