Trucking 101: An Industry Primer

With the exception of those who participate in the trucking industry or specialize in studying it, few people understand the industry's most important basic facts. This document is intended to provide a basic picture of the structure of the U.S. trucking industry for public officials, policy makers, engineers, administrators, planners, academic researchers, journalists, and anyone who needs to think about issues affecting, or affected by, trucking. The contents are presented in the following chapters: Overview of the U.S. Trucking Industry; Counting Truckers Can Be Complicated; Four Ways to Categorize the Trucking Industry: Why Industry Segments Can Matter; Employment; Industry Operating Characteristics by Segment; Truck Vehicle Configurations and Sizes; Highway Funding for Trucking and Transportation; Operating Credentials; Safety; Security; Trucking and Technology; and Trucking and the Environment. There are three appendices: (A) Results from the Large Truck Crash Causation Study; (B) Unpacking MCMIS; and (C) List of Acronyms.