The driver shortage once again emerged as the trucking industry’s top concern, based on an annual compilation by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).

This is the fifth straight year in which the driver shortage was listed as the industry’s top concerns, garnering four times as many votes as the second issue, driver retention.

Driver compensation rounded out the top three, followed by lawsuit abuse reform (up three spots this year), and truck parking.

The diesel technician shortage appeared on the list for the first time in 17 years of conducting the analysis.

About a quarter of respondents were drivers, and they ranked driver compensation and parking availability as their top concern (tied), while delays at customer facilities came in as their second most pressing concern.

“The ATRI list of top industry issues provides a critical snapshot of the challenges impacting our industry at any given moment,” said ATA chairwoman Sherri Garner Brumbaugh, president and CEO of Garner Trucking, “and this year is no exception as supply chain constraints dominate the nation’s headlines. ATRI’s annual analysis not only captures the industry’s sentiment on the criticality of each of these issues but also maps out a course for addressing each through the stakeholder-ranked strategies.”

“It really is no surprise that truck driver-related issues – notably the driver shortage and driver retention – ranked so high on the survey. Coming out of the pandemic, with the increased demand for goods and other pressures on the supply chain, getting and keeping drivers has been a real challenge industrywide,” added ATRI president and COO Rebecca Brewster. “We also see the impacts of the current supply chain crunch in how highly issues like driver compensation, truck parking, infrastructure and driver detention ranked on the list.”