Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. Charles Dudley Warner
The same cannot be said about the American Trucking Research Institute's annual assessment of the top issues facing the trucking industry. While the hallmark of the survey is to list the top 10 critical obstacles facing carriers and truckers alike, ATRI goes a step further.
As part of the survey, which was made public in early October, ATRI includes the top three possible solutions for each of the troublesome issues. These are often overlooked in favor of the easily digested rankings.
However, the solutions, which are ranked in order of preference by those taking the survey, offer some insight into how the industry thinks about how to deal with the issues. In some instances, the solutions also reflect work the industry, especially its advocacy groups, is already doing.
Each respondent could rank three strategies, pre-identified by a freight stakeholder collaboration arranged by ATRI, that best address each of their top three issues. The percentage of respondents selecting each strategy as their number one choice generated the strategy ranking, according to ATRI.
Here are the top issues as identified by all participants -- carriers, drivers, and others -- and how respondents reacted to the various possible solutions ATRI presented. Use the comments section below to offer your own possible solutions to any of the issues.
1. The Economy
a) Identify and promote reforming/repealing ineffective and burdensome regulations that increase industry costs without providing benefits. 51.2 percent of respondents believe the best strategy for mitigating the negative impacts of the Economy is to lessen the industry’s regulatory burden. Given the rise in ranking in this year’s survey of concern over Battery Electric Vehicles (from 10 to 6), some of this focus is likely directed at the aggressive timelines for transitioning the nation’s car and truck fleet to zero emission vehicles. Research has estimated costs of over $1 trillion to build out the infrastructure needed to power electric trucks, while the costs of purchasing battery electric trucks to replace Class 8 trucks purchased in 2022 is estimated to be over $116 billion.
b) Push for renewing the 2017 federal income and corporate tax cuts that are set to expire in 2025. Reducing economic pressures through tax relief is the preferred strategy of 30.7 percent of respondents. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) was signed into law by then-President Trump in 2017, and among its provisions was a reduction of the corporate tax rate from 39 to 21 percent. The TCJA is set to expire in 2025 and maintaining those tax rate reductions is largely dependent on the outcome of the November 2024 elections.
c) Advocate for re-shoring and near-shoring of equipment and parts manufacturing to reduce reliance on international supply chains. Just over 10 percent of respondents believe that the best approach for improving economic conditions is to reduce reliance on equipment and parts sourced outside of North America. Originally driven by the significant disruptions to the international supply chain during COVID-19 and later due to geopolitical tensions, there has been increased reliance on the part of manufacturers on sourcing materials within and closer to the U.S., which also reduces or eliminated maritime transportation costs.
2. Truck Parking
a) Advocate for a dedicated federal funding program to increase truck parking capacity at freight-critical locations. A plurality of respondents (35.4%) believe that a dedicated federal funding source is the best strategy for addressing this perennial industry challenge. Trucking industry groups continue to lobby Congress to pass the bipartisan Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act, which would provide $755 million to expand parking capacity across the U.S. A funding source dedicated to truck parking would not force state DOTs to prioritize truck parking over other infrastructure improvements in their applications for federal funds, as is now the case.
b) Encourage local and regional governments to reduce the regulatory burdens limiting the construction and expansion of truck parking facilities. A number of factors at the local and regional level make it challenging for the siting and/or expansion of private-sector parking projects. These include purchasing right-of-way and facility maintenance costs (particularly in major metropolitan areas), noise and lighting abatement regulations, and in some instances, limitations on the number of trucks that can park in an area or complete bans on truck parking. Encouraging the elimination of these regulatory hurdles and potentially identifying new truck parking at the local and regional levels is the preferred strategy of 27.4 percent of respondents.
c) Support state Department of Transportation applications for U.S. DOT grants to expand truck parking. Until Congress establishes a dedicated federal source of funding for truck parking, states will need to apply for parking capacity expansion resources through one of several U.S. DOT infrastructure investment programs. The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Law Enforcement Advisory Board (LEAB) sent letters to the governors and state DOT directors of all 50 states encouraging their applications for federal truck parking resources from programs such as the National Highway Performance Program, the Highway Safety Improvement Program and the National Highway Freight Program. Continued industry support for these state applications for U.S. DOT funding is the preferred strategy of 26.6 percent of respondents.
3. Lawsuit Abuse Reform
a) Promote state-level reform to cap damages paid to plaintiffs in truck-involved crashes. State-level reform to put limits on the amounts that can be awarded to plaintiffs for non-economic damages is the preferred strategy of the majority (64.8%) of respondents. Recent wins in states such as West Virginia demonstrate the fact that state legislators understand the need to limit non-economic damages. However, legislation passed in Wisconsin to do the same was ultimately vetoed by Governor Evers, indicating that the industry’s work at the state-level is far from complete.
b) Advocate for elimination of “phantom” damages. 19.6 percent of respondents believe that the best approach for reducing lawsuit abuse is to eliminate phantom damages. These “damages” represent the delta between medical costs that a defendant is billed for versus the actual medical costs incurred and paid, often resulting in a non-compensatory windfall for the plaintiff and plaintiff’s attorney. Georgia has earned the reputation as the state most in need of judicial reform, in part due to the courts’ allowance of significantly inflated medical bills.
c) Quantify the impact of third-party litigation financing on trial outcomes. 11.3 percent of respondents believe the best approach for addressing lawsuit abuse is to quantify the impact of third-party financing, a practice that is growing in the U.S.Third-party litigation financing is used to provide front-end capital for plaintiffs’ cases to cover items like accident reconstruction, expert witnesses, focus groups and other litigation tools. The financing is typically provided on a contingency basis and is repaid out of a judgement or out-of-court settlement favoring the plaintiff.
4. Insurance Coast/Availabilty
a) Develop a framework for potential upfront insurance premium reductions when drivers and carriers adopt proven safety technologies. The trucking industry expends $14 billion annually in safety improvements, including investments in technology and training. Identifying a way to quantify the value of those investments and secure commensurate reductions in upfront insurance premiums is the preferred strategy of 42.5 percent of respondents.
b) Educate the public on the role of lawsuit abuse in increasing consumer prices and insurance costs. While trucking industry stakeholders understand the nexus between lawsuit abuse and rising insurance rates, the general public is less informed on how large jury verdicts against trucking fleets have an inflationary impact on consumer prices. A campaign to connect those dots for consumers is the preferred strategy of 37.9 percent of respondents.
c) Research trends in carrier safety management practices and their impact on insurance premium costs. 10 percent of respondents believe that the best approach for reducing insurance costs is research to quantify which safety management practices have the greatest impact on insurance premiums. Fleets are increasingly deploying advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and improved driver training to reduce their crash risk. Research has also shown that fleets that belong to state and national trucking associations have better safety records than their peers who have never joined an industry association.That same research proposed potential insurance premium reductions for fleets that are members of industry associations.
5. Driver Compensation
a) Quantify the economic impact of compensating truck drivers for all hours worked, including detention time and congestion delays. 43.4 percent of all respondents believe that quantifying the economic impact of compensating truck drivers for all hours worked is the preferred approach to Driver Compensation. Among truck driver respondents, this strategy received more than twice as many votes as the other strategies and continues to be a write-in strategy among drivers. ATRI’s newest research on detention found that total lost driver productivity attributable to detention in 2023 was 135.9 million hours, underscoring how impactful detention is on drivers’ compensation.
b) Analyze truck driver compensation models and their relationship to driver satisfaction and productivity. The trucking industry relies on a number of different compensation models including per-mile, per-hour, per-load, and percentage of revenue, among others. Understanding how compensation methods relate to driver satisfaction and productivity is the preferred strategy of 30.1 percent of respondents. Drivers routinely list compensation as one of their top metrics for improving their job satisfaction, but it is not the only thing that truck drivers are looking for from their employer. ATRI research found that the smallest fleets (<26 trucks) have lower turnover rates than their larger counterparts whose driver compensation is typically higher than small fleets.
c) Research and prioritize the effectiveness of carrier programs that financially incentivize drivers for retention, safety performance, and fuel economy. ATRI’s latest Operational Costs of Trucking found that fleets are offering average annual bonuses of $1,200+ to drivers for starting, retention, referral, and safety performance bonuses. Safety bonuses were among the highest at $1,831 per driver on average. Studying the efficacy of bonus programs for rewarding drivers is the recommended strategy of 16.9 percent of respondents.
6. Battery Electric Vehicles
a) Quantify the charging infrastructure availability and/or requirements and subsequent supply chain costs of battery electric truck mandates. ATRI research quantified a transition to BEV for long-haul trucking would cost over $1 trillion in electric infrastructure and vehicle purchase costs over 15 years. The vehicle costs alone are estimated to be over $594 billion and in an industry with extremely low margins, those additional costs will be passed on to consumers as higher prices on all goods. Quantifying those supply chain costs is the preferred strategy of 47.3 percent of respondents.
b) Research the impacts of battery-electric vehicles on transportation infrastructure, crash response and first responder safety. 26.7 percent of respondents believe the best approach for addressing BEV concerns is to quantify the impact of these heavier vehicles on roadways, when involved in crashes, and for ensuring first responder safety. Recent crashes demonstrate why this is such a critical piece of understanding what full vehicle electrification means. A Tesla truck crash in California required more than 1 million gallons of water and shut down an interstate for 16 hours, prompting calls from lawmakers to slow the state’s electric vehicle
c) Assess the potential of a Federal Excise Tax (FET) repeal for encouraging fleet investment in newer, more energy-efficient equipment. 14.5 percent of respondents believe that the best approach for addressing Battery Electric Vehicles is to understand how a repeal of the FET would impact both the Federal Highway Trust Fund and the industry’s investment in more fuel-efficient trucks that can leverage advanced safety systems. ATRI’s RAC identified a cost-benefit analysis of the FET as a top research priority for 2024, and that research is underway.
7. Compliance, Safety, Accountability
a) Work with FMCSA to update its carrier prioritization methodology, improve its accuracy, and enhance transparency in CSA. In February 2023, FMCSA published a number of proposed updates and changes to CSA, its Safety Measurement System (SMS). While generally supportive of the proposed changes, the industry did highlight some continued concerns in federal docket comments, and 32.8 percent of respondents believe that the industry should continue to work collaboratively with FMCSA to make improvements to CSA.
b) Encourage FMCSA to review and address enforcement disparities / geographic variations in enforcement between states and local jurisdictions that impact CSA scores, which may unfairly penalize carriers based solely on where they operate. ATRI research in 2014 found that normalizing state enforcement disparities would impact individual carrier safety scores anywhere from a 17.7 point decrease to a 12.2 point increase from the actual scores reported by the SMS. 48 31 percent of respondents believe that accounting for these state enforcement disparities in the CSA methodology is the best approach for improving its evaluation of carrier safety performance.
c) Advocate for FMCSA to speed up the DataQ process by improving internal processes for reviewing Request for Data Reviews (RDRs). 21.2 percent of respondents believe that the best strategy for improving CSA is to ensure that FMCSA processes for reviewing carrier data requests operate as efficiently – and quickly – as possible. This is particularly important for data reviews as part of the Crash Preventability Determination Program (CPDP), where favorable decisions on crash non-preventability remove those crashes from a carrier’s score calculation.
8. Detention/Delay at Customers' Facilities
a) Advocate for guaranteed detention pay after a truck driver is detained for one hour or more at customer facilities. The majority of respondents (63.6%) believe that the best solution for detention is to guarantee driver pay when detained more than one hour. ATRI’s research found that driver detention occurred in 39.3 percent of all stops at customer facilities in 2023. In the refrigerated sector alone, detention occurred in over 56 percent of stops in 2023. Across all sectors, one in ten stops – 9.9 percent – had more than two hours of detention time in 2023.
b) Support legislation to require customer facilities to provide restroom access to drivers. ATRI research found that 39.1 percent of women drivers and 23.1 percent of men truck drivers reported having limited to no access to restroom facilities on a daily basis. Though it seems unthinkable in today’s world that legislation would be required to provide restroom access to workers, such legislation has been needed at the state and federal levels to require restroom access for truck drivers.14 percent of respondents believe that supporting these legislative initiatives is the preferred strategy for mitigating detention impacts.
c) Educate customers on the need to provide safe, onsite truck parking when drivers are detained beyond two hours. Truck driver respondents in ATRI’s latest detention research reported that an average of 50 percent of customer facilities do not allow drivers to park in the facility while waiting to load or unload. This leads to drivers having to park in undesignated or potentially unsafe areas elsewhere, as well as lose additional productivity traveling to and from the customer facility. Outreach to customers on the importance of providing safe, onsite parking for drivers is the preferred strategy of 11.7 percent of respondents.
9. Driver Shortage
a) Examine potential new pathways into truck driving careers for under-represented populations including military veterans, inner city youth, young adults aging out of foster care, and formerly incarcerated individuals, among others. The preferred strategy of 34.1 percent of respondents is to identify new labor pools from which to recruit drivers. This strategy aligns with the top research priority for 2024 identified by ATRI’s RAC to quantify changing driver demographics and explore new career pathways into trucking. Additionally, recently passed legislation will make it easier for military veterans to earn their Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs).
b) Support an industry-funded outreach program to improve the trucking industry’s image. Nearly 34 percent of respondents believe that the best strategy for recruiting more drivers is to improve the industry’s image. Launched earlier this year, ATA’s new image campaign, Nothing Without Trucking, has been well received for communicating the essentiality of the industry. Additionally, the trucking industry is always among the first responders after catastrophic weather events, underscoring that essentiality message.
c) Advocate for expanding interstate CDL eligibility to 18-20-year-old drivers. The Drive Safe Act, signed into law in November 2021, included a new national pilot test allowing up to 3,000 18- to 20-year-olds to operate trucks in interstate freight commerce. However, the FMCSA Safe Driver Apprenticeship Program (SDAP) struggled to generate participation, in part due to highly stringent requirements for participating motor carriers. Earlier this year, FMCSA announced a lessening of those requirements in hopes of generating additional participation and the program is up to 38 approved carriers. 24.6 percent of respondents believe that the industry should continue to advocate for expanded CDL eligibility for younger drivers.
10. Driver Distraction
a) Encourage harsher penalties and more aggressive enforcement of distracted driving laws for all road users. The top strategy among respondents (39.3%) for reducing distracted driving is to utilize more aggressive enforcement and harsher penalties to deter distracted driving. Research has shown that high-visibility enforcement of distracted driving laws can reduce drivers’ use of handheld phones while driving. States are responding to the call for harsher penalties: Tennessee recently enacted a law to increase the penalties for distracted driving, including license suspension for drivers under 18.
b) Advocate for national standards for distracted driving laws for all motorists. The trucking industry has one national standard relating to CDL drivers’ use of a handheld device while driving. However, the same is not true for car drivers who are subject to myriad laws and penalties in all 50 states. Having one national standard for all road users would reduce confusion and is the preferred strategy of 28.6 percent of respondents.
c) Quantify the role of car driver distraction in car-truck crashes. The preferred strategy of 23.3 percent of respondents to address distracted driving is to better understand the role of car driver distraction in car-truck crashes. Car-truck crashes typically have more severe consequences, and because of their size, large trucks have less maneuverability to avoid distracted car drivers.
