Washington, D.C. – The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the trucking industry’s not-for-profit research organization, has commenced research to develop a framework for assessing the impacts of trucking industry regulations. The framework development will initially be focused on Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Hours-of-Service (HOS) and the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Mandate. Industry stakeholders, including motor carriers, truck drivers, and law enforcement, are all encouraged to take the HOS / ELD survey. ATRI’s Research Advisory Committee (RAC), recognizing the need to develop a framework for assessing the costs and benefits of regulations governing the trucking industry, identified this as a top priority in 2026.  In the HOS / ELD survey, respondents will assess the overall HOS rules, the ELD mandate, and nine specific provisions of these two regulations. Respondents will be asked to assess the regulations according to their perceived safety benefit and cost of compliance. In addition, the survey will ask respondents for recommended changes to each of the provisions to improve their safety benefit and lower the cost of compliance, providing a roadmap for policy improvements. As noted, this first phase and data collection is focused on the HOS and ELD regulations, but the emerging benefit-cost framework is intended to be applied to, and evaluate other trucking industry regulations across safety, workforce, and the environment. Interested participants are asked to respond by October 16, 2026. All responses will be kept entirely confidential, and data will only be presented in an aggregated, anonymized format.

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) today released new research identifying the telematics measures and functionalities that have the greatest importance to motor carriers for improving safety, operations and maintenance.

The report, From Telematics Data to Decisions: High-Value Performance Metrics for Trucking Operations, provides the industry with a focused, motor carrier-based assessment and ranking of key performance indicators (KPI) from telematics data that deliver the greatest value. 

The findings determined that the metrics that have the most impact are not always the most widely used. Managing cost-per-mile, for example, received the highest Importance score in the operations category, yet was used by only 73 percent of respondents.  The report’s KPI gap analysis provides fleets and telematics providers with a blueprint for focusing on KPIs that matter most.

For safety-related KPIs, the four most widely adopted metrics were critical events, speeding, risky driving behavior and hard braking. 

“This research identifies the performance metrics that fleets find most valuable, and highlights those that, for some carriers, deserve more consideration,” said Robert Braswell, Executive Director of the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC). “The report gives carriers a practical guide for evaluating what they currently measure versus what they ought to measure to improve safety, maintenance and operations.”

The full report can be found on ATRI’s website here.  

New Jersey is launching a new fee on companies whose workers have Medicaid health coverage instead of being covered by their employers. Other states are considering it, too.

Democratic lawmakers and governors see it as a way to help pay for the joint federal and state insurance program that covers low-income residents as federal policy changes are expected to make the program more expensive for states and may lead to a reduction in the number of people with coverage.

Proponents also say it's about fairness because employers benefit from having some lower-income workers with taxpayer-funded health coverage.

Business groups object.

READ MORE

https://abcnews.com/Health/wireStory/new-jersey-set-charge-companies-workers-medicaid-states-134399172

ATA's Intermodal Carriers Conference reported that yesterday, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the World Shipping Council’s challenge of the FMC’s Detention and Demurrage Billing Rule. As we had expected based on oral arguments, the judges found the provision of the rule detailing which parties can be billed for these charges to be arbitrary and capricious. The Court found that “the Commission failed to explain the seeming inconsistency between its contractual-privity-based rationale and its categorical bar against billing motor carriers even when in privity with the billing party.” 

While the Court allowed most of the rule to stand, it struck down the rule’s provision defining a properly issued invoice which permits the invoice to be issued solely to “(1) The person for whose account the billing party provided ocean transportation or storage of cargo and who contracted with the billing party for the ocean transportation or storage of cargo or (2) the consignee. “ While the challenge was based on the issue of whether charges assessed in carrier haulage could be billed to motor carriers, this provision of the rule makes no distinction. As a result it would seem that there are no limitations on who can be billed for both carrier and merchant haulage charges. 

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act requires that the FMC address the issue of who can be billed for these charges and the Commission should revisit this issue in the future. The Court’s decision, however, would seem to permit ocean carriers to once again bill motor carriers for all detention and demurrage charges regardless of whether they are carrier or merchant haulage.  

CLICK HERE for a copy of the ruling.