Fuel Prices Climb 17 Spots to No. 1 on Trucking's Issue List

The American Transportation Research Institute released its 22nd annual Top Industry Issues report on 18 October, with the complete results presented at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference and Exhibition in Charlotte. Nearly 3,100 industry stakeholders ranked fuel prices first, a climb of 17 spots from last year. Lawsuit abuse reform landed second, the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program third, and insurance cost and availability fourth. The economy, which held the top spot for three consecutive years, fell to sixth.

Rebecca Brewster, ATRI's president and chief operating officer, said this is the first time fuel prices have ranked as the top concern among the survey's driver respondents. She also said cost per mile excluding fuel now sits at the highest level in the 18 years ATRI has tracked it. Ben Banks of TCW, quoted in ATRI's release, named the trigger plainly: the cost of diesel topped $6.50 per gallon.

Respondents split just over 48% motor carrier executives and personnel, 26% truck drivers, and 26% other freight stakeholders, each ranking three issues from the list.

The transport angle

A diesel spike does not hit every trailer equally, and enclosed sits at the wrong end of that math.

An open ten-car rig divides a fuel bill across ten vehicles. A six-car enclosed trailer divides a similar or larger bill across six, and the box itself is heavier and far less aerodynamic than an open deck. Fuel is a larger share of cost per car on enclosed work before anything else is counted, so a sustained move in diesel shows up in enclosed quotes sooner, and at a bigger percentage, than it does in open quotes. That is the honest version of the pricing gap in enclosed versus open: the gap widens in expensive-fuel years rather than holding steady.

Insurance at fourth is the line item an owner is actually buying. ATRI's respondents flagged availability alongside cost, and availability is the part that matters on a six-figure car. A market where coverage is harder to place is a market where the certificate behind a booking deserves a look rather than an assumption. What to check, and which limits actually apply to a car inside a trailer, is in enclosed shipping insurance.

The driver shortage returning at fifth reads differently for enclosed as well. Enclosed loading is a narrower skill set than open hauling: soft tie-downs, low ground clearance, liftgate operation, and the judgment to refuse a ramp angle. A thin pool of drivers qualified for that work shows up as scheduling friction more than as price, which is why the spread in transit times matters more in a tight year than the headline rate does.

Truck parking is worth noting even though it fell outside the overall top 10. It ranked second among driver respondents, behind fuel. On a multi-day run with a valuable car aboard, where the truck stops overnight is a security question rather than a comfort question, and it is a fair thing to ask about before dispatch.

The most useful signal in the list is what dropped. The economy falling from first to sixth after three years at the top says carriers are no longer mainly worried about whether freight exists. They are worried about what it costs them to move it. Demand weakness suppresses rates. Cost pressure gets passed through. The second of those is what sits in front of the market now.

What to do about it

Southbound snowbird bookings go out over the next several weeks, which puts this report in the middle of the decision. Three questions are worth asking before signing anything on a lane like Greenwich to Palm Beach or Chicago to Naples.

First, ask whether the quoted price includes a fuel surcharge, and whether that surcharge is fixed at booking or floats to the pickup date. In a year where fuel is the industry's top-ranked concern, a floating surcharge is a real exposure and a fixed one is worth paying for.

Second, ask for the cargo certificate of the carrier actually assigned, with the limit and the deductible, before the car is dispatched rather than after. Citadel connects owners with licensed brokers; the carriers in that broker network hold the operating authority and the coverage, and the certificate is the document that proves it.

Third, ask how overnight stops are handled on anything running longer than a single day.

Booking earlier is the cheap hedge against all of it. The rest of the seasonal timing sits in the snowbird transport guide.