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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.

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 warehousing1178,025200,706318,245,044S82,346,182116,767,2892,920,7773,751,022
Rail transportationNANANANANANANANA
Water transportation1,9211,95424,019,16826,651,4772,834,1143,110,42472,85769,017
Truck transportation1103,798113,237141,225,398167,151,28438,471,27247,465,7981,293,7901,464,877
Pipeline transportation2,3112,41026,836,99227,845,0322,660,5763,389,78149,28051,089
Support activities for transportation30,67534,45839,758,24562,524,88512,592,44117,837,033411,640519,278
Couriers and messengers10,88712,54039,812,43354,735,25114,071,63017,083,438530,839584,939
Warehousing and storage16,49712,12310,657,925S2,926,11915,890,514109,760534,768

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.

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