This 12 months’s examine of the highest points dealing with trucking undertaken by the American Transportation Analysis Institute (ATRI) had a primary concern that didn’t even crack the highest 10 within the prior two years: gas costs.
That problem was primary within the responses submitted by drivers and quantity two for carriers, ending within the high slot total.
The carriers’ score is especially notable, as a result of it undercuts the concept that gas surcharges are capable of successfully transfer the price of gas on to the shipper with little affect on the service, or that increased costs and the gas surcharges that include are a optimistic for carriers. The leads to the survey recommend in any other case, at the very least to a point.
Though gas costs didn’t make the record the final two years, ATRI, the analysis arm of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), stated 2026 was the fourth time within the 22 years of its high 10 survey that gas costs have been the primary total concern.
ATRI revealed its high 10 record Sunday on the ATA’s annual Administration Convention & Exhibition assembly in Charlotte.
Not since 2023
Previous to showing once more on the ATRI record of “essential considerations within the trucking trade,” which is what the group calls its annual survey, gas costs have been most lately quantity 3 on the record for drivers in 2023, when diesel at that time had set an all-time file for costs. It was quantity 5 on the record that 12 months for carriers. However the problem was nowhere to be present in 2024 and 2025.
The best common weekly retail diesel value reported by the Power Data Administration in 2022 was $5.341/g on October 24. Whereas the value was down in 2023, it remained above $4/gallon till Could after which climbed again above $5 for many of August into November.
The best EIA weekly stage this 12 months was $6.529 on September 22, which additionally was the best within the knowledge collection’ historical past. The AAA’s each day common gas value hit a file in September as properly.
Finest practices post-Montgomery
The case of Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport II could possibly be seen within the excessive rankings for a number of classes.
For instance, motor service Compliance Security Accountability (CSA) scores have been fourth in 2025 and fifth this 12 months for motor carriers, third total.
One remark made by brokers is that within the post-Montgomery world the place they’re extra prone to be held liable in a crash, what constitutes a greatest follow that in any subsequent litigation they’ll cite as having proved they did sufficient due diligence in hiring a service? For instance, the nuclear verdict in Lipe vs. Lupus Superior concerned a motor service with a Passable score from the Federal Motor Provider Security Administration.
FMCSA officers have stated they don’t view their scores as a scores device.
However that didn’t seem like acknowledged within the ATRI record of methods to cope with CSA scores.
“Compliance Security Accountability – FMCSA’s security measurement system – has been a high 10 problem for 16 of the 17 years since CSA debuted on the record because the #2 total concern in 2010,” the ATRI report stated. “This 12 months, pushed largely by the SCOTUS ruling, CSA is again as much as the trade’s #3 total concern, its highest rating since 2015.”
From left to proper on the ATA MCE assembly, revealing the ATRI high 10:
Rebecca Brewster, outgoing head of ATRI; Ben Banks, president of TCW;
Jason Damon, Convoy Techniques; Gary Johnson, Motive
Whereas the respondents need FMCSA to handle “enforcement disparities” and “geographic variations” in its work, there gave the impression to be little query that the trade believes CSA scores will assist them in a lawsuit.
“Based mostly on the (Montgomery) ruling, brokers will want documented proof that they employed the most secure carriers to keep away from negligent hiring claims, and service CSA scores are one such type of documentation,” the ATRI report on its survey stated.
Whereas the 2 sides of the trucking trade, driver and service, might agree on the affect of gas costs, the divide that reveals up repeatedly on this annual survey by ATRI was current for different points.
For drivers, parking is large; for carriers, not a lot
For instance, truck parking, even after varied efforts to enhance its availability, confirmed up as quantity 2 on the record of drivers. For carriers, it wasn’t even within the high 10.
Lawsuit abuse was quantity two total for the second consecutive 12 months. It was primary for carriers. It didn’t present up within the high 10 for drivers.
The divide between carriers and drivers was evident elsewhere. Driver scarcity was quantity 3 for carriers, and never on the highest 10 record for drivers. Dealer points: quantity 8 for drivers, not on the carriers record. Detention/delay at buyer services was quantity 7 for drivers and didn’t make the highest 10 lower for carriers.
Driver compensation between 2023 and 2026 for drivers was first, second, first and third. It popped up as quantity 9 this 12 months on the carriers’ record, however that’s the first time within the final 4 years it has been within the high 10.
The ATRI survey additionally seeks enter on options to the problems raised by the respondents. On the high of the record for lawsuit reform have been state-level reforms “to cap non-economic and/or punitive damages paid to plaintiffs in truck-involved crashes.”
One other goal technique for preventing lawsuit abuse, in keeping with the survey, could be to push for what are described as “phantom” medical damages.
ATRI described them as payouts which are ordered “by claiming the unique billed whole for medical care moderately than the quantity truly paid for medical care. These inflated prices improve verdict and settlement quantities, and a number of other states – together with Florida and Georgia – have handed laws to rein in plaintiff claims for phantom medical damages.”
Third get together lawsuit funding
One other goal for fixing the difficulty, in keeping with the ATRI respondents, could be preventing third get together litigation funding, the place an outdoor legal professional or group of attorneys supplies upfront funding to energy a lawsuit.
Insurance coverage price/availability was fourth on the general record. Commentary on that introduced up Montgomery as properly.
“The impacts of the SCOTUS ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe are simply now beginning to be realized however one factor is for certain: insurance coverage charges are prone to improve for motor carriers and brokers,” ATRI stated.
The highest suggestion for coping with that problem, in keeping with ATRI, could be to develop a “framework” that would probably lead insurance coverage firms to cut back premiums “when drivers and carriers undertake confirmed security applied sciences.”
Extra articles by John Kingston
English language rule’s feedback convey criticism from Sikh group
FMCSA break up sleeper berth pilot program strikes nearer to launch
Texas decide upholds nuclear verdict towards C.H. Robinson
The put up Pump value is trucking’s #1 concern: ATRI survey appeared first on BigRig.