On Monday, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) Board of Directors approved its list of top research priorities for the year.
The list, identified by ATRI’s Research Advisory Committee (RAC), was identified and prioritized during the RAC annual meeting in Atlanta on March 14-15. The ATRI Board reviewed and approved the research topics on May 5 during the organization’s mid-year meeting in Florida.
The research will focus on a number of issues, including barriers to entry into trucking, as well as challenges facing truck drivers on the job.
ATRI said one of its top priorities will be identifying and mapping out truck driver needs in comparison to rest stop attributes while developing best practice case studies and utilizing truck driver data to identify strategies for expanding truck parking capacity available at public rest areas.
Additionally, the organization will look into what barriers pose challenges for women truck drivers entering the workforce. Data shows that female truck drivers are less than 10 percent of the truck driver workforce. However, previous research indicates female truck drivers are safer than male truck drivers. Identifying gender issues will allow the industry to take proactive steps to make truck driving more appealing to women, the organization said.
Other research will focus on how Complete Streets, a U.S. Department of Transportation program to make transportation accessible to users in many different modes, will impact freight mobility; how the industry can attract and retain diesel technicians as it faces a critical shortage; and what the cost of driver detention at customer facilities is to the industry, as well as what strategies for minimizing detention.