****    Trucking Industry Facts    ****

Learn interesting facts about the trucking industry.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--May 2, 2005:

The long-haul, heavy-duty truck transportation industry in the United States is experiencing a national shortage of 20,000 truck drivers, the American Trucking Associations

Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association April 21, 2005:

These are critical times for the trucking industry. Fuel costs have escalated and insurance costs remain extremely high. Truck drivers hauling hazardous materials are now required to be fingerprinted. We are probably one of the most regulated industries in the country, facing all of the general business regulations as well as trucking-specific requirements from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture. Finally we will have to cope with a whole new round of environmental regulations on fuel in 2006 and on diesel engines in 2007.   

FINANCIAL HEALTH OF THE INDUSTRY: 

According to ATA’s Advanced Adjusted Truck Tonnage Index, freight for January of 2005 increased 3.4% over December of 2004. Furthermore, truck tonnage in 2004 grew 5.7% compared with 2003. 

  It should be kept in mind, however, that costs (particularly the cost of insurance and the price of fuel) remain high. These increased costs are difficult to absorb because profit margins in the trucking industry are very thin.  As an example, according to the ATA, even though net profit margin rose improved in 2003 compared to 2002, it still only increased to 2.4%.

U.S. retail sales of Class 8 (heavy duty) trucks jumped 22.4% in March from a year earlier. That gain came on the heels of a 42% surge in February. According to R.L. Polk and Company new trailer registrations increased by 18.5% in 2004 from 2003 levels.

Did You Know:

• A fully-loaded truck can weigh up to 80,000 lbs. Most cars only weight 3,000 lbs.
  

• Trucks need the length of an entire football field to stop.
   

• Some Mack trucks can go in reverse in multiple speeds.
   

• Seventy-eight per cent of all freight carried in America is transported on trucks.
   

• It can take millions of dollars, dozens of people and four years to design and build a prototype for a new truck.
   

• Mack has been building trucks since 1900. It is one of the oldest truck companies in America.
   

• Some truck engines have as much as 600 horsepower and weigh between 2,000 and 3,000 lbs.
   

• You can equip a truck with a Global Positioning System so its precise location can always be determined. This helps fleets track the movement of trucks from more than a thousand miles away.
   

• Did you know that trucks can be equipped with radar to help them avoid collisions?
   

• Trucks have "black boxes" similar to the ones on airplanes.

Online Truck & Freight:

The average tax applied to a truck for traveling a mile on a road is close to 20 cents. So, a 1,000- mile trip will cost a truck 200 US dollars in tax alone.  Tolls on some of America's highways have been raised also.   It now costs a truck 30 US dollars to cross New York City's George Washington Bridge.

Midwest Inbound Transport
PO Box 41
Stillwater, MN  55082
phone (651) 430-3300
fax (651) 430-9388

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