Trucks,
and
A Little Bit On Health Care Thrown In
by James Glaser
July 8, 2010

I drove almost 4,000 miles on our highway system this last month and saw many, many trucks. I don't know if this is all of them, but here are some of our truck manufacturers: Iveco, Scania, Sterling, Volvo, Fiat, Mack, Kenworth, Peterbuilt, Federal, Frieghtliner, Renault, Isuzu, Western Star, Oshkosh Trucks, Mitsubishi, Supreme Industries, Heil, Eicher, Foden, DAF, Ford, and Chevrolet.

There are probably some I missed, but you get the idea. Here is a little information on the trucking industry I Googled up.

How big is the trucking industry?

The trucking companies, warehouses and private sector in the U.S. employs an estimated 8.9 million people employed in trucking-related jobs; nearly 3.5 million were truck drivers. Of this figure UPS employs 60,000 workers and 9% are owner operators. LTL shippers account for around 13.6 percent of America's trucking sector.

How many trucks operate in the U.S.?

Estimates of 15.5 million trucks operate in the U.S.. Of this figure 2 million are tractor trailers.

How many truckers are there?

It is an estimated over 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S. Of that one in nine are independent, a majority of which are owner operators. Canada has in excess of 250,000 truck drivers.

How many trucking companies are there in the U.S.?

Estimates of over 500,000 companies in the U.S. Of that figure 96% operate 28 or fewer while 82% operate 6 or fewer trucks.

How many miles does the transportation industry transports good in a year?

In 2006 the transportation industry logged 432.9 billion miles. Class 8 trucks accounted for 139.3 billion of those miles, up from 130.5 billion in 2005

What is the volume of goods transported by the trucking industry?

The United States economy depends on trucks to deliver nearly 70 percent of all freight transported annually in the U.S., accounting for $671 billion worth of manufactured and retail goods transported by truck in the U.S. alone. Add $295 billion in truck trade with Canada and $195.6 billion in truck trade with Mexico.

How much fuel does the transportation industry utilize in a year?

Trucks consume 53.9 billion gallons of fuel for business purposes.

I think two numbers stand out here. 8.5 million jobs related to trucks, and nearly 70% of all freight is transported by truck. Then that 432.9 billion miles traveled by those trucks is pretty impressive, too.

So, who cares? Or why do I think this is important? Well, President Obama is talking about getting us off foreign oil. In fact it sounds like he wants us off all oil. Well, that sounds nice, and if you listen to him, he makes it sound like this might happen sometime in our life time.

A little off subject here, but remember the health care bill President Obama got passed? Well, that goes into effect in 2014, and about 40 to 50 million new people are going to come into our health care system. I was thinking if that is true, we should be opening up all sorts of medical schools for doctors and nurses, or there is going to be a shortage that will kill many people. You can't just add 40 million people into the existing system and expect everything to be just hunky dory.

The same thing could be said about getting off oil. It sounds good, but how are we going to move all that freight? Shouldn't we be building an incredible number of miles of track for freight trains? I don't see any all-electric cars on the market yet, and you would think that they would come along before we see electric trucks, especially big trucks.

Talking about getting rid of oil sounds nice, but we need to start some sort of planning for our future now. No way can we just shut off that oil spigot and expect American commerce to continue on.

There is no doubt about it—President Obama is a good talker, maybe even a great talker, but he isn't a very good planner. When that health care plan of his starts in 2014, which is going to get here really soon, we will become profoundly aware of the doctor and nursing shortage we have now. That shortage is going to be horrible then.

When the President talks about getting America off our dependence on oil, it is really just pie in the sky when you realize just how big our trucking industry is. It will take trillions of dollars to change our distribution system to something new, and let's face it, we are broke.

So, instead of President Obama talking about crazy things like getting us off oil any time soon, or really any time at all, how about we talk about starting some sort of long range plan, be it rail, or electric trucks, or something entirely new. We can't just keep talking about ending our use of oil, or adding 40 to 50 million new patients to the health care system with out some sort of real plan on how it will work.

Next time you have to go to the doctor, think about how long you are in the waiting room. Better yet, think about how long you really have one-on-one time with your doctor, and think how that is going to be when Obama's health care program kicks in.

Then when you travel, even on short trips around your city. Start to notice how many big trucks there are. Think about what a job it is going to be to replace those trucks and that whole trucking industry with something new. I haven't even talked about what you and I are going to do if they are thinking about getting rid of gasoline powered cars. Look around. We have millions of cars from the last twenty or more years driving around. You are not going to replace them all at one time.

This is big, like on the scale of spanning America with the rail system of the 19th century or the interstate highway system. We are talking about a monumental project if we want to get off oil, and I don't think our current batch of politicians are up to the task.

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source