For the past 15 years, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has been quantifying the trucking industry’s top concerns through an annual survey of industry stakeholders. The 2019 survey generated responses from over 2,000 respondents — motor carriers, professional drivers, industry suppliers and others — all selecting their respective top three concerns and ranking recommended strategies for addressing each.

For the third year in a row, the Driver Shortage held firmly atop the list of industry concerns among all respondents. As the industry struggles to recruit and retain qualified drivers, the latest estimates on the shortage from the American Trucking Associations are that over 60,000 drivers are needed, with a potential shortfall of over 100,000 drivers over the next five years. The driver shortage is particularly acute in the over-the-road (OTR) truckload sector where drivers are often away from home for weeks at a time. 

The Hours-of-Service (HOS) rules ranked a close second to the driver shortage. This is the ninth consecutive year that the HOS rules have ranked as a top-three concern in ATRI’s survey. In August 2018, FMCSA issued an ANPRM on the HOS rules, specifically asking for comments on several HOS provisions, including the 30-minute rest break and the split-sleeper berth provision. In August of last year, FMCSA issued an NPRM proposing changes to the HOS rules based on public comment and available research, and the industry now awaits issuance of the final rule from FMCSA. 

For the first time in the history of this survey, driver compensation has emerged as a top 10 issue, ranking third in 2019. This is likely attributable to the fact that fleets across the country are responding to the driver shortage by significantly increasing driver pay. It also appears that different driver compensation models are expanding, namely salary-plus, per-load and percentage-of-load. While drivers are benefiting from increased pay, there is concern that driver compensation has not kept pace with inflation and that drivers are not compensated adequately for non-driving duties such as detention wait times. 

Another first-time issue on ATRI’s annual survey, Detention/Delay at Customer Facilities ranks fourth overall. The impacts of excessive customer detention are numerous and have a direct nexus to many of the other issues among the top 10 including HOS, driver compensation, Truck Parking and the ELD Mandate. In ATRI’s recent study quantifying detention impacts, drivers reported a 27.4% increase in delays of six or more hours between 2014 and 2018. Delays of six or more hours have cascading impacts on a driver’s ability to comply with the HOS rules, negatively affects their earnings, and can force drivers to park in unauthorized or undesignated parking if they run out of available on-duty hours before reaching a safe parking location.

Truck parking held on to its fifth-place ranking in 2019. The lack of available truck parking creates a dangerous and costly dilemma for truck drivers who are often forced to drive beyond allowable HOS rules or park in undesignated and, in many cases, unsafe locations. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is currently updating the 2015 Jason’s Law Truck Parking Survey Results and Comparative Analysis, and more than 25 states have completed or are currently undertaking truck parking studies. The challenges are well documented and concern with Truck Parking kept the issue at the No. 5 position once again in 2019. 

The remaining issues in the 2019 survey are: #6 driver retention; #7 ELD mandate; #8 CSA; #9 Transportation Infrastructure/Congestion/Funding; #10 Economy.