The majority of people are unaware of how important this industry is to the economy. Today, the majority of people depend on trucking since it gives them a solid way to maintain a high standard of living. To put it another way, a lot of people would be left without a place to live and food to eat if the industry collapsed.
There are many reasons why trucking is such an essential business: the vast majority of goods sold today are moved by trucks. Several other industries rely heavily on truck transportation, including mining, construction, and agriculture.
These industries employ millions of workers across the country. Yet, despite the number of trucks on the road today, the average person knows little about the trucking industry.
Here are some surprising facts that you probably didn’t know about the trucking industry! But You must have to know all these facts.
Top 10 Interesting Facts About the Trucking Industry
The United States of America is responsible for the selling of more than 500,000 trucks that can work in industrial applications. This number is subject to increase by 20% each year, so that speaks volumes for the size of the trucking industry. During the same time, there were more than 12 million lightweight trucks sold in the U.S.A. This is a really big number and continues to increase yearly. It’s also important to note that the trucking industry has grown every year due to technological innovations and other developments that make it fast-paced and innovative.
Through its direct job creation role, the transportation industry contributes over $30 billion annually to the economy. The trucking industry also has a significant impact on the environment as it plays a key role in moving freight around the nation.
It is estimated that if all trucks were to run on electricity rather than gasoline, we could reduce our petrol consumption by 15%. This is something in the making since we’ve seen electric trucks being designed and produced by companies such as Tesla. Electric trucks not only release less carbon dioxide but also run much more quietly than conventional trucks and they make people feel better about their climate footprint.
There is a nationwide shortage of safe parking spots for big rigs. Drivers struggle to find parking lots and determine if there is availability before they arrive, forcing many exhausted drivers to park illegally to sleep.
On an average day, an average truck driver for a small business spends approximately 2083 days driving. It’s equivalent to five years of his life. A truck driver’s career journey is hard, long, and unpredictable. But this doesn’t mean that it should be taken lightly. Hourly wages and benefits come with many risks when you’re involved in an industry as volatile as this one can be and it can lead you to potentially risk your financial security, health, and well-being.
All the trucking companies together consume 5.8 million barrels of petrol every day. That’s an enormous quantity, and the cost to maintain this demand long-term is expensive. This is why electric options are becoming more and more viable. It’s not only safer for the planet, but electricity also costs less than petrol.
If you added up the total distance traveled by every truck in the world for one year, it would be a mind-numbing 300 billion miles, which means you could take 652173 trips to the Moon.
The new and improved fuel technology has solved a serious environmental problem. While older trucks were roughly 60 times more harmful to the environment than today’s trucks, the improved fuel technology has reduced emissions by 95%. This number is about to decrease even more when the mass adaptation of electric trucks takes on the industry. We’re working towards an ecologically friendly world of the future, and electric vehicles are the way we can achieve that.
Logistics play an important role in our daily lives and they’re actually more important than we think. They transport most of the goods we buy at stores, and they provide us with almost everything in our homes. Without good logistics, we couldn’t do anything. Not to mention that without them our country would literally be lost! Logistics companies enable us to live comfortably and safely because they ensure that everything will arrive on time, every time.
The trucking industry is responsible for transporting 91% of lumber and wood, 83% of farming and agriculture products, 92% of dairy products, prepared food, and canned products, and also, it’s responsible for transporting up to 65% of pharmaceutical essentials. The asset management of these products requires truckers to not just move products from Point A to Point B, but to do so while ensuring compliance with temperature and handling requirements.
The truck industry has a significant driver shortage while being popular across the nation. As a result, the market is having difficulty satisfying consumer demand. The number of drivers in the country isn’t declining, but there aren’t enough people who qualify to work in the trucking sector. The existing workforce generation is one of the main causes of the shortage of drivers. Truck drivers typically start out at 46 years old. As a result, there aren’t many candidates for entry-level positions in this industry.
It is crucial to carry items from farms and factories to shops, petrol stations, banks, hospitals, and other locations nowadays. On the other hand, things will get out of hand if each driver decided to drive their trucks on the roads.
Almost every kind of good can be moved from one location to another using truck. Unexpectedly, vehicles convey almost 70% of the stuff. Approximately 12 billion tonnes of products were transported via trucks in 2018, according to research that was published at the time. Rail, aviation, pipelines, and vessels are additional common ways to transport freight. They are limited in their ability to convey as much weight as trucks can. Because of this, the use of trucks has become more prevalent than ever. You will ultimately come across people working hard in this profession no matter where in the country you go.
There are 2 kinds of truck drivers in this industry, one is OTR and the second is original. The term “OTR” (over the road) refers to the drivers who are in charge of shipping freight. Once they were on the road, they would be traveling for the next few days or possibly weeks. Whereas the regional drivers are required to work punctually and spend a few hours outside. Their productivity at work will be impacted by any delays.
It is well known that men dominate the workforce in the trucking business. Despite having a wide workforce in terms of demographics, the number of women working only rose by roughly 2% over the past 18 years, and the sector still has trouble finding female drivers.
Closing Thoughts
There are many interesting facts about the trucking industry. Some of the details may seem obvious, but there are many we never consider beyond receiving our packages. With new advances in clean fuel and electric engines, safety for drivers, and our ever-demanding need for goods, the trucking industry will continue to thrive.
