Submitted by Nevada Trucking Association
Nevada Leads Nation with 117.2% Increase, Shipping Costs Increase
Traffic congestion on U.S. highways added $94.6 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2021, according to the latest “Cost of Congestion” research published by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI). This is the highest level yet recorded through this ongoing research initiative. Nevada’s statewide costs ranked 34th in the country at over $636 million in 2021, a 117.2 percent increase from 2016. Nevada had the largest percent increase in congestion costs of any state in the nation.
The traffic congestion costs in Reno, Nevada’s Metro ranked 4th highest with a 38.97% increase. This increase was driven by construction on the Spaghetti Bowl at the juncture of I-80 and I-580 and economic, warehousing, and population booms fueling greater freight volumes.
Paul J. Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association, says, “With some of the highest fuel prices in America and increasing labor, truck, maintenance, and insurance costs, coupled with growth in Nevada’s population, logistics, and warehousing industry, it’s no surprise that the Silver State’s congestion costs have increased at the fastest clip in the nation.”
Nevada is set to receive funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of $2.77 billion for 101 projects, which may help address congestion in the state.
A copy of this report is available here.
The study results are from a variety of data sources, including ATRI’s unique truck GPS database, which can calculate trucking delays due to traffic from 2017 through 2021 on major U.S. roadways. While year-over-year congestion costs decreased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they rose sharply in 2021, with a total of 1.27 billion hours of lost productivity.
This increase in costs reflects the dramatic post-COVID economic recovery, with high GDP growth and freight demand borne from record levels of consumer spending. This level of delay equates to more than 460,000 commercial truck drivers sitting idle for one work year, and the 2021 figure represents a 27 percent increase from the report’s baseline year of 2016, an increase that is twice the rate of inflation.
ATRI is the trucking industry’s 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization. It is engaged in critical research relating to freight transportation’s essential role in maintaining a safe, secure, and efficient transportation system. Website: www.truckingresearch.org
