Aug 25, 26
What’s the Biggest Problem in Trucking Right Now? It’s Your Turn to Speak Up.
This article is based on reporting originally published by Heavy Duty Trucking, Yahoo Finance, and Truckers News.
This week, we wanted to do something a little different. In our recent articles, we’ve talked about freight rates, fuel costs, tighter capacity, regulations, infrastructure, AI, equipment demand, and plenty of other changes happening across trucking. But there’s a big difference between reading about what the industry should be concerned about and hearing directly from the people dealing with those issues every day. This time, the question isn’t what the latest data says. It’s what you say.
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has officially opened its 2026 Top Industry Issues Survey, giving truck drivers, motor carriers, and other industry professionals a chance to rank the biggest challenges facing trucking right now. This is the 22nd year ATRI has conducted the survey, and the results do more than create another industry ranking. They help show where drivers and carriers agree, where their priorities are different, and which issues are becoming more important from one year to the next.
And there’s certainly no shortage of things to choose from this year. The survey includes issues that truckers deal with every day, including truck parking, fuel prices, driver compensation, detention, insurance costs, broker issues, infrastructure, ELD fraud, driver training, regulations, AI, autonomous trucks, cargo theft, and the economy. Participants choose and rank their top three concerns, along with strategies for addressing them. There’s also an opportunity to identify an issue that isn’t already included on the list.
Last year’s results showed exactly why driver participation matters. The economy ranked as the industry’s overall No. 1 concern, followed by lawsuit abuse reform and insurance cost and availability. But when ATRI looked specifically at professional drivers, the priorities looked different: driver compensation, truck parking, and English language proficiency were their top three concerns. That difference is important because the challenges discussed in boardrooms aren't always the same ones drivers experience behind the wheel.
That’s also why this survey is more than an opportunity to vent. ATRI’s results are used to identify industry priorities and provide information to trucking organizations, advocates, and policymakers trying to understand where attention is needed. If parking is making your job harder, detention is costing you hours, fuel is eating into your margins, or there’s another issue you think the industry isn't paying enough attention to, this is a chance to put it on the record.
The survey only takes a few minutes, and it’s open through October 2, 2026. ATRI plans to release the results on October 18, which means we’ll eventually get to see what drivers, carriers, and the rest of the industry believe should be at the top of trucking’s priority list this year.
Take the 2026 ATRI Top Industry Issues Survey here.
We can talk about market data, rates, fuel, technology, regulations, and everything else affecting trucking, but nobody understands the reality of this industry better than the people working in it every day. If there’s something you believe needs more attention, this is one of those opportunities to actually say it.
The real question now is—
if you could put just one issue at the top of trucking’s priority list for 2026, what would it be?
