Trucking Stats By The Numbers
When you look inside trucking stats from around the country, you get a full appreciation of the country’s trucking industry and the mass of shipments that are made. The trucking industry is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. Nearly 70% of all the freight tonnage moved in the U.S. goes on trucks. Without the industry and our truck drivers, the economy would come to a standstill. To move 9.2 billion tons of freight annually requires nearly 3 million heavy-duty Class 8 trucks and over 3 million truck drivers. It also takes over 37 billion gallons of diesel fuel to move all of that freight. Simply – without trucks, America stops.
Trucks move roughly 67% of the nation’s freight by weight. That is just one of many statistics calculated and tracked by American Trucking Associations’ professional staff that you can learn about here.
Revenue:
$603.9 billion in gross freight revenues (primary shipments only) from trucking, representing 80.9% of the nation’s freight bill in 2011.
Tonnage:
9.2 billion tons of freight (primary shipments only) transported by trucks in 2011, representing 67.0% of total domestic tonnage shipped.
Taxes:
- $33.1 billion paid by commercial trucks in federal and state highway-user taxes in 2009
- Commercial trucks make up 10.9% of all registered vehicles, and paid $14.3 billion in federal highway-user taxes and $18.7 billion in state highway-user taxes, in 2009
- 24.4¢ in federal fuel tax paid for each gallon of diesel fuel as of August, 2011
- 18.4¢ in federal fuel tax paid for each gallon of gasoline as of August, 2011
- 22.6¢ paid on average in state fuel tax for each gallon of diesel fuel as of July, 2011
- 21.8¢ paid on average in state fuel tax for each gallon of gasoline as of July, 2011
Number of Trucks:
- 26.4 million trucks registered and used for business purposes (excluding government and farm) in 2009, representing 24.4% of all trucks registered
- 2.4 million Class 8 trucks used for business purposes (excluding government and farm) in 2009 (2.3 Million in 2010)
- 5.7 million commercial trailers registered in 2009
Mileage:
- 397.8 billion miles logged by all trucks used for business purposes (excluding government and farm) in 2010
- 29.8% of all miles traveled by trucks
- 13.4% of all motor vehicle miles traveled
- 131.2 billion miles logged by all Class 6 – 8 trucks used for business purposes (excluding government and farm) in 2010
- 99.2 billion miles logged by Class 8 trucks used for business purposes (excluding government and farm) in 2010
Number of Companies:
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, as of December 2011, the number of for-hire carriers on file with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration totaled 408,782, private carriers totaled 662,544 and other* interstate motor carriers totaled 168,680.
* ‘Other’ interstate motor carriers are those that did not specify their segment or checked multiple segments. All other categories were excluded.
- 90.2% operate 6 or fewer trucks
- 97.2% operate fewer than 20 trucks
International Trucking:
- Trucks transported 56.6% of the value of trade between the U.S. and Canada in 2010
- Trucks transported 66.2% of the value of trade between the U.S. and Mexico in 2010
- In 2010, the value of truck-transported trade jumped 25.5% to $260.1 billion with Mexico; truck-transported trade with Canada grew 19.9% to $296.8 billion in 2010
Employment:
- 6.8 million people employed throughout the economy in jobs that relate to trucking activity in 2010, excluding the self-employed
- 3 million truck drivers employed in 2010
Source: American Trucking Association
