The trucking industry saw significant growth in 2018 — more than $96 billion of growth, according to the latest American Trucking Associations American Trucking Trends report.
That report put last year’s annual revenue at $796.7 billion. In contrast, in 2017, the trucking industry drew in $700.1 billion. This revenue also accounted for the bulk of the U.S. freight bill — 80.3 percent of it. Despite trade concerns, the ongoing relationship of the North American nations buoyed such figures, with surface freight trade between both Mexico and Canada up over the year.
“2018 was a year of dynamic growth for the trucking industry,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. “Trends is a simple, one-stop resource to see where our industry is so executives and policymakers can make informed decisions about where it is going.”
Total, trucks moved 11.49 billion tons of freight throughout the U.S., accounting for 71.4 percent of the nation’s tonnage freight. Helping to do that were the 7.8 million people employed by the industry — a figure that grew by 100,000 over 2017 numbers. The report also notes that the industry has become rather diverse and competitive over the years, with 40.4 percent of truckers coming from minority populations, and 91.3 percent of fleets stemming from small companies of six or fewer trucks.