Survey: Pay, hours of service, parking top drivers’ concerns

As it has for the previous two years, the driver shortage tops the overall list of the most recent Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry survey. The issue of hours of service was once again the second-ranked issue in this, the 15th annual survey. However, there are some differences in how drivers rank the issues and how motor carriers responded.

Findings from the survey conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute were made public today at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition in San Diego.

Overall survey results showed the top 10 issues to be:

1. Driver Shortage
2. Hours of Service
3. Driver Compensation
4. Detention/Delay at Customer Facilities
5. Truck Parking
6. Driver Retention
7. ELD Mandate
8. Compliance, Safety, Accountability
9. Transportation Infrastructure/Congestion/Funding
10. The Economy

Commercial drivers and the companies they drive for had considerable differences of opinion between what each saw as the leading concerns. Commercial drivers made up 35.3% of the respondent pool, which totaled 2,119.

Here’s how commercial drivers ranked the issues:

1. Driver Compensation
2. Hours of Service
3. Truck Parking
4. ELD Mandate
5. Detention/Delay at Customer Facilities
6. Speed Limiters
7. Driver Training Standards
8. Driver Distraction
9. Transportation Infrastructure/Congestion/Funding
10. Autonomous Truck Technology

Motor carriers accounted for 51.1% of those who responded to the survey.  This is how they ranked the issues:

1. Driver Shortage
2. Driver Retention
3. Hours of Service
4. Compliance, Safety, Accountability
5. Transportation Infrastructure/Congestion/Funding
6. Detention/Delay at Customer Facilities
7. The Economy
8. ELD Mandate
9. Insurance Cost/Availability
10. Tort Reform

Other industry stakeholders accounted for the remaining 13.7 percent.

Driver compensation appeared on the list of issues for the first time as did detention.

“While 2018 was an incredible year for trucking, we’ve seen some challenges in 2019 and certainly finding and retaining qualified drivers remains at the top of the list for our industry, said Barry Pottle, ATA chairman and president and CEO of Pottle’s Transportation, in a statement that accompanied the survey results. “ATRI’s analysis reveals the interconnectedness of these top issues and provides a roadmap for how motor carriers and professional drivers believe we should move forward as an industry.”

Included in the survey were strategies to deal with each of the top issues. Truckers News will have followup stories on those issues and the suggested strategies.

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David Hollis is the editor of Truckers News and can be reached at [email protected].