The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), a part of the American Trucking Association (ATA), recently posted its 2016 survey of the most critical issues facing the trucking industry. In it, they present a list of 29 topics that “have been identified as the top industry issues for 2016 by industry professionals.” Participants are instructed to choose the three most important topics that are of concern to them as related to their day to day operations in the trucking industry. You can participate here.
The 2015 survey ranked the following as the 10 most critical issues facing the U.S. trucking industry:
- Hours of Service
- CSA
- Driver Shortage
- Driver Retention
- Truck Parking
- Electronic Logging Device Mandate
- Driver Health/Wellness
- Economy
- Infrastructure/Congestion/Funding
- Driver Distraction
There are many other issues that were not listed and I hear drivers voicing their concerns about them often. Those include:
- Lumper practices
- Unreasonable detention
- Mandatory speed limiters
- Autonomous vehicles
- CDL training requirements
I hope you take the survey as I did. I wanted the reseachers to know of my concerns as an owner-operator as they probably differ from those of a big fleet. Remember, 90% of trucking companies in this country have 10 trucks or less so voice your opinion to the ATRI. The opinions of smaller carriers need to be heard and considered before over-reaching regulations are once again attempted.