Rebecca Brewster of ATRI presented ATRI’s Top Trucking Issues Report in March 2024.

What are the top concerns in the trucking industry today? The economy, truck parking, lawsuit abuse reform, insurance cost and availability, and battery electric vehicles, according to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), a trucking research organization, which recently released its 20th annual Top Industry Issues report that identifies the trucking industry’s leading concerns.

Many of these concerns have a direct impact on the supply chains of food companies. In fact, Rebecca Brewster of ATRI presented last year’s report findings at the 2024 Food Shippers Conference in March.

“Without question, this has been another tough year for the trucking industry,” says Gregg Troian, President of PGT Trucking. “Our costs continued to climb while freight demand struggled. But each year we can count on ATRI’s analysis to not only quantify the issues, but more importantly, what we can collectively do as an industry to address each.”

This year saw the state of the economy and the lack of available truck parking retain the two top spots on ATRI’s overall list, respectively. However, growing concern over the proliferation of nuclear verdicts led to Lawsuit Abuse Reform rising to the third top concern in trucking this year. The largest climb in ranking this year came in insurance cost and availability, which rose 8 spots to be the industry’s number four concern overall. Rounding out the top five this year was driver compensation.

The continued focus on transitioning the nation’s truck fleet to battery electric – and the aggressive timelines and significant cost for doing so – drove battery electric vehicles (BEVs) into the industry’s sixth overall concern, up four spots from last year.

More than 3,700 trucking industry stakeholders participated in this year’s survey, including motor carriers, truck drivers, industry suppliers, driver trainers, and law enforcement among other groups. Over 45% of the survey respondents were motor carrier executives and personnel, while truck drivers represented 31%. Among professional truck driver respondents, these were the top three concerns: truck parking, driver compensation and the economy, while motor carriers ranked the economy, lawsuit abuse reform, and the driver shortage as the top three concerns.

Related Articles:

• A Closer Look at Trucking and Rail/Intermodal Sector Economic Indicators
• Is Consumption Back to Normal?
• Food Shippers Exploring Use of Electric Class 8 Trucks
• Quarterly Freight Data Report: Q3 2023 Review and How It Will Shape Our Thinking in 2024

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