NASHVILLE, TN – [CORRECTED] The ELD mandate was the top industry issue on trucking fleets' minds last year, according to the American Transportation Research Institute's annual Top 10 list, as reported by ATRI's Rebecca Brewster at a user conference put on by TMW and PeopleNet.

CSA, driver retention and the driver shortage fell out of the top 5 of the industry’s Top 10 issues in 2016, with the ELD mandate moving up from 6 to 1, according to ATRI's research. Speaking at the In.sight User Conference hosted by PeopleNet and TMW Aug. 14, Brewster said it’s the first time CSA has been ranked outside of the top 5 issues.

As reported by surveys of trucking companies and drivers, the top 10 issues were the ELD mandate, hours of service, the cumulative economic impact of trucking regulations, truck parking, the economy, CSA, driver shortage, driver retention, transportation infrastructure/congestion/funding and driver distraction.

The top issues differed for drivers vs. carriers, however, with drivers listing the ELD mandate as the number one issue, while carriers listed the driver shortage as the key concern.

For commercial drivers, the top issues are: ELD mandate, hours of service, truck parking, cumulative impact of truck regulations, economy, CSA, driver retention, sleep apnea rulemaking, FMCSA mission, and driver health/wellness.

For carriers, the list includes driver shortage, ELD mandate, cumulative impact of trucking regulations, economy, hours of service, driver retention, CSA, transportation infrastructure/congestion/funding, federal preemption of state regulation of commerce (F4A) and driver distraction.

Brewster said ATRI is exploring a young driver assessment tool to find a way to identify those young drivers who may have the behavioral characteristics and maturity to drive large trucks.

A recently completed survey of drivers regarding parking found that 36% reported parking in an unauthorized spot at least three to four times week. The average remaining hours of driving time a driver has before looking for a parking spot was about an hour, according to the survey, which comes out to an economic cost of about $4,600 per year for drivers.

Research on congestion found that per year, 996 million hours in productivity were lost due to congestion. That is equivalent to 367,243 drivers sitting idle, Brewster said.

Corrected 8/16/2017, 10:05 a.m. EDT, to correct the name of the American Transportation Research Institute. We apologize for the error.