Is expensive fuel still a bigger concern for trucking than a lack of available drivers, driver retention or driver compensation? The American Transportation Research Institute wants to know.
ATRI this week rolled out its annual survey on the most pressing problems confronting the trucking industry.
The 2023 Top Industry Issues Survey will be open until Sept. 29, according to ATRI, the research arm of the American Trucking Associations.
The survey results will be revealed in an Oct. 14 presentation at the 2023 ATA Management Conference & Exhibition in Austin, Texas.
Last year’s survey saw a major upset in the rankings of trucking’s chief concerns. After ranking the driver shortage at the top for five straight years, respondents reported high fuel costs were the industry’s biggest problem in 2022.
The annual survey is crucial to the industry’s understanding of the challenges facing the nation’s supply chain, Dan Van Alstine, ATA Chair and Ruan Transportation Management Systems president and COO, said in a statement.
“ATRI’s research provides an opportunity for thousands of trucking industry professionals, from drivers to executives, to weigh in on the most important topics that affect trucking and collectively decide on the best strategies for addressing each,” Van Alstine said.
Because the survey asks respondents to identify their role in the industry, ATRI also puts out separate lists of drivers’ and carriers’ top concerns. In 2022’s survey, drivers picked truck parking as their top concern for the third straight year, while driver issues remained carriers’ biggest concerns.
Ken Duncan, an America’s Road Team Captain who drives for Walmart Transportation, encouraged fellow drivers to fill out the survey in a statement.
“Whether your top issue is truck parking, driver compensation, detention, traffic congestion or something else, it only takes a few minutes to make your voice heard and for us collectively to let the industry know what drivers are most concerned about,” Duncan said.
