I’m a words guy. I’ve made my living arranging them as a writer and massaging them as an editor. But even I recognize that sometimes you can’t beat numbers for telling a story.
One of those stories is trucking. This is a huge industry that’s central to the country’s economic well-being. Yet trucks are so common that they’re essentially invisible, and we all—even those of us deeply involved in the industry—take the work they do for granted. But once you start digging into the many, many statistics that accumulate around trucking’s activities, you can’t help but gain new insight into just how vital trucking is and how broadly it touches our lives.
In an attempt to at least begin telling that story, we’ve collected dozens of charts, tables, lists and other statistically based graphics in this month’s cover story, “Trucking by the Numbers.”
What were some of the things that stood out as we collected the data for this story?
Well, for one, the sheer size of trucking. There are almost 24 million trucks registered for commercial use, and they covered almost 400 billion (yes, billion) miles in the most recent year where the numbers have been totaled. The industry employs almost 7 million people, close to half of them as drivers.
While you probably won’t be surprised to learn that 1.3 million companies have registered their trucking operations with the federal government, you might not fully appreciate just how important small businesses are to trucking—over 97% of those registered operate fewer than 20 trucks. Last year, those trucks moved 9.4 billion tons of freight and generated over $640 billion in freight revenues.
In general, it takes federal entities a year or two or even three to collect and publish activity data such as truck registrations or mileages, but one area that’s seen a major upgrade in the timeliness of its numbers is truck safety. Whatever your opinion about CSA, it has definitely resulted in much faster data dissemination.
Among the surprises in this fresh data was the leading vehicle violation that resulted in out of service status—inoperable lights, which so far this year have led to more than twice as many OOS violations as the second most common problem. Less surprising was the number-one driver OOS violation, falsified duty status records. And in the “not sure what to make of it” category is the 2,400 drivers taken out of service for not speaking English.
The numbers we’ve collected also go beyond the historical, offering best-informed guesses about trucking’s future. You’ll probably find the rosy freight and revenue forecasts encouraging, if not surprising, and the same goes for growth in truck populations, miles per year and tons carried per truck.
The forecast numbers surrounding fuel prices and consumption, however, offer a perspective we don’t often see in trucking circles. Heavy trucks consume a lot of fuel, some 53 billion gallons last year. But transportation’s overall consumption of energy over the next 25 years is expected to stay essentially level, with most of the growth coming from the industrial and commercial sectors. And while trucking’s use of natural gas is projected to grow along an exponential curve over that same period, it will still only account for 4% of trucking’s total energy consumption and 6% of transportation’s.
There’s a lot more in “Trucking by the Numbers.” Depending on your own particular operation, it’s likely you’ll find some of it only mildly interesting and other parts directly relatable to your fleet. Overall, though, we hope these numbers help paint a broader, more accurate picture of your industry and its role.
