Every year, the American Transportation Research Institute publishes its report on the top 10 critical trucking industry issues. Its most recent report just came out.
Some things in the report did not surprise me. Four of the 10 issues were directly related to drivers, and that makes sense to me.
But I have to admit several things surprised me. The first was that fuel did not appear anywhere on the list. In the past, fuel has regularly been on the list. In ATRI’s An Analysis of the Operational Cost of Trucking: 2024 Update, fuel accounted for $0.553 of a fleet’s average marginal cost of trucking. That is a significant amount even though overall we saw lower diesel prices in 2023. More recently, however, we’ve seen fuel prices rise.
The fact that fuel is not a top fleet concern worries me because anyone who’s been in trucking for any length of time knows how volatile fuel prices can be. NACFE has long been a proponent of focusing on improving fuel economy regardless of the price of diesel fuel. The steps you take to get the most miles out of a gallon of diesel result in savings to your bottom line regardless of the price of fuel. Plus, more miles to a gallon is part of decarbonizing trucking and helps emphasize that there is still a place for diesel in a cleaner trucking future.
See also: Economy continues to be trucking’s top concern going into 2025
The other thing that surprised me was that while battery electric vehicles were on the list, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were not. And for that matter, neither were any of the other alternative powertrain options that are available in what NACFE has dubbed “the messy middle.”
I am not sure why BEVs were the only alternative to show up on the list, especially since they are not the only powertrain option available to fleets.
I do appreciate ATRI surveying fleets about their top concerns because it gives all of us in the trucking industry better insights into fleets’ pain points. Knowing what’s keeping fleet managers awake at night positions us to find ways to mitigate the pain.
To all fleet managers out there, I am happy to have a glass of warm milk with you and talk through the issues you rank as critical, and maybe together we can find solutions and get a good night’s sleep.
