The Big Issues Shaping Trucking's Future

Few people speak as bluntly about trucking's challenges as the leadership of the American Trucking Associations. In one widely covered address, ATA president and CEO Chris Spear laid out where the industry stands on the issues that will define it for years to come.

"We need to be looking way out over the hood of the truck, to see where this industry will be five, 10, and 15 years from now," Spear said.

Why Trucking's Voice Matters

Spear argued that trucking is too big and too important not to be engaged across the political spectrum, and pointed to a set of statistics that illustrate the industry's scale:

• Trucking generated $676.2 billion - about 79.8% of the nation's freight bill.
• Trucks moved 10.42 billion tons of freight, 70.6% of all domestic freight tonnage.
• Commercial trucks paid $41.3 billion in state and federal highway user fees and taxes; the average five-axle tractor-trailer pays more than $5,600 in taxes annually.
• 33.8 million trucks were registered for business purposes, including 3.68 million Class 8 trucks, burning 38.8 billion gallons of diesel and traveling 450.4 billion miles.
• 7.4 million Americans work in trucking-related jobs - one of every 16 U.S. workers - including 3.5 million drivers, of whom about 6% are women and 38.7% are minorities.
• Roughly 91% of motor carriers operate six or fewer trucks, and 97.3% operate fewer than 20.

"There is nothing we do not touch directly or indirectly," Spear said.

The ELD Mandate

On the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, Spear was emphatic. "This is not a wild-eyed proposal; it's been legislated, debated, litigated, and the FMCSA says it remains on track to enforce it," he said. "This is on the books and will be enforced."

His core point: the mandate does not change the rules of the road, only the recordkeeping. "We're just moving from paper recordkeeping to electronic recordkeeping. You still have to follow the same hours-of-service rules and requirements."

On Regulation

Spear framed the industry as comfortable with smart regulation but wary of bad data. "We are not afraid of regulation; we are one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world," he said. "But we want to make sure rules are not based on faulty data or no data. If they are, we'll call them out."

On Autonomous Trucks

He pushed back hard on hype around self-driving trucks. "Everything you read in the media thinks they will happen next year. That's hype; that's bunk," he said. "You will also read that it will replace our entire workforce in five years. That's ridiculous." The near-term reality, he argued, is driver-assist technology - Level 2 and 3 autonomy that benefits the industry while still requiring drivers to navigate city streets and handle pickups and drop-offs.

On the Driver Shortage

Spear signaled the industry is done simply describing the shortage and intends to offer solutions. Among the ideas: redefining apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs to include truck driving - opening access to federal workforce-training grants - and rethinking the 18-to-21 commercial driver's license restriction to allow younger drivers to earn graduated CDLs after an apprenticeship.

"We're losing younger workers to other industries due to that three-year blank," he noted - a reminder that the shortage is, at its root, a pipeline problem the industry must solve itself.