Measuring the Impacts of COVID-19 on the Trucking Industry: A Spatial and Econometric Framework to Capture the Impacts of the Hours-of-Service Emergency Declaration and Congestion Effects on Truck Driver Safety

Abstract

This project quantitatively studied the significant effects of the Coronavirus 2019 pandemic on truck drivers and the trucking industry. A stated-preference survey distributed to truck drivers collected data regarding changes in the demographic, socioeconomic, business, temporal, management, and truck configuration characteristics of the trucking industry. A total of 47 paired variables were generated from the driver survey responses. Their medians were tested for a statistically significant difference through a rank-sum procedure, through which 13 of the comparisons showed significant change during the pandemic. Of the 520 respondents, 243 (34 percent) indicated that roads were more safe during the pandemic. This study also revealed changes in trucking operations and driver behavior as a result of the relaxation of trucking hours-of-service limitations.