• The U.S. Trucking Industry in comprised of over 564,000 for-hire and private carriers; 95.9% with less than 20 trucks.
• The trucking industry employs (directly and indirectly) more than eight million people, or one in 15 civilian workers.
• Businesses chose trucks for 88 cents out of every dollar they spend on shipping.  In tonnage, trucks carried 68.2% of all freight - 9.8 billion tons in 2004.
• Exclusively serves over 80% of all communities in the U.S. for the products and goods they receive.

rofessional Truck Drivers

• There are 3.24 million truck drivers in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
• The average daily run for a long-haul, over-the-road  truck driver is nearly 500 miles.
• Most long-haul, over-the-road truck drivers average from 100,000 to 110,000 miles per year.

afety

• The large truck fatal crash rate dropped 22% from 1993 to 2003.
• According to a study by the AAA Foundation, in fatal crashes involving a truck and another vehicle, police assigned one or more unsafe driving factors to the passenger vehicle driver and no factors to the truck driver in 73% of the cases.
• Of all fatal crashes involving large trucks, only 1.3% of the time is fatigue on the part of the truck driver determined to be a factor in the accident.
• Of the fatal accidents in which drowsiness, sleepiness, or fatigue is cited as a factor, the passenger vehicle driver is cited 94% of the time.

mission

• A new truck today produces half as much smog-forming NOx emissions as a similar truck manufactured just four years ago.
• Over the last decade, fine particulate matter emissions from over-the-road diesel trucks have been cut in half.
• Today, over-the-road diesel trucks produce half as much fine particulate matter emissions as off-road sources, which include construction and farm equipment, locomotives, and marine vessels.

axes

• The federal and state governments collect a total of 46.6 cents in tax for each gallon of on-highway diesel fuel and 40.6 cents for each gallon gasoline.
• Commercial trucks make up only 10.6% of all registered vehicles, but pay 33.7% or $31.3 billion in combined federal and state highway-user taxes.
• Commercial truck taxes average nearly $16,000 per vehicle.

ileage and Fuel

• Commercial, class 8 trucks logged 114.1 billion miles in 2003, the equivalent of making over 115,000 cross-country trips per day.
• The average class 8 unit (vehicles weighing over 33,001 lbs.) travels more than 43,000 miles per year, the equivalent of driving nearly two times around the world. 
• In 2003, commercial trucks consumed nearly 50 billion gallons of diesel and gasoline.

he Future of the Trucking Industry - by the Year 2015

• The U.S. freight transportation industry will carry 18.85 billion tons of freight, generating $1.3 trillion in revenue, representing a 71% increase over 2004 revenue of $765.3 billion.
• Trucking will account for $1.1 trillion of all freight transportation revenue, 71% increase over 2004.
• The trucking industry will haul over 69% of total U.S. freight tonnage.
• The average number of miles driven by class 8 trucks will decline by 2.2%; however, total tonnage volumes will grow by 31.8%.