How Much Does Traffic Congestion Cost Your Business?

Traffic jams might be the worst aspect of the job that drivers have to deal with on a regular basis. And the problem is more than just a recurring nuisance—it’s a critical cost concern for trucking companies. According to recent research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), traffic congestion added $108.8 billion in costs to the U.S. trucking industry in a single year. ATRI found that congestion-related delays are equivalent to more than 430,000 truck drivers sitting idle for an entire work year, illustrating the massive productivity losses fleets face. A closer look at the numbers, and ATRI calculated that congestion costs the average registered combination truck approximately $7,588 per year.

If you’re running a fleet or operating in the cities with the worst traffic for commercial drivers, you can’t ignore the problem. Here is how traffic expenses add up for long-haul and regional drivers.

Fuel Waste

One of the most direct costs of congestion is wasted fuel. ATRI estimates the trucking industry wastes more than 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel in a single year, generating an additional $32.1 billion in fuel costs. For fleet managers, fuel is often among the largest operating expenses. Every minute a truck spends crawling through traffic or sitting at a bottleneck is fuel consumed against your revenue. This problem is severe in urban delivery operations, where stop-and-go traffic reduces fuel economy and forces engines to spend more time idling.

Idling Costs Add Up Fast

Fleet operators stress the importance of managing truck idling on the job because of its serious costs along with its environmental impact and penalties when not following state regulations. Traffic congestion often implies extended idling, whether on highways, at construction zones, near ports, or during urban deliveries. The U.S. EPA estimates that long-duration truck idling nationwide consumes roughly 1 billion gallons of fuel annually. The agency notes that reducing idling lowers fuel expenses, decreases maintenance costs, and extends engine life. 

A typical long-haul truck could save more than 900 gallons of fuel per year by eliminating unnecessary idling according to the EPA’s findings. When trucks are stuck in traffic, they often continue running climate-control systems, electronics, telematics equipment, refrigeration units, lighting, and other accessories that draw power and increase fuel consumption. Even if the vehicle isn’t moving, operating costs continue to accumulate.

Vehicle Wear

Congestion wastes fuel, and the cost is obvious right away. In the long run, it accelerates vehicle wear, causing damage and maintenance issues that are even more expensive. Fleet management experts note that stop-and-go driving increases stress on:

• Brakes
• Tires
• Transmissions
• Cooling systems
• Batteries
• Starters and alternators
• Engine components

Additional engine hours accumulated during congestion leads to increased maintenance requirements and shortened service intervals. Trucks spending hours idling or moving slowly through traffic accumulate engine wear while on the clock. For urban and last-mile fleets, repeated acceleration and stopping can significantly increase the replacement costs for brakes and tires compared with highway driving. It also causes the vehicles to depreciate faster, hurting the overall resale value when you list the vehicle on the marketplace.

Labor Costs Rise When Drivers Sit Still

Drivers still earn wages even when freight is at a standstill in traffic, which is counterproductive from a fleet manager’s standpoint. Congestion reduces the number of deliveries, pickups, or miles a driver can complete during a shift. For fleets paying hourly wages, traffic directly increases labor costs. For long-haul operations, congestion consumes valuable Hours-of-Service time, possibly reducing daily productivity. It can also place more of a burden on drivers to compensate for lost time, or require your business to hire additional drivers or equipment to move the same amount of freight. In effect, congestion lowers fleet utilization: trucks, trailers, and drivers spend more time tied up in traffic and less time generating revenue.

Missed Deliveries and Further Disruptions

Traffic delays ripple through the supply chain, producing some of the industry’s most common problems. Congestion results in missed delivery windows and failed delivery attempts, additional route miles, customer service issues, overtime expenses, and reduced route density. 

Industry analysis shows that last-mile delivery is already one of the most expensive portions of the logistics chain, and composes somewhere near 41% and 53% of the total cost of shipping. This makes congestion particularly damaging for delivery-focused fleets.

Congestion Creates Hidden Costs

Even with congested-related expenses considered within your budget, fleet managers still have to contend with the hidden costs of asset utilization. Aside from depreciation, trucks incur expenses from insurance, financing, licensing, and overhead costs. While traffic congestion doesn’t necessarily increase these fixed costs directly, it does reduce the amount of revenue generated against those costs, making each trip and mile more expensive. 

From a fleet perspective, congestion effectively reduces the productive capability of each vehicle. The longer it sits in traffic, the more need there is for a company to purchase additional vehicles and hire drivers to achieve the same delivery volume. 

Traffic Brings Companies to a Full Stop

More than a driver inconvenience, traffic congestion is a fleet-wide cost multiplier. From the trucking industry’s estimated $108.8 billion annual congestion bill to billions of gallons of wasted fuel, every minute spent in a traffic jam affects a carrier’s bottom line.