According to a new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the economy tops the list of issues facing the industry.
For the 19th year, the report from ATRI, the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization, compiled its Top Industry Issues report to identify leading concerns in the industry. Also on the list are truck parking, fuel prices, the driver shortage, driver compensation and zero-emission vehicles – an issue popping up for the first time.
“ATRI’s list thoroughly and accurately reflects the challenges we’ve faced this year,” American Trucking Association Chairman Dan Van Alstine, Ruan Transportation Management Systems President and COO said. “Costs were up and demand was down, all while we worked to navigate a number of workforce and regulatory issues. Thankfully, ATRI’s analysis doesn’t just tell us what the issues are, it spells out a number of data-driven strategies that the industry can pursue to address them.”
The report found that challenges like high inflation, rising operating costs and declining freight demand pushed the nation’s economy to the top of the list of concerns. The report also found that the lack of available truck parking reached its highest rank on the concerns list since the organization began compiling it.
The organization noted that the number of aggressive mandates and timelines for the nation’s vehicle fleet to transition to low- or zero-emission vehicles pushed that issue into the top 10 list for the first time. Zero-emission vehicles were ranked 7th as a concern amongst motor carriers who responded to the survey, and 10th overall.
ATRI said nearly half of the survey respondents (47 percent) were motor carrier executives. Their top three concerns were the economy, driver shortages and lawsuit abuse reform. Truck drivers represented less than a third of the respondents (29 percent), and their top concerns were driver compensation, truck parking and fuel prices were the top concerns.