Trucking industry’s top ten critical concerns in 2025 include economy, AI, and English language proficiency

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) released the annual ranking of the top ten issues of critical concern for the trucking industry.

On November 4, 2025, the ATRI released the Top Industry Issues report for 2025 to identify peak areas of concern for members of the trucking industry.

The list was created based on survey responses from 4,200 participants, including motor carriers, truck drivers, law enforcement personnel, industry suppliers, and driver trainers.

“We’re in the third year of this extended freight recession and the pain is real,” said Andy Owens, A&M Transport President.  “Operating costs climbed to their highest ever at the same time that freight pricing has bottomed out.  ATRI’s annual analysis is so critical for our industry to not only quantify the issues, but more importantly, to understand what we can collectively do as an industry to address each.”

See the ATRI’s top ten critical concerns for the trucking industry list in 2025 below.

1. Economy — This marks the third year in a row that the U.S. economy has topped the list of trucking industry concerns.

“Coming on the heels of two years of reduced freight demand and declining freight rates, the addition of increased – and often changing – tariffs this year has introduced additional strain and uncertainty for the freight industry. From decreases in container volumes to potentially significant increases in the cost of equipment, the industry’s economic challenges do not appear to be abating any time soon,” the ATRI said.

2. Lawsuit Abuse Reform — This is the highest that this concern has ever appeared in the ATRI rankings.

“While the industry has seen some successful legislation at the state-level to address lawsuit abuse, the tactics employed by the plaintiff bar to target the industry also continue to expand, from third-party litigation funding to underwrite plaintiff cases to staged accidents designed to extort large settlements from trucking and insurance companies,” researchers noted.

3. Insurance Cost/Availability — This issue rose in the rankings from #4 in 2024 to the #3 slot on ATRI’s list this year.

“This climb in ranking is not surprising. ATRI’s Operational Costs of Trucking research documented insurance premium cost increases of 36 percent over the past eight years. While there are multiple factors driving these increases, the need for lawsuit abuse reform is inextricably linked to the losses incurred by motor carriers and their insurers as a result of excessive litigation,” ATRI said.

4. Truck Parking — After two years as the #2 concern, truck parking dropped this year to the #4 slot in the ranking.

“This is one top concern however, where despite the economic headwinds facing the trucking industry, there has been some positive news this year. Among states advancing truck parking solutions, Ohio and Pennsylvania both recently announced expansion of truck parking capacity, with 1,400 spots to be added in Ohio and 1,200 in Pennsylvania,” researchers pointed out.

5. Driver Compensation — This issue kept the same spot at #5 on the ATRI list that it held in 2024.

“While the preponderance of votes for Driver Compensation as a top industry concern were entered by drivers, 8.1 percent of motor carriers selected Driver Compensation as one of their top concerns, reflecting the challenge of continuing to increase driver pay against a backdrop of lower freight volumes and declining rates,” said ATRI.

6. Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) — This concern rose in the ranking from #7 in 2024 to #6 this year.

“In November of last year, FMCSA announced a number of changes that it intended to make to CSA in response to industry concerns.43 Those changes include reorganizing several BASICS (which will now be called compliance categories), simplifying the severity weights, and placing a greater focus on more recent violations.44 However, FMCSA has not – as of this writing – announced when those changes will be implemented and as a result, CSA continues to rank high among survey respondents,” said ATRI.

7. English Language Proficiency for Drivers — This topic was added to the annual ranking this year due to the number of write-ins on the 2024 survey.

“…  in April of this year, President Trump issued Executive Order 14286, which required the Secretary of Transportation to rescind the 2016 guidance document titled, “English Language Proficiency Testing and Enforcement Policy. It further required that the Secretary of Transportation – through FMCSA – issue new guidance outlining revised inspection procedures necessary to ensure compliance with the requirements that truck drivers must “read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records,” ATRI researchers said.

8. Diesel Emissions Regulations — This issue debuted at #8 on the overall list, supplanting previous concerns related to zero-emission vehicles, which had ranked as a top ten issue the previous two years.

“A new federal regulation, commonly referred to as the heavy-duty NOx rule, is scheduled to take effect in slightly more than one year, beginning with model year (MY) 2027 trucks.  It is expected to substantially increase the cost of new diesel trucks.This comes on the heels of post-COVID-related impacts that have added more than 20 percent to the average price of new Class 8 trucks.55 The timing and impacts of this regulation on new truck purchases, particularly during a freight recession, makes this a top ranked issue,” ATRI said.

9. Driver Training Standards — This is another new issue making its debut on the overall list in the #9 slot.

“Based on the accompanying write-in comments and strategies ranked by drivers over the years, the majority believe that new entrants are not being trained adequately to prepare them to safely operate large commercial vehicles,” researchers said.

10. Artificial Intelligence in Trucking — Yet another new issue making its debut on the ATRI’s list of top concerns for trucking this year.

“Now more than ever, the trucking industry is immersed in automation, electronic transactions across myriad supply chains, and technology utilization – both in the cab and at freight facilities. The almost infinite data generated by these freight systems makes the labor-constrained trucking industry a logical testbed for AI. The potential productivity and revenue gains from effectively using that data is unquestionable. However, there is concern that greater reliance on AI could lead to elimination of jobs, generating concern among industry employees,” ATRI said.