ATA’s ‘American Trucking Trends 2024’ provides a detailed overview of key industry benchmarks

When it comes to words describing the state of the trucking market, there are more than a few that could be used. Some examples could include frustrating or difficult, among others. But there are better examples that can be found in the pages of the annual “American Trucking Trends 2024” report, which was issued this week by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

“Trends” essentially serves as the ATA’s annual data compendium regarding the trucking sector. ATA officials view the publication as indispensable for use by motor carriers, industry suppliers, logistics providers, analysts, and public policy makers, among other stakeholders.

This year’s edition takes a deep dive into how the sector fared in 2023, with the operative word describing how it went being “challenging,” unsurprisingly by ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.

“This year’s edition shows that 2023 was a very challenging year, but the industry weathered the storm, moving more than 11 billion tons of freight during the year,” he said.

The report noted that, based on preliminary figures, trucks moved 11.8 billion tons of freight in 2023, below 2022’s 11.46 billion tons, with both years besting 2022’s 11.46 million tons. On the revenue side, ATA said the sector took in $987 billion in 2023 revenue, ahead of 2022’s $940.8 billion.

From a staffing perspective, there were 8.5 million people in trucking in 2023, which includes 3.55 million drivers.  What’s more, 95.5% of carriers with 10 or fewer trucks operate 10 or fewer trucks and 96.6% operate fewer than 100 power units.

Looking at cross-border trade, a topic gaining more and more traction, it observed that trucks moved 66.5% of U.S.-Canada surface trade, as well as 84.5% of goods moving across the Mexican border in 2023.

As per the usual, the ATA’s annual “American Trucking Trends” publication does an excellent job at getting a look under the hood of a key sector, moving more than 70% of all U.S. freight. The data highlighted here is just part of it, as the full publication has more to take in, of course.

For more information, about “American Trucking Trends 2024” please click here.