ATRI Asks Fleets and Drivers: What Does Driver Health Cost Operations?

The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has launched a pair of surveys designed to measure how truck driver health affects fleet operations, putting a long-underdiscussed cost driver on the research agenda for 2025.

One survey goes to commercial drivers directly; the other goes to motor carriers and fleet managers. By collecting responses from both sides of the cab, ATRI says it wants to build a fuller picture of how health issues translate into operational outcomes — from seat time lost to safety exposure on the highway.

Why is driver health a freight-cost question?

Driver health sits at the intersection of two of the industry's most persistent problems: the chronic shortage of qualified drivers and the churn that pushes recruitment and training costs higher every year. Carriers already know, anecdotally, that untreated health conditions push drivers out of the workforce earlier than necessary.

What the industry has lacked is systematic data connecting those conditions to measurable operational metrics. ATRI's research program, which the nonprofit has built its reputation on across topics from parking to operational costs, is designed to close that gap.

For shippers and forwarders, the stakes are practical. A workforce stretched thin by health-related attrition tightens capacity further, and capacity tightness eventually shows up in rates and service reliability on contracted lanes.

What will the surveys ask?

The driver-facing questionnaire asks truckers about their own health conditions, the barriers they face in managing them, and how their wellbeing affects their ability to stay in the job. Long-haul schedules, limited food options on the road, and restricted access to healthcare are the working conditions the research is expected to probe.

The fleet-facing survey asks carriers how driver health shows up in their operations — in absenteeism, turnover, safety events, and the programs companies run to support employee wellbeing. Comparing the two datasets will let ATRI see where driver experience and fleet perception diverge.

Who should respond, and why it matters

ATRI typically releases its findings publicly, and its annual operational-cost research is widely cited across the trucking sector by carriers, regulators, and trade press. Fleets and drivers who participate effectively shape the evidence base that later informs industry policy discussions and carrier wellness programs.

For an industry that moves the overwhelming majority of US domestic freight by tonnage, the condition of its labor force is not a soft issue. It is a capacity issue, a safety issue, and increasingly a competitive one for carriers trying to retain experienced hands.

ATRI is collecting responses now, and carriers and drivers can access the surveys through the institute's channels. If response levels are strong, the resulting data could give fleets the first statistically grounded picture of what driver health actually costs American trucking operations each year — and where intervention pays back fastest.