This year ATRI celebrated its 20^th year of providing award-winning research for the trucking industry. It was a busy year full of research, recognition, and celebration.

ATRI began the year by announcing its 2021 – 2022 Research Advisory Committe (RAC). This diverse cross-section of trucking industry stakeholders, made up of motor carriers, industry suppliers, commercial drivers, shippers, law enforcement, academia and government, is responsible for annually identifying the trucking industry’s top research priorities.

In February, ATRI released its Annual List of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks. ATRI’s bottleneck analysis, which utilized data from 2020, found that while there were COVID-related impacts on traffic across the country as car drivers stayed at home, 2020 was not without severe congestion. Average truck speeds at a fourth of the bottlenecks on ATRI’s list were 45 MPH or less, reflecting both a return to pre-pandemic freight demand throughout the year and the impact of numerous roadway construction projects in 2020.

In March, ATRI released A Practical Analysis of a National VMT Tax System which documented the realities of a national Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Tax. The research explored the technical and administrative requirements of charging every U.S. driver for miles driven as well as examining the costs of operating a VMT tax program on a national level.

The ATRI RAC Annual Meeting was held in May and RAC members identified a slate of top research priorities for 2021. Later in the month the priority topics were presented to the ATRI Board of Directors and subsequently approved. The RAC selected research topics that examine workforce, infrastructure, legal, and operational issues, aligning well with multiple top industry concerns as identified in ATRI’s annual Top Industry Issues Survey. Additionally, given the heightened attention on electric vehicles, two of the top priority studies are examining specific trucking impacts arising from increased deployment of electric trucks.

Although ATRI’s 20^th anniversary celebration lasted throughout the year, a grand reception and dinner celebration to honor ATRI’s 20^th  was held at ATA’s Mid-Year meeting in San Antonio on May 17^th.

A number of state trucking associations celebrated ATRI’s anniversary with articles in their respective state magazines, highlighting ATRI’s value to the industry.

In June, ATRI released a timely truck parking study, Truck Driver Perspectives on Truck Parking Information Systems. This research examined how truck drivers currently use truck parking availability systems, and their perspectives on how truck parking information is distributed.

In July, ATRI’s Senior Vice President Dan Murray was recognized by the Trucking Association Executives Council with the prestigious J.R. “Bob” Halladay Award during its 2021 meeting in Sonoma, CA.

Rounding out this very busy and productive year for ATRI, from August to December, ATRI updated two of its key environmental research resources and released six more reports as follows:

In addition to this extensive list of research published in 2021 and celebrating our 20^th anniversary, ATRI took its research on the road through presentations and exhibits at dozens of industry meetings and conferences throughout the country.

ATRI also spent the year working with FMCSA’s Technology Division, in partnership with consulting firm Noblis, the American Trucking Associations (ATA), ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC), and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) Foundation, to research and educate the industry on safety benefits of driver assistance technologies for trucking stakeholders, and to measure the impact of the outreach campaign in terms of ADAS adoption rates and truck crash reduction.

As the trucking industry’s 501c3 not-for-profit research organization, ATRI’s work on your behalf relies exclusively on charitable contributions. If you believe that ATRI’s research is making a difference for the trucking industry – please consider making a charitable contribution today.

ATRI VP Jeffrey Short will present A Financial Analysis of Toll System Revenue during a poster session to be held Wednesday, January 12 at 10:30 a.m. ET.