Truck drivers and the folks they drive for have differing views on the most important issues facing the American trucking industry today, according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s annual Top 10 Trucking Industry Issues survey.
And, interestingly, the issue that has dominated most of 2020 — the COVID-19 coronavirus — made neither group’s top 10.
Truckers ranked the top issues as:
- Truck parking
- Driver compensation
- Detention/Delay at customer facilities
- Hours of service
- Driver training standards
- Automated truck standards
- Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
- Driver health and wellness
- Speed limiters
- ELD mandate
Motor carriers responding to ATRI’s survey ranked the top issues as:
- Driver shortage
- Driver retention
- Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
- Insurance cost/availability
- Tort reform
- Economy
- Transportation infrastructure/ congestion/ funding
- Driver distraction
- Detention/Delay at customer facilities
- Hours of service
However, when the responses of the 3,122 respondents were combined, the overall top 10 included:
- Driver shortage
- Driver compensation
- Parking
- Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
- Insurance cost/availability
- Driver retention
- Tort reform
- Economy
- Detention/Delay at customer facilities
- Hours of service
Of those responding, 43.9% were motor carrier personnel, 32.3% were drivers and 23.9% were what ATRI classified as “industry stakeholders.”
The combined survey also tracked issues that ranked just outside the top 10. Those included: driver distraction ranked as the number 11 issue, transportation infrastructure/congestion/funding ranked 12th, the COVID-19 coronavirus ranked 13th.
