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Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
MANDATE
O
ver the past year there have been a number
of legislative and regulatory actions which
have directly and indirectly impacted the
trucking industry. In December 2015, Congress
passed the long-awaited Fixing America’s Surface
Transportation (FAST) Act, which directed
attention and resources to a number of the trucking
industry’s top concerns. The FAST Act mandated
reform of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA) Compliance, Safety,
Accountability (CSA) program, allocated $225
billion over five years to the highway program, and
established a pilot program for younger veteran
drivers among other items.
December 2015 also saw the issuance of FMCSA’s
final rule on electronic logging devices (ELDs),
which set a timeline of two years for fleets and
drivers using paper logs to convert to ELDs for
hours-of-service (HOS) tracking. Among its
provisions, the rule grandfathers in existing ELDs
until at least December 2019, and sets provisions to
prevent the harassment of drivers using ELDs.
However, concerns exist over the productivity
impacts the industry may experience from ELDs,
and at least one legal challenge has yet to be settled.
More recently, the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the
Phase 2 final rule on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
and Fuel Efficiency Standards for medium and
heavy-duty engines and vehicles. And, in
late-August, FMCSA and NHTSA issued the
proposed rule on speed limiters for heavy trucks.
Combined, these regulatory actions have many in
the industry concerned about rising vehicle costs,
compliance costs, and impacts to the supply chain.
In addition to a myriad of legislative and regulatory
changes, issues internal to the industry continue to
impact fleet operations. With an aging workforce
and lack of new entrants to fill open positions, the
industry is still challenged by a growing shortage of
commercial drivers and diesel technicians, with no
viable solution in sight for addressing the pervasive
staffing challenges faced by the trucking industry.
Given these, and numerous other issues impacting
the nation’s freight system, the American Trucking
Associations (ATA) and its Federation partners in
the State Trucking Associations (STA) continually
seek opportunities to identify and prioritize the
industry’s most pressing concerns. For the past 12
years, the industry has relied on the American
Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI’s) annual
industry survey to better understand trucking’s
most critical issues as well as to identify preferred
strategies for addressing these issues.
The annual survey, which generated more than
3,200 responses from motor carriers and
commercial drivers this year, identifies the top ten
critical issues facing the North American trucking
industry. The results were released in October at the
American Trucking Associations’ 2016 Management
Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. The ATRI
Top Industry Issues report also includes prioritized
strategies for addressing each issue.
The respondents were predominantly commercial
drivers (64.5%), with motor carriers making up
27.8% of the respondent pool, and other industry
stakeholders accounting for 7.7%. Recognizing that
the top industry issues impact motor carriers and
commercial drivers differently, this year’s report
includes separate “Top Ten” lists specific to
commercial drivers and motor carriers, in addition
to the overall ranking.
The looming implementation date of the federal
mandate on the use of Electronic Logging Devices
(ELDs) topped the list of trucking industry
concerns, with more than 65% of respondents
concerned about productivity impacts the industry
may experience from full deployment of ELDs.
Although it dropped one position from its top
ranking, Hours-of-Service stayed near the top of the
list due to ongoing uncertainty of a final HOS rule.
Ranking third in this year’s survey—Cumulative
Economic Impacts of Trucking Regulations—is new
ELD Mandate
Tops the List of Concerns in ATRI’s
Annual Trucking Industry Survey
By Rebecca M. Brewster, President and COO, American Transportation Research Institute
ELD:
Electronic Logging
Device
HOS:
Hours of Service
ATRI:
American
Transportation
Research Institute