Fuel Costs Top Trucking’s Worry List as Lawsuit Bill Mounts

Soaring diesel prices have overtaken every other concern in the US trucking industry, while a new business-backed study puts fresh numbers on the litigation costs that carriers say threaten their margins.

Fuel prices ranked as the industry’s top issue in the American Transportation Research Institute’s annual survey of nearly 3,100 stakeholders. The survey was released on Monday at the American Trucking Associations’ management conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is only the fourth time in the survey’s 22-year history that fuel has held the top spot, after 2005, 2008 and 2022. The economy, which led the rankings for the previous three years, fell to sixth.

The pressure is showing at the pump. The national average price of diesel rose almost 10 cents to $6.276 a gallon this week, according to Energy Department data, about 2.66 dollars higher than a year earlier. ATA chief economist Bob Costello told delegates that relief is unlikely, pointing to historically low distillate stocks. “That does not bode well for the prices going into this fall freight season,” he said.

Ben Banks, president of TCW, said the spike is “particularly painful for small- to mid-size fleets.”

Drivers ranked fuel and truck parking as their biggest worries, but motor carriers put lawsuit abuse reform first. A report released on Sunday by the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform reviewed 334 truck accident cases between June 2023 and July 2026. It found that plaintiffs’ verdicts averaged nearly $28 million, with a median of 5.2 million. Liability insurance premiums reached a record 10.6 cents a mile in 2025.

Stephen Waguespack, the institute’s president, said trucking was “under attack” from excessive litigation. ATA lists lawsuit abuse among its main policy priorities alongside truck parking and cargo theft. Werner Enterprises Chief Executive Officer Derek Leathers, who took over as the group’s chairman at the conference, said ATA’s mission “hasn’t changed.”