Trucking’s top concerns
Motor carriers are nervous about the economy, and truck drivers are concerned about the lack of pay and available parking.
Those were some of the main takeaways from the American Transportation Research Institute’s report on the Top Industry Issues for 2023.
This year, ATRI received more than 4,000 responses from professional drivers, motor carrier executives and other industry stakeholders. About 29% of this year’s respondents were drivers.
“Given the widespread economic challenges, it is imperative that supply chain stakeholders understand the interplay of the various issues confronting the trucking industry,” the group said. “For the past 19 years, the trucking industry has relied on the American Transportation Research Institute’s Top Industry Issues analysis to prioritize the trucking industry’s most critical issues as well as to identify preferred strategies for addressing each issue.”
In 2023, the economy was noted as the top industry concern among all respondents. Rounding out the top three were the lack of available truck parking and fuel prices.
The lack of truck parking has been among the top five concerns in the survey since 2015. Some of the proposed strategies for combating the truck parking crisis include:
- Advocating for a dedicated federal funding program to increase truck parking capacity at freight-critical locations
- Encouraging local and regional governments to reduce the regulatory burdens limiting the construction and expansion of truck parking facilities
- Researching the relationship between truck parking availability and highway safety
There was a difference in opinion when it came to the biggest concerns of drivers versus motor carriers. For drivers, the top three issues were compensation, parking and fuel prices. Motor carriers, on the other hand, prioritized the economy, driver shortage and lawsuit abuse reform as the top three issues in 2023.
Breaking it down even further, owner-operators considered fuel prices, speed limiters and truck parking as the top three issues, while company drivers focused on driver pay, parking and speed limiters.
In addition to tracking the top concerns in the industry, the Arlington, Va.-based research group also tracks the top emerging issues, which it defines as “topics that generate significant industry interest but fall just outside of the top 10 concerns.” The top emerging concerns for 2023 include:
- Driver training standards
- Insurance cost/availability
- Diesel technician shortage LL