Traffic cost trucking industry nearly $50B in 2014, ATRI says

Updated Apr 21, 2016

highway-traffic-jam-on-bridgeTraffic congestion cost the trucking industry an extra $49.6 billion in operating costs in 2014, according to data released this week by the American Transportation Research Institute.

The analysis of the data by ATRI revealed congestion cost an average of $26,625 per truck per 150,000 miles.

ATRI found congestion caused delays totaling more than 738 million hours of lost productivity, which equates to 264,500 truck drivers sitting idle for an entire working year.

Additionally, the research revealed that urban areas accounted for most of the delays as 88 percent of the congestion costs were concentrated on only 18 percent of the network mileage, and 95 percent of the total congestion cost occurred in metropolitan areas.

“Unfortunately we’ve come to expect traffic congestion as a part of our daily lives, but ATRI’s latest analysis illustrates what a significant productivity drain that congestion is on our industry and the economy at large,” said David Congdon, Chief Executive Officer of Old Dominion Freight Line.

The Business Manual for Owner-Operators
Overdrive editors and ATBS present the industry’s best manual for prospective and committed owner-operators. You’ll find exceptional depth on many issues in the 2022 edition of Partners in Business.
Download
Partners in Business Issue Cover