Traffic congestion drove operational costs for North America’s commercial road transport industry up by more than $49.6 billion (€43.9 billion) in 2014, according to research by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).
According to ATRI, the average cost increase on a per-truck basis was $26,625 (€23,558) for trucks that travel 150,000 miles (ca. 241,400km) annually.
In addition, ATRI said it has created a congestion-cost database “to provide granular cost information to transportation planning officials on the hours of delay and associated cost by major jurisdiction type and road level.”
Heavy Duty Trucking revealed that the total delay calculated by ATRI exceeded 728 million hours of lost productivity, which equates to 264,500 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for a working year.
Congestion reportedly tended to be the most severe in urban areas, with 88 per cent of the congestion costs concentrated on only 18 per cent of the network mileage, and 95 per cent of the total congestion cost occurring in metropolitan areas.