Trucks move roughly 72.2% 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.
For more on Trucking Economics, follow Bob Costello, Chief Economist for American Trucking Associations at @ATAEconBob
Revenue:
$875.5 billion in gross freight revenues (primary shipments only) from trucking, representing 80.8% of the nation’s freight bill in 2021.
Tonnage:
10.93 billion tons of freight (primary shipments only) transported by trucks in 2021, representing 72.2% of total domestic tonnage shipped.
Taxes:
- $48.46 billion paid by commercial trucks in federal and state highway-user taxes in 2020.
- Commercial trucks make up 14.1% of all registered vehicles, and paid $18.3 billion in federal highway-user taxes and $30.1 billion in state highway-user taxes, in 2020.
- 24.4¢ in federal fuel tax paid for each gallon of diesel fuel as of January, 2022.
- 18.4¢ in federal fuel tax paid for each gallon of gasoline as of January, 2022.
- 32.7¢ paid on average in state fuel tax for each gallon of diesel fuel as of January, 2022.
- 31.0¢ paid on average in state fuel tax for each gallon of gasoline as of January, 2022.
Number of Trucks:
- 38.9 million trucks registered and used for business purposes (excluding government and farm) in 2020, representing 24.1% of all trucks registered.
- 4.06 million Class 8 trucks (including tractors and straight trucks) in operation in 2021, up 2.3% from 2020.
Mileage:
- 302.14 billion miles traveled by all registered trucks in 2020.
- 177.26 billion miles traveled by combination trucks in 2020.
Fuel Consumption:
- 44.8 billion gallons of fuel consumed by those trucks used for business purposed in 2020.
- 35.8 billion gallons of diesel fuel.
- 9.0 billion gallons of gasoline.
Number of Companies:
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, as of June 2022, the number of for-hire carriers on file with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration totaled 1,102,799, private carriers totaled 718,594, there were 153,191 carriers identified as both for-hire and private carriers and other* interstate motor carriers totaled 37,718.
* Other’ motor carriers are those that did not specify their segment or checked multiple segments. All other categories were excluded.
- 95.7% operate 10 or fewer trucks.
- 99.7% operate fewer than 100 trucks.
International Trucking:
- Trucks transported 66.1% of the value of surface trade between the U.S. and Canada in 2021.
- Trucks transported 82.7% of the value of surface trade between the U.S. and Mexico in 2021.
- In 2021, the value of truck-transported trade increased 19.5% to $460.85 billion with Mexico; truck-transported trade with Canada increased 18.8% to $367.04 billion.
Employment:
- 7.99 million people employed throughout the economy in jobs that relate to trucking activity in 2021 excluding the self-employed.
- 3.49 million truck drivers employed in 2021 (an increase of 3.7% from 2020).