Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

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

empty Cell Establishments
1997
Establishments
2002
Revenue ($ thousands)
1997
Revenue ($ thousands)
2002
Payroll ($ thousands)
1997
Payroll ($ thousands)
2002
Paid Employees
1997
Paid Employees
2002
Transportation and warehousing1178,025(R) 200,421318,245,044394,456,80182,346,182(R) 118,251,6812,920,777(R) 3,757,426
Rail transportationNANANANANANANANA
Water transportation1,921(R) 1,92424,019,168(R) 23,124,3002,834,114(R) 3,031,88072,857(R) 65,326
Truck transportation1103,798(R) 112,698141,225,398(R) 165,561,32838,471,272(R) 47,833,7331,293,790(R) 1,437,259
Pipeline transportation2,311(R) 2,51226,836,992(R) 27,641,3622,660,5763,082,55849,280(R) 46,556
Support activities for transportation30,675(R) 34,22339,758,245(R) 62,315,56912,592,44116,558,036411,640(R) 478,166
Couriers and messengers10,887(R) 12,75439,812,43359,373,15514,071,630(R) 17,431,848530,839(R) 578,257
Warehousing and storage16,49712,63710,657,925(R) 17,924,7872,926,119(R) 18,689,122109,760(R) 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.

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