SAN DIEGO. Hours-of-service regulations for truck drivers has repeated as the No. 1 concern in the American Transportation Research Institute’s annual survey of critical issues facing the trucking industry. As usual, ATRI released the survey results in conjunction with the American Trucking Assns. annual meeting. ATRI is a not-for-profit affiliate of ATA.
HOS regulations were No. 1 in the 2013 survey and No. 2 in both the 2011 and 2012 surveys. In fact, HOS has never been lower than No. 5 since ATRI launched the survey in 2005.
Following closely at No. 2 is the driver shortage, which has been in the top 5 since 2010 after not even appearing in the top 10 during the worst year of the recession, 2009.
The Compliance, Safety, Accountability program remains a big concern, but it dropped to No. 3 in 2014 from No. 2 in 2013 and No. 1 in 2012.
Rounding out the top 10 were driver retention; the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate; truck parking; infrastructure/congestion/funding; driver health/wellness; the economy; and driver distraction, which makes the list for the first time.
The results reflect 1,144 responses representing industry stakeholders in both the United States and Canada and including carriers, drivers and suppliers.
