Driver Lifestyles

Baffle Them With Trucking Facts!

Have you ever been in a discussion about trucking and found yourself grasping for a needed statistic to drive home your point and win the debate?

Or, have you ever elucidated on a topic before an audience of other drivers at a restaurant table and astounded them with your knowledge of general trucking facts and stats?

Well, your search for those golden nuggets of statistical information is over. The following is a compendium of salient factoids about the trucking industry ever, uhh, compendiumed.

Armed with these tidbits of knowledge, you'll easily win any argument and be the envy of your peer group!

*Number of tractor-trailer drivers in the U.S.

The U.S. trucking industry employs over 9 million Americans with over 3 million of these employees being truck drivers, Over 1 million are long haul drivers who own and operate their truck. 70 percent of them are leased to carriers, while the remainder have their own operating authority.

It is estimated that 300,000 new drivers will be needed each year for the next 10 years.

* Number of women truckers

About 12% of owner/operators and nearly 10% of company drivers are ladies. More than 3 quarters of lady owner/operators are part of a driving team, typically husband and wife.

*Number of trucking companies in the U.S.

There are over 500,000 companies and 80 percent of them have 20 or fewer trucks. It is estimated that owner-operators make up about 70% of the interstate driver population.

*Trucking numbers

As of 2004 the U.S. trucking industry carried 11.6 billion tons of freight, generating $574 billion in revenue, representing a 24% increase of 1994 revenue of $463 billion.

By 2008, the trucking industry will haul 9.3 billion tons, or over 64 percent, of total U.S. freight tonnage. and also by 2008, 87 cents out of every dollar of U.S. freight revenue will go to the trucking industry. 70 percent of U.S. communities depend solely on trucking for delivery of their goods and commodities.The trucking industry grows an estimated 5% every year.

Miles

The total distance driven by commercial trucks in the U.S. exceeds 150 billion miles each year - equivalent to about 640 trips from the Earth to the Moon.

The average truck in the United States travels an average of 64,200 miles per year, the equivalent of driving almost two and a half times around the world. The average trip for heavy trucks is about 420 miles one way.

The trucking industry accounts for 12.8% of all the fuel purchased in the U.S. Automobiles and light vehicles accounted for 63% of the fuel purchased.

The Interstate Highway System

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and much of the trucking industry’s growth can be attributed to the interstate system. The interstate system is so essential to trucking that no list of trucking statistics would be complete without the following factoids:

-There are 46,677 road miles of interstate highway, the largest highway system in the world. One fourth of all U.S. roadway traffic is carried on this system. The price tag (adjusted for inflation was $425 billion in 2006 dollars and it took 35 years to complete.

-The most heavily traveled area of the Interstate Highway System is the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles, California, with a 2005 estimate of 382,000 vehicles a day.

-The least traveled section is Interstate 95 just north of Houlton, Maine (near the Canadian border), with 1,880 vehicles a day. (2001 estimate).

-The longest Interstate highway is Interstate 90, which runs 3,099 miles (4,987 km) between Boston, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington.

-The shortest signed Interstate is Interstate 375 in downtown Detroit, Michigan, at 1.06 miles

Causes of breakdowns on the road

Tires - 51.3%
Jump or Pull start - 7.6%
Air Line or hose - 4.7%
Alternator - 4.1%
Wiring - 3.9%
Fuel Filter R/R - 3.7%
Fuel - 3.5%
Brakes - 2.4%
All others - less than 1%

*Trucking safety

-In two-vehicle crashes involving a large truck and passenger vehicle, driver-related crash factors were coded for 26 percent of the truck drivers involved. In contrast, driver-related factors were coded for 82 percent of the passenger vehicle drivers involved.

-Drivers of passenger vehicles involved in fatal collisions with trucks were more likely than the drivers of trucks to be under 26 or over 65 years old, to have invalid drivers licenses, to be legally drunk, and to be cited for driver-related crash factors.

-In fatal crashes, three-fourths (76%) of truck drivers were using their seat belts, compared with only half (49%) of passenger vehicle drivers.

-It is more than twice as likely in fatal crashes between large trucks and passenger vehicles that the truck is struck in the rear than that the passenger vehicle is struck in the rear.

-In 89% of fatal head-on passenger vehicle/truck crashes, the passenger vehicle crossed the center line into the truck's lane, while in 11 percent of these crashes, the truck encroached into the passenger vehicle's lane.

-35 percent of fatal passenger vehicle crashes occur in the four blind spots surrounding large trucks. In 71 percent of crashes, the police assigned one or more crash factors to the passenger vehicle driver and none to the truck driver.

-92.2 percent of fatigue-related crashes involve drivers of passenger vehicles. Of all fatigue-related fatal crashes, only 6 percent involve truck drivers.
(From the American Trucking Associations)

Driver demographics

Nearly half of owner-operators and more than half of company drivers have at least some college. Nearly 87% of owner-operators and 90% of company drivers have a high school diploma or better. This is a higher level of education than among the general population age 20 and over, in which 83% are high school graduates or more.
(Profile of the Interstate Trucker, Newport Communications,1999)

The average age for owner- operators is 49.6 years, and 48.6 years for company drivers; surveys indicate that owner- operators drive an average of 114,847 miles per year, while company personnel drive 120,640 miles;

Home ownership among owner- operators is at 89.7 percent, and 78.9 percent for company drivers;

Company drivers smoke more than owner-operators, with averages reflecting 38.9 percent and 29.9 percent respectively; and 52.1 percent of owner-operators use computers for business, compared to 32.2 percent of company drivers who use them for this purpose.
(OOIDA 2004 member profile)

Sources
*American Trucking Association (ATA)
*Bureau of Transportation Statistics
*Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau
*National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
*FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Management Information System; *Fatality Analysis Reporting System
*OOIDA