The American Transportation Research Institute on Monday outlined its 2019 research priorities, which include six planned studies on topics ATRI said are “critical industry issues,” such as truck parking information systems, the impact of large court-ordered verdicts and out-of court settlements against fleets and finding new methods to evaluate fleets’ safety.
The group’s research topic priorities are:
Truck parking information systems. ATRI says it aims to find parking data formats and standards based on driver input. (ATRI will kick-off its data collection for the Truck Parking Information Systems research through a driver survey at the Mid-America Trucking Show this week. Professional drivers attending MATS should stop by ATRI booth #40577 to take part in the study.
Alternatives to mileage-based safety metrics. ATRI says it will, in response to e-commerce and other trends changing trip lengths and route locations, seek new metrics to evaluate industry safety beyond the traditional mileage-based formats, such as rates per million miles traveled.
Large verdicts against fleets: Referring to them as “nuclear verdicts,” ATRI says it will “document and quantify historical trends associated with growing jury awards and out-of-court settlements.”
Safety of under-21 intrastate truckers. ATRI intends to analyze the safety records of 18-20-year-old truck drivers operating in intrastate operations compared to those of experienced interstate drivers.
Tolling. ATRI says it will study “who pays and where does the money go?” by updating its previous infrastructure analyses to focus on tolls. It will compare toll revenue reinvestment in roads and the equity toll formulas for cars and trucks.
Lastly, ATRI says it to update its cost-benefit analyses of safety technologies to include new tech being deployed today.
