As the trucking industry faces a myriad of challenges, the newly released “Alabama’s Top Industry Issues Report 2024” sheds light on the most pressing issues affecting local truckers and outlines actionable strategies for improvement. Issues and strategies are listed in order as ranked by Alabama-based respondents to the American Trucking Research Institute’s Industry’s Top Concerns Survey, which released its results were last month at the American Trucking Associations’s MC&E in Nashville.

The report identifies ten critical areas of concern, including lawsuit abuse reform, economic regulation, insurance costs, and driver retention, all of which significantly impact the efficiency and sustainability of Alabama’s trucking industry.

Alabama’s top concerns focus on several key issues, including the survey’s top issue result: reforming Lawsuit Abuse to protect truckers. Following that were eliminating ineffective economic regulations, and addressing rising insurance costs through public education. Additionally, local governments are encouraged to facilitate truck parking construction, while strategies to improve driver retention and attract new talent are highlighted. Stakeholders are urged to advocate for federal policies to stabilize fuel prices and secure funding for transportation infrastructure, alongside pushing for guaranteed detention pay to enhance driver satisfaction.

1. Lawsuit Abuse Reform

• Promote state-level reform to cap damages paid to plaintiffs in truck-involved crashes. • Advocate for elimination of “phantom” medical damages.
• Quantify the impact of third-party litigation funding on trial outcomes.

2. Economy

• Identify and promote reforming/repealing ineffective and burdensome regulations that increase industry costs without providing benefits.
• Push for renewing the 2017 Federal income and corporate tax cuts set to expire in 2025.

3. Insurance Cost / Availability

• Educate the public on the role of lawsuit abuse in increasing consumer prices and insurance costs.
• Develop a framework for potential upfront insurance premium reductions when drivers and carriers adopt proven safety technologies.

4. Truck Parking

• Encourage local and regional governments to reduce the regulatory burdens limiting the construction and expansion of truck parking facilities.
• Support state DOT applications for U.S. DOT grants to expand truck parking. • Advocate for a dedicated federal funding program to increase truck parking capacity at freight-critical locations.

5. Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)

• Advocate for FMCSA to speed up the DataQ process by improving internal processes for reviewing Request for Data Reviews (RDRs).
• Work with FMCSA to update its carrier prioritization methodology, improve accuracy, continuously review and evaluate crash preventability factors, and enhance transparency in CSA.
• Encourage FMCSA to review and address enforcement disparities / geographic variations in enforcement between states and local jurisdictions that impact CSA scores, which may unfairly penalize carriers based solely on where they operate.

6. Driver Retention

• Quantify and promote the retention strategies of carriers that continuously experience low driver turnover.
• Evaluate the impact of truck driver benefits, including health insurance and retirement benefits, on driver retention.
• Research the primary factors behind drivers leaving trucking careers.

7. Driver Shortage

• Advocate for expanding interstate CDL eligibility to 18-20-year-old drivers. • Support an industry-funded outreach program to improve the trucking industry’s image.
• Examine potential new pathways into truck driving careers for under-represented populations including military veterans, inner-city youth, young adults aging out of foster care, and formerly incarcerated individuals, among others.

8. Fuel Prices

• Advocate for federal policies and actions that help stabilize the supply of fuel and minimize price increases.
• Research potential factors that may be affecting fuel availability and pricing volatility. • Quantify the impact of alternative and renewable fuel sources on motor carrier operational costs.

9. Transportation Infrastructure / Congestion / Funding

• Advocate for a new funding program to focus federal resources on truck bottlenecks along major freight corridors.
• Develop national guidance for a potential mileage-based user fee system to ensure that collection costs are minimized, policies are consistent between states, and rates do not discriminate against trucking operations.

10. Detention / Delay at Customer Facilities

• Advocate for guaranteed detention pay after a truck driver is detained for one hour or more at customer facilities.
• Educate customers on providing safe, onsite truck parking when drivers are detained for two hours.