Trucks carry three-fourths of the value of freight shipped in the United States and two-thirds of the weight, according to revised numbers released January 7, 2004, by the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
That means that trucks carry the most products by value and weight in the US.
The numbers, revised from 2002 data, show that trucks moved more than $6.2 trillion and 7.8 billion tons of manufactured goods and raw materials in 2002.
Based on ton-miles (a measure combining weight and distance) rail and trucking each accounted for 40 percent of freight. A ton-mile is one ton moved one mile.
By value the largest commodity groups shipped by truck included mixed freight, motorized and other vehicles and electronic and other electrical equipment.
By weight, the largest commodities shipped by truck were sand and gravel, nonmetallic minerals, and gasoline and aviation fuels. By shipment tonnage, the largest commodities were sand and gravel, coal, gasoline and aviation fuels, and nonmetallic minerals.
The report also shows that between 1993 and 2002, the total tonnage of freight transported in America grew 20 percent to almost 12 billion tons while the total value of that freight grew 44 percent to $8.4 trillion.
In 2002, $924 billion of freight, more than $1 out of $10 of all freight shipments, originated in California. Other leading states in the value of goods shipped were Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan.