At this very moment, coast-to-coast, trucks are on the road hauling life’s essentials - everything the nation needs such as food, books, clothing, electronics, automobiles and medical supplies. More than 80 percent of U.S. communities depend solely on trucking for delivery of their goods and commodities.
In 2006, the U.S. trucking industry hauled 69 percent of the total volume of freight transported in the United States. More than 26 million trucks of all classes, including 2.9 million typical Class 8 trucks operated by more than 750,000 interstate motor carriers, kept America moving.
The trucking industry is a major employer in the United States. There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States, with total industry employment at over 8.7 million. That means that one out of every 15 people working in the United States is employed in the trucking industry.
The trucking industry paid $35.2 billion in federal and state highway taxes in 2005, averaging $7 to $8 thousand per truck, or 35.7 percent of the total paid while representing 10.9 percent of vehicles on the road. The trucking industry paid $16.5 billion in federal highway-user taxes and $18.6 billion in state and highway-user taxes.
Trucking also plays an important role in trade exchanged between the United States and two of our largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. Trucks transported 80.7 percent of the value of trade between the United States and Mexico in 2006 and 64.4 percent of the value of trade between the United States and Canada.
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