Open Road - Winter 2026
Louisiana Top Industry Issues Report for 2025
2026-01-24 14:32:00
The Louisiana Motor Transport Association (LMTA) shares the Louisiana Top Industry Issues Report for 2025, identifying the state’s legal climate as the No. 1 concern among trucking professionals. The report, conducted in coordination with the American Transportation Research Institute’s (ATRI) national Top Industry Issues survey, underscores that lawsuit abuse and insurance costs continue to dominate the challenges facing Louisiana’s trucking industry.
“Insurance premiums have become a major financial strain for our industry,” says Renee Amar, LMTA executive director. “For many trucking companies, the cost of insuring their vehicles now represents their largest expense — outpacing both labor and fuel. Some businesses have left the state entirely due to insurance costs. This is unsustainable, and it’s hurting both trucking companies and Louisiana’s economy.”
The report’s findings reflect deep concern over Louisiana’s reputation as a “judicial hellhole,” where inflated settlements and frivolous lawsuits drive up insurance costs. LMTA again calls on state lawmakers to pursue meaningful legal reforms that protect businesses from abusive litigation and help stabilize the insurance market.
“Now that our members have made their top issues clear, we need to act — especially on insurance and lawsuit abuse,” Amar continues. “ We had hoped that with a new governor and legislature in 2024, solutions would come quickly. While we appreciate recent legislative efforts, truckers need bold and innovative reforms now. Businesses can’t operate here if they can’t afford to insure their fleets.”
Following lawsuit abuse and insurance availability, other top concerns identified by Louisiana respondents include the economy, driver distraction and the driver shortage. Additional issues rounding out the top 10 are compliance and safety accountability, infrastructure congestion and funding, driver training standards, diesel emissions regulations and truck parking.
2025 TOP NATIONAL INDUSTRY ISSUES RANKED
1. Economy
2. Lawsuit Abuse Reform
3. Insurance Cost/Availability
4. Truck Parking
5. Driver Compensation
6. Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
7. English Language Proficiency for Drivers
8. Diesel Emissions Regulations
9. Driver Training Standards
10. AI in Trucking
State Top Industry Issues Report — 2025 Louisiana
1. Lawsuit Abuse Reform
• Promote state-level reform to cap damages paid to plaintiffs in truck-involved crashes.
• Advocate for elimination of phantom medical damages.
• Advocate for the disclosure and discoverability of third-party litigation funding agreements in lawsuits.
2. Insurance Cost/Availability
• Develop framework for potential upfront insurance premium reductions when drivers and carriers adopt proven safety technologies.
• Research trends in carrier safety management practices and their impact on insurance premium costs.
• Educate the public about lawsuit abuse leading to increased consumer prices and insurance costs.
3. Economy
• Research the patterns and causes of the current, prolonged freight recession.
• Research why industry supply has been slow to adjust to changes in freight demand including potential factors such as the illegal use of B-1 drivers, delayed equipment repossession and factoring services, among others.
• Quantify the impact of increasing trucking operational costs on supply chains and the nation’s economy, including the impact of new tariffs.
4. Driver Distraction
• Encourage harsher penalties and more aggressive enforcement of distracted driving laws for all motorists.
• Advocate for national standards for distracted driving laws for all motorists.
• Research and quantify the role of car driver distraction in car-truck crashes.
5. Driver Shortage
• Support an industry-funded outreach program to improve the trucking industry’s image.
• Advocate for expanding interstate CDL eligibility to 18- to 20-year-old drivers.
• Examine potential new ways for motor carriers to bring 18-year-olds into the industry in positions where they can gain experience and then transition into truck driving positions when they turn 21.
6. Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA)
• Work with FMCSA to update its carrier prioritization methodology, improve its accuracy, continuously review and evaluate crash preventability factors, and enhance transparency in CSA.
• Encourage FMCSA to review and address enforcement disparities/ geographic variations in enforcement between states and local jurisdictions that impact CSA scores, which may unfairly penalize carriers based solely on where they operate.
• Support FMCSA’s work to speed up the DataQ process by improving internal processes for reviewing Request for Data Reviews (RDRs).
7. Transportation Infrastructure/ Congestion/Funding
• Advocate for a new funding program to focus federal resources on truck bottlenecks along major freight corridors.
• Support legislation that would limit the expansion of tolls on existing interstates.
8. Driver Training Standards
• Advocate for an FMCSA audit of its Training Provider Registry to ensure that training providers are meeting the basic Entry-Level Driver Training standards and are compliant with all requirements.
• Work with driver training schools to develop and/or update best practices and model curricula.
• Research the impact of Entry-Level Driver Training regulations on highway safety.
9. Diesel Emissions Regulations
• Identify the financial impacts associated with compliance of mandated diesel emission regulations.
• Research the performance of emission control technologies.
10. Truck Parking
• Advocate for a dedicated federal funding program to increase truck parking capacity at freight-critical locations.
• Support state DOT applications for U.S. DOT grants to expand truck parking.
Issues and strategies are listed in order as ranked by Louisiana-based respondents.
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