ATA: Trucking Remains Dominant Freight Mode

The combination of generating $791.7 billion in revenue and moving 11.84 billion tons of freight in 2019, adds up to trucking being the dominant freight mode according to ATA American Trucking Trends 2020, the latest edition of American Trucking Associations’ annual data compendium.

“Despite a challenging year, the data contained in American Trucking Trends shows the industry was in good shape entering the global pandemic,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.

The report highlighted a number of positive fiscal facts in this year’s edition of the ATA report, including:

• Trucking’s revenues accounted for 80.4% of the nation’s freight bill in 2019.
• Trucks moved 67.7% of surface freight between the U.S. and Canada and 83.1% of cross-border trade with Mexico —a total of $772 billion worth of goods.
• Close to 8 million people — 3.6 million of which are professional drivers — have trucking-related jobs, an increase of 140,000 from 2018.
• Women make up 6.7% of the industry’s drivers and minorities account for 41.5% of truckers.
• More than 90% of fleets operate six or fewer trucks and about 97% operate 20 or fewer.