Drivers, carriers share only one of their top 5 concerns, new study shows 

Truck drivers and companies share only one of their top 5 concerns according to this year’s Industry Issues study – fuel prices. 

While drivers and companies alike share a mutual concern over fuel prices, of all the top 10 concerns listed for truck drivers and trucking companies for 2022, truck drivers and trucking companies share only four:

Fuel prices – #2 for truckers, #3 for companies. 

Economy – #6 for truckers, #5 for companies 

Detention/Delay at customer facilities – #4 for truckers, #9 for companies 

Truck parking – #1 for truckers, #10 for companies 

The industry concern study released in 2021 revealed similar discrepancies in driver and company concerns with only 4 mutual concerns listed in the top 10 lists for both groups. 

See the 2022 concern rankings for each group below:

2022 Top 10 Concerns for Truck Drivers 

1. Truck parking 
2. Fuel prices
3. Driver compensation
4. Detention/Delay at customer facilities
5. Speed limiters
6. Economy
7. HOS rules
8. ELD mandate
9. Driver training standards
10. Transportation infrastructure/congestion/funding

2022 Top 10 Concerns for Carriers

1. Driver shortage
2. Driver retention
3. Fuel prices
4. CSA
5. Economy
6. Lawsuit abuse reform
7. Insurance cost/availability
8. Diesel technician shortage 
9. Detention/Delay at customer facilities
10. Truck parking 

2022 Top Concerns for Trucking Industry Overall

1. Fuel prices
2. Driver shortage
3. Truck parking 
4. Driver compensation
5. Economy
6. Detention/Delay
7. Driver retention
8. CSA
9. Speed limiters
10. Lawsuit abuse reform 

The study surveyed 4,200 respondents between September 6th and October 7th of this year. Respondents were asked to select their top three choices from a list of 28 critical issues and then rank potential strategies to combat each issue. Write-in responses were accepted for each respondent’s top three issues and strategies. 

The disparity between driver’s and carrier’s top concerns did not go unnoticed by panelists at the American Trucking Associations’ annual Management Conference & Exhibition held on Saturday, October 22nd. 

“I harp on this all the time, if your No. 1 and No. 2 concerns are finding and keeping drivers, then you’d better understand and care about what drivers say their top issues are,” said Rebecca Brewster, president and COO of ATRI, reported Transport Dive. 

“It’s good that truck parking made it on the overall list, but it made me wonder: Are we as trucking leaders out of touch with our drivers? Are we doing everything we need to be?” added Dennis Dellinger, president and CEO of Cargo Transporters Inc.