Transport Topics reports, according to research conducted by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), US highway congestion “added $108.8 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2022, up from $94.6 billion in 2021.” The findings are set out in a “Cost of Congestion” study update ATRI released in December.
Hours of congestion actually decreased slightly during the year, but an increase in truck operating expense made vehicle slowdowns more costly by a factor of 15 percent. ATRI compared the level of highway delay to “more than 430,000 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for one work year and an average cost of $7,588 for every registered combination truck.” It also noted that the 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel trucks wasted due to congestion added $32.1 billion to the industry’s costs.