ATRI

Traffic congestion on U.S. highways added a record $108.8 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2022, the last full year for which costs are calculated.

Our top trucking correspondent takes his annual look at what federal regulators are now seeking from trucking as well as the potential impact those changes will have on rates and costs.

For the second straight year, concern over the state of the nation’s economy was the highest-ranked industry issue for trucking executives, according to an authoritative survey of industry issues by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).

The trucking industry says new, tougher-than-expected emission standards for heavy-duty trucks recently announced by the Biden Administration have unachievable targets and will carry real consequences for the U.S. supply chain and movement of freight throughout the economy.

ATRI said that this annual analysis, which is now in its 19th year, ranks industry issues overall, as well as provide insights into how critical topics are ranked differently by both motor carriers and professional drivers, while also allowing industry stakeholders to monitor trucking industry issues over time in order to gain a better understanding of which issues are rising, or falling, in criticality.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently pledged the Biden administration’s support for increasing the availability of safe parking options for America’s professional truck drivers through its Trucking Action Plan. That grants funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and increases coordination with state departments of transportation and the trucking industry.

Constraints on capacity and bullish demand send truckload carriers rolling into 2022 with “very robust” market conditions. However, carriers remain concerned about finding drivers, higher equipment costs, tight supplies, and infrastructure delays. Times are good for carriers, but challenges remain.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Phil Byrd. Byrd is well-accomplished in the trucking sector, as a past chairman of the American Trucking Association, the head of the Daseke Leadership Council, and currently the CEO of one of Daseke’s operating companies, Bulldog Hiway Express.

Settle, if possible. Don’t take shortcuts on safety. Obviously, avoid truck accidents involving children by any means. And hope that somehow, some way, sensible tort reform is on its way into American courtrooms. Those are some of the suggestions from the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) new research that confirms that large verdicts against trucking fleets—so-called “nuclear verdicts”—are increasing dramatically, both in number and in size of awards.

Data released this week by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the trucking industry’s not for profit research organization, focused on the continued impacts of COVID-19 business disruptions on the trucking industry. This follows an ATRI release issued last month.

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) and the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association Foundation (OOIDA Foundation) have been inundated with responses in conducting a joint research study to understand the numerous impacts that the Coronavirus pandemic is having on trucking operations. The research focuses heavily on a survey that solicits critical input from truck drivers and motor carrier staff who are encountering COVID-19 impacts such as limited shipper access, changing distribution patterns and traffic-related issues. The survey will close April 8. Results...

The role of trucking during the coronavirus pandemic cannot be overstated, and that really comes to light when looking at data issued by the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) not-for-profit research subsidiary, the American Transportation Research Institute, more commonly known as ATRI.

Research issued by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the research arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) in its most recent “Cost of Congestion” analysis shows that congestion added roughly $74.5 billion in operational costs to the trucking industry in 2016, the most recent year for which data is available.

Data published this week by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) puts the impact of being stuck in traffic, or more accurately, congestion into stark terms with a single data point: traffic congestion on the U.S. National Highway System (NHS) added over $49.6 billion in operational costs to the trucking industry in 2014.

In recently issued CSA research, entitled “Assessing the Impact of Non-Preventable Crashes on CSA Scores the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) took a deep dive into the impact that non-preventable crashes would have on motor carrier CSA Crash Indicator BASIC measures.