Freight in America. A New National Picture

According to new estimates by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), over 19 billion tons of freight, valued at $13 trillion, was carried over 4.4 trillion ton-miles in the United States in the year 2002. This means that on a typical day in the United States in 2002, about 53 million tons of goods valued at about $36 billion moved nearly 12 billion ton-miles on the nation’s multimodal transportation network. The new estimates combine data from the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) – the most comprehensive nationwide source of freight data – and from other sources to provide the most complete picture of freight movement in America. This report discusses the resulting composite estimates, using 2002, the year of the latest CFS as the baseline. It also discusses more recent data for specific modes, the geography of freight movements in the United States, and the growing importance of international trade to the U.S. freight transportation system. This report discusses how, as the U.S. freight transportation system advances further into the 21st Century, the need for managing the demand on the system and monitoring the volume of freight handled by each transportation mode will remain critical. It is important to know how much freight and what type of goods move on the nation’s transportation network. These and other data about the kind of transportation mode, vehicle or vessel characteristics, and facility type are needed to track, monitor conditions and performance, evaluate investment needs, and fully measure the many ways freight interacts with and enables economic activity.