Critical Issues in the Trucking Industry

Top Issues
With substantive changes in the federal commercial driver Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulations taking effect in 2013, HOS ranks as this year’s top industry issue.

The last time HOS regulations were the top issue was in 2007 when, on July 24, 2007, the federal Appeals Court vacated the 11th hour driving and 34-hour restart provisions.2 Last year’s top issue, CSA, fell one position to second. The Driver Shortage moved up one position to third place, while the Economy moved down one spot to fourth.

The top ten list is developed through a formula that assigns quantitative values to respondents’ rankings of issues facing the industry. An issue that is ranked most important receives three points, while an issue ranked second receives two points and an issue ranked third receives one point.

Issues that were not ranked by respondents did not receive any points. The total number of points is then summed to generate a prioritized level of industry concern. The issue with the highest level of concern (i.e. most total points) is identified as the top industry issue. An Industry Concern Index (ICI) is presented to illustrate the level of intensity in concern from one issue to the next.

The issue of greatest concern receives an ICI of 100, and then all other issues are indexed to that issue’s level of concern. For example, if an issue receives an ICI of 50, it has half the level of concern (i.e. half as many points) as an issue with an ICI of 100.

In addition to choosing the three most important challenges affecting the industry, respondents are also asked to rank order a list of three strategies designed to address each issue.

Values are assigned to respondents’ rankings for each of the three strategies and an average score is calculated based on all of the rankings to determine the most preferred strategy.