Table 4-1: Economic Characteristics of Transportation and Warehousing in Freight Dominated Modes North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Basis
The freight industry has many components, encompassing companies large and small. All told there were about 200,000 transportation and warehousing establishments in 2002, with more than half of those primarily engaged in trucking. Trucking revenue accounts for about 35 to 40 percent of the transportation and warehousing sector, including revenue from railroading (at about $37 billion according to the Association of American Railroads). Revenue generated by warehousing is a small percentage of the entire transportation and warehousing sector.
 |
Establishments 1997 |
Establishments 2002 |
Revenue ($ thousands) 1997 |
Revenue ($ thousands) 2002 |
Payroll ($ thousands) 1997 |
Payroll ($ thousands) 2002 |
Paid Employees 1997 |
Paid Employees 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transportation and warehousing1 | 178,025 | 200,706 | 318,245,044 | S | 82,346,182 | 116,767,289 | 2,920,777 | 3,751,022 |
| Rail transportation | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Water transportation | 1,921 | 1,954 | 24,019,168 | 26,651,477 | 2,834,114 | 3,110,424 | 72,857 | 69,017 |
| Truck transportation1 | 103,798 | 113,237 | 141,225,398 | 167,151,284 | 38,471,272 | 47,465,798 | 1,293,790 | 1,464,877 |
| Pipeline transportation | 2,311 | 2,410 | 26,836,992 | 27,845,032 | 2,660,576 | 3,389,781 | 49,280 | 51,089 |
| Support activities for transportation | 30,675 | 34,458 | 39,758,245 | 62,524,885 | 12,592,441 | 17,837,033 | 411,640 | 519,278 |
| Couriers and messengers | 10,887 | 12,540 | 39,812,433 | 54,735,251 | 14,071,630 | 17,083,438 | 530,839 | 584,939 |
| Warehousing and storage1 | 6,497 | 12,123 | 10,657,925 | S | 2,926,119 | 15,890,514 | 109,760 | 534,768 |
Key: NA = not available; S = estimates do not meet publication standards because of high sampling variability or poor response quality.
1Enterprise support establishments are included in 2002 but not 1997, thus the two years are not comparable.
Notes: Total includes air transportation, transit and ground passenger transportation, and scenic and sightseeing transportation. Data are for establishments in which transportation is the primary business. Data exclude transportation provided privately, such as trucking organized "in-house" by a grocery company. Data are not collected for rail transportation nor for governmental organizations even when their primary activity would be classified in industries covered by the census. For example, data are not collected for publicly-operated buses and subway systems. Data for 2002 are preliminary and subject to change.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, 2002 Economic Census: Table 2. Advance Comparative Statistics for the United States, 1997 NAICS Basis, available at http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/advance/TABLE2.htm.
