The stuck in traffic blues

When we are stuck in traffic, it can be a frustrating thing in terms of things being lost. What is lost exactly? Well, it can be just about anything really, including things you would, should, or could be doing like doing something productive, spending time with your family, working, exercising or any number of other things.

As for the impact on freight transportation, specifically trucking, data published this week by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) puts the impact of being stuck in traffic, or more accurately, congestion into stark terms with a single data point: traffic congestion on the U.S. National Highway System (NHS) added over $49.6 billion in operational costs to the trucking industry in 2014.

That is billion with a B, and, yes, this data is from 2014, but it is still recent enough to be sure. And it is a staggering sum that seems destined to rise as time goes on, should national transportation infrastructure efforts continue at their relatively slow pace, as funding is chronically tight as our elected officials fine tune their bickering skills, debating how much money should be spent, on what, and how it should be funded exactly. These are all things we have covered extensively so that part can be picked up in this space again another time.

As for how ATRI came to this $49.6 billion figure, it said it utilized various data sources and a revised methodology that facilitated the expansion of its previous cost of congestion research from the Interstate System to the entire NHS (National Highway System) network.

And that leads to another stark data point: it resulted in a calculated delay totaling more than 728 million hours of lost productivity equaling to 264,500 commercial truck drivers sitting in idle for a working year. Wow. Even when you say it out loud, it seems hard to fathom.

But, wait, there is more to it than just that. ATRI said it also documented the states, metropolitan areas, and counties that were most impacted by these delays and subsequent increased costs in its analysis.

And here is what was learned: “More than a dozen states experienced increased costs of over $1 billion each due to congestion, with Florida and Texas leading with over $4 billion each.  As expected, traffic congestion tended to be most severe in urban areas, with 88 percent of the congestion costs concentrated on only 18 percent of the network mileage, and 95 percent of the total congestion cost occurring in metropolitan areas
The analysis also demonstrates the impact of congestion costs on a per-truck basis, with an average increased cost of $26,625 for trucks that travel 150,000 miles annually.”

That is a lot to chew on. What’s more, it is not like the economy is exactly clicking on all cylinders either. So what do these numbers look like when or if GDP were to be at, say, 3.5 percent or more? It is a scary thought to be sure, but at the same time it is something that merits consideration, too.

So, the next time you are stuck in traffic and see a truck next to you remember that you are not the only one suffering. We are all in this together, and, unfortunately, there is no immediate remedy on the horizon.

Download the Report: Cost of Congestion to the Trucking Industry