Powerful economic system is trucking’s prime concern in 2023: ATRI

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AUSTIN — The sluggish U.S. economic system surpassed file gasoline prices because the trucking business’s prime concern in 2023, in accordance with the American Transportation Analysis Institute.

Inflation, rising rates of interest and excessive diesel costs contributed to the very best per-mile prices on file and exacerbated falling freight demand, making the economic system a top-10 concern for drivers and carriers alike, mentioned ATRI’s annual Crucial Points within the Trucking Trade survey.

Trucking’s most up-to-date earlier No. 1 considerations, gasoline prices and the driving force scarcity, remained among the many business’s prime 5 priorities within the survey. The outcomes have been launched Saturday on the American Trucking Associations’ 2023 Administration Convention & Exhibition.

ATRI’s record “completely and precisely displays the challenges we’ve confronted this 12 months,” Ruan Transportation Administration Techniques President and COO Dan Van Alstine mentioned in a press release.

“Prices have been up and demand was down, all whereas we labored to navigate numerous workforce and regulatory points,” mentioned Van Alstine, who serves as American Trucking Associations chairman. “Fortunately, ATRI’s evaluation doesn’t simply inform us what the problems are, it spells out numerous data-driven methods that the business can pursue to handle them.”

Advocacy for the reform or repeal of laws “that enhance business prices with out offering advantages” was the highest technique respondents advised to ATRI for navigating difficult financial circumstances.

Different proposed methods included quantifying the results of trucking’s elevated operational prices for the provision chain and the broader economic system, in addition to advocating for elevated reshoring and near-shoring of producing to cut back reliance on worldwide provide chains.

Whereas drivers and carriers shared a number of considerations, the survey outcomes underscored the variations in priorities between the 2 teams.

Carriers centered on the economic system, driver scarcity and lawsuit abuse reform, whereas drivers’ consideration was most drawn to their compensation, parking and gasoline costs.

Notably, every group shared considerations about rising applied sciences equivalent to autonomous and electrical vehicles.

Zero-emission autos made the industrywide top-10 record for the primary time this 12 months. 

“Its emergence as a prime business concern will not be a shock given the brand new focus of state and federal companies on very aggressive timelines for transitioning the nation’s car fleet away from inside combustion engines,” ATRI mentioned in its report.

A prohibition on autonomous vehicles, which many drivers view as a menace to take their jobs, have been a part of Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters contract negotiations with ABF Freight this 12 months. The union additionally pushed to ban driverless vehicles in California.

Greater than 4,000 trucking business stakeholders responded to this 12 months’s survey. Of the respondents, about 48% have been provider executives and personnel, 29% have been drivers, and about 23% have been different stakeholders, together with suppliers, driver trainers and legislation enforcement.