The trucking industry has gone through its ups and downs in the 2020s. From a global pandemic with desperate consumers and driver furloughs to supply chain disruptions to a massive infrastructure law and more…

We want the industry to start off the New Year strong, so here are 4 issues we want addressed in 2024:

The Economy

Let’s start with the easy one! This is a macro issue with a lot of moving parts, but the economy needs a lit fuse in 2024. Despite some promising signs, most Americans are not feeling the gains in the current economy.

Perhaps no other industry is as tied into the overall economy as trucking. Everything that gets shipped to stores or direct consumers has likely touched a truck at some point. We want wages high for Americans, so they can spend on more products, which then flows money to the trucking companies and drivers as more freight.

Lack of Parking

We’re optimistic about this one. There are provisions in the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to spend more public dollars on building more and safer parking for tractor-trailers.

Skeptics, however, do have a point when they say that we’ve seen this all before. Parking has been a long-standing issue in the trucking industry, which affects the safety and well-being of drivers who are forced to stop driving at specific times due to Hours of Service Regulations.

Driver “Shortage”

Trucking industry analysts continue to cite a so-called driver shortage. Regardless of whether this is a shortage of labor or a shortage of incentive to drive, we hope this issue will continue to be addressed.

The good news is that it already is seeing progress, with trucking companies increasing wages, offering new benefits, and improving home time to attract more drivers to the market. Accelerating the path to CDLs may also be an avenue to alleviating problems.

Operational Costs

Inflation and rising costs have hit multiple industries, but the diesel costs that skyrocketed in 2023 did a lot of damage to the trucking industry. Fuel costs need to lower, and hopefully new technologies can reduce the need for rising maintenance costs, which squeeze trucking companies and owner-operators.