The operational impacts across the supply chain from last year’s changes to the hours-of-service rules propelled HOS to No. 1 on the American Transportation Research Institute’s list of the top 10 critical issues facing the North American trucking industry.
The growing driver shortage comes in a close second, replacing FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program as the number two issue. But challenges still exist with CSA, which ranked third overall on the 2014 list.
The HOS concerns center around the 34-hour restart, explained Rebecca Brewster, ATRI president and COO, in a press conference Monday at the ATA Management Conference and Exhibition. She was joined by ATRI board member Mike Card, president of Combined Transport Inc. and a past ATA chairman.
“Hours-of service has always been a big concern; it’s about productivity, about drivers,” said Card. “That 34-hour restart was really such a bad law, it really hurt us. This one actually created unintended consequences, and created more a safety problem. That’s why ATA has been battling to try and change that law.”
Related to the driver shortage, driver retention moved to fourth place from seventh place in 2013 as trucking fleets work to retain their most experienced and qualified drivers.
Finally, industry concern over the timing and specifics of the pending FMCSA Final Rule on electronic logging devices (ELDs) caused this issue to round out the top five industry issues of 2014.
The list:
