Performing research on the viability of hours of service flexibility for truck operators is one of ATRI’s top research priorities for the year, the group says.The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has identified six research priorities developed from a list or recommended research topics it received at its meeting in Dallas in March.
ATRI plans to examine distracted driving, hours or service flexibility and the impact of trucking regulations as part of its research goals for the year.
ATRI’s 2017 top research priorities are:
- Driven to Distraction: Examining the impact of technology deployment inside the truck which may either exacerbate or reduce truck driver distraction. The research will also look at the role of car driver distraction on trucking industry crash involvement.
- Cumulative Economic Impact of Trucking Regulations: Examining the potential for developing a standardized methodology for conducting regulatory impact analyses (RIA) of trucking industry regulations which can then be applied across agencies and regulations to identify industry costs.
- HOS Flexibility: A Possible Solution to Bottlenecks: Exploring the opportunity for addressing some of the nation’s worst congestion choke points through flexibility in the federal Hours-of-Service rules, which would allow drivers to wait out the most congested periods of the day.
- Impact of E-Commerce on Trucking: Mapping potential impacts of E-Commerce to the trucking industry’s top industry issues.
- Truck Bottleneck Trends: Economic Changes or Infrastructure Improvements: Conducting a deep dive into ATRI’s Annual Truck Bottleneck List to identify specific infrastructure improvements that will positively impact congestion.
- Autonomous Truck Impacts on the Truck Driver: A detailed analysis of how autonomous truck technologies will change the operational environment and driving requirements for commercial drivers.
