Bob Costello is the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for the American Trucking Associations, the nation’s leading organization representing the interests of the trucking industry.
As chief economist, he manages all of ATA’s collection, analysis and dissemination of trucking economic information, regularly producing several reports about trucking economic activity, an annual freight transportation forecast, driver wage studies, weekly diesel fuel price and economic reports and a yearly trucking almanac. Bob also conducts economic analyses of proposed regulations and legislation affecting the trucking industry.
Bob is often cited in the news media as an expert on trucking economics, including the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, CNBC, FOX Business Channel and National Public Radio.
In March 2010, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood appointed Bob to the Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics, which advises the Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Bob currently serves on the American Transportation Research Institute’s Research Advisory Committee. Bob is also a member of the National Association for Business Economics and has served on several research and project panels for the Transportation Research Board, which is part of the National Academies. He is also a member of the Industrial Economists Group at Harvard University.
Prior to joining ATA in 1997, Bob was an economist with Joel Popkin & Co. in Washington, an economic consulting firm that specializes in the analysis of wages, inflation and economic trends.
Bob has a Master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a Bachelor of Arts from Winona State University. He lives in Alexandria, Va. with his wife and daughter.