US trucking moved more than 10 billion tons of freight last year

ARLINGTON, Va. — The US trucking industry hauled a record US$726.4 billion in freight last year, according to the latest edition of American Truck Trends, compiled by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

That marks two consecutive year that the value of freight hauled by truck topped $700 million.

“According to our data, trucking revenues topped $700 billion for a second straight year, setting an all-time record of $726.4 billion in 2015, while trucks moved more than 10 billion tons of freight,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello. “While the first half of 2016 has been challenging for the industry, trucking is coming off two very strong years and we are optimistic about the future.”

“In many ways, 2015 was a good year for our industry, and Trends clearly demonstrates that,” added ATA resident and CEO Chris Spear. “Trends provides indispensable information to trucking companies, industry suppliers, logistics providers, analysts, public policy decision makers, investors and many others. Information that is crucial to making sound decisions about the future.”

Among the findings in this year’s edition of Trends: trucking collected $726.4 billion in gross freight revenues, 81.5% of the nation’s freight bill in 2015; trucks carried 10.49 billion tons of freight in 2015, accounting for 70.1% of domestic freight tonnage; in 2015, there were 3.63 million Class 8 trucks in operation.