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 40 percent of the transportation and warehousing sector. Revenue generated by warehousing is a small percentage of the entire transportation and warehousing sector.

Table in Excel format

	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	200,421	318,245,044	394,456,801	82,346,182	118,251,681	2,920,777	3,757,426
Rail transportation	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Water transportation	1,921	1,924	24,019,168	23,124,300	2,834,114	3,031,880	72,857	65,326
Truck transportation1	103,798	112,698	141,225,398	165,561,328	38,471,272	47,833,733	1,293,790	1,437,259
Pipeline transportation	2,311	2,512	26,836,992	27,641,362	2,660,576	3,082,558	49,280	46,556
Support activities for transportation	30,675	34,223	39,758,245	62,315,569	12,592,441	16,558,036	411,640	478,166
Couriers and messengers	10,887	12,754	39,812,433	59,373,155	14,071,630	17,431,848	530,839	578,257
Warehousing and storage1	6,497	12,637	10,657,925	17,924,787	2,926,119	18,689,122	109,760	639,174

Key: NA = not available; R = revised.

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, 2002 Economic Census, Transportation and Warehousing, United States, available at http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/data/us/US000_48.HTM as of September 14, 2005; U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 1997 Economic Census, Transportation and Warehousing, United States, available at http://www.census.gov/epcd/ec97/us/US000_48.HTM as of September 14, 2005.