A new report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) said traffic congestion on U.S. highways added $94.6 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2021.
The Cost of Congestion study said the costs to the trucking industry was the highest level it has ever recorded. ATRI looked at its own unique truck GPS database to calculate trucking delays on major U.S. roadways from 2017 through 2021, and their impacts. While year-over-year congestion costs decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study found that they rose sharply in 2021.
The study said truckers experienced 1.27 billion hours of lost productivity because of congestion that year. The increase in costs reflects the post-COVID economic recovery where freight demand increased due to record levels of consumer spending. The congestion-related delays equate to more than 460,000 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for one work year. ATRI said the figure in 2021 represents a 27 percent increase over the reports baseline from 2016.
“Over the last several years, our industry has experienced some of the most dramatic increases in operating costs, including fuel, labor and equipment,” Michael Lasko, Vice President of EHS and Quality at Boyle Transportation said. “Imagine how those costs are magnified by sitting still in traffic. We all should keep in mind that those costs are passed down directly to consumers resulting in higher prices for goods and services throughout the economy. Hopefully we can leverage the new infrastructure spending to get our supply chains moving again.”
Additionally, ATRI broke down the date to the state and metropolitan level. The top 10 states experienced costs of more than $3 billion each. California topped the list with $9 billion in costs, followed by Texas ($7.26 billion), and Florida ($7.16 billion). Combined, those 10 states account for more than half of trucking’s congestion costs nationwide, the report found. In New York City, costs approached $5.5 billion annually, the highest amount for a metropolitan area.
Congestion caused the trucking industry to waste more than 6.7 billion gallons of diesel fuel in 2021, resulting in $22.3 billion in additional fuel costs.