Local Trucking Without Storage

Trucks represent virtually the sole means of transporting freight in intracity and local markets--operating zones of 50 miles or less. Such diverse products as bakery goods, dry cleaning, auto products, fuel for service station pumps, and vending machine supplies are only a few of the enormous variety of goods delivered by local trucking firms.

Although over-the-road intercity truckers are the most visible segment of the industry as a whole, the trucking industry itself grew out of local, short-haul trucking in the early years of the twentieth century, when automobiles began to be converted into trucks to haul the freight traditionally transported by horse-drawn wagons.

The industry is divided into two types of establishments: private carriers who own or lease trucks to transport their products to customers and for-hire carriers who contract with shippers to transport their goods for them. All companies in this industry are divided roughly in half between corporations and individual proprietorships or partnerships.

In 2010, one of the industry leaders was Savage Industries Inc. of Salt Lake City, with annual revenues of about $13 billion and 1,000 employees. Savage handled a diverse array of products, such as coal, chemicals, combustion byproducts, petroleum coke, and sulfur. Other industry leaders included Milwaukee-based Schwerman Trucking Co., a subsidiary of Tankstar USA, with more than $8 billion in annual sales and 700 employees; GE Fleet Services of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, with about $4.5 billion in annual revenues and 1,700 employees; Schneider National Inc. of Green Bay, Wisconsin, with $3.7 billion in 2009 sales and 21,400 employees, and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, Arkansas, with $3.2 billion in revenues and 14,171 employees in 2009.

For the industry segment involving mail, package, and freight delivery, the leader in the early 2010s was Atlanta, Georgia-based United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), with revenues of $45.2 billion and 408,000 employees in 2009. Sixty-two percent of the firm's revenues came from the U.S. domestic package market, 21 percent from international package delivery, and 17 percent from supply chain and freight. UPS handled approximately 15 million packages each day. In second place was FedEx Corp., based in Memphis, Tennessee, which had approximately 141,000 employees and revenues of $34.7 billion in 2009.

For the industry segment involving trucking and truck leasing, Ryder System Inc. was an industry leader, with $4.8 billion in sales in 2009. Based in Miami, Ryder had a fleet of 150,000 and 22,900 employees. Other leaders in this segment were Con-way Inc. of San Mateo, California, with $4.2 billion in revenues and 27,400 employees, and YRC Worldwide of Overland Park, Kansas, with $5.2 billion in sales and 36,000 employees.

The industry's largest segment, in terms of number of establishments, is comprised of local delivery firms transporting packages weighing more than 100 pounds. About 96 percent of these firms employed fewer than 25 workers. Although major intercity ground transport firms and air cargo companies also operated local large-package delivery establishments, by far the most common local large-package delivery establishments were smaller firms with names like Susie's Speedy Service or Lickety Split Couriers. The package delivery segment also included messenger services, grocery and food product transporters, newspaper distribution truckers, legal and medical delivery services, and the large-package delivery departments of taxicab companies.

Another important segment of the local nonstorage trucking industry is comprised of light haulage and cartage truckers including warehouse goods transporters, freight forwarders (see SIC 4731: Arrangement of Transportation of Freight and Cargo), and distributors and goods transfer services. The industry also includes significant numbers of dump truck hauling firms, local log and timber transporters, bulk mail contract carriers, and "star route" carriers, which transport goods between transportation modes, such as from a port to a railhead.
In the 2000s, a smaller segment of the local nonstorage trucking industry consisted of highly specialized carriers such as hazardous materials; local animal, livestock, and horse transporters; and local pet transporters. The industry also included a variety of local household goods movers who did not offer storage services, ranging from the local divisions of large intercity movers to smaller firms.

By 2010, the local nonstorage trucking industry employed 500,903 people, according to Dun & Bradstreet's (D&B) Industry Reports. The large number of establishments engaged in the business--105,172 in 2009--demonstrated the proliferation of small companies. Together these firms generated $41.0 billion in annual sales. The second and third largest states in the nation accounted for the most companies in the business as well as the most employees and the highest percentage of revenues: In Texas, 8,607 establishments employed 37,319 people and generated about $3.5 billion in sales; California's 10,847 firms employing 48,413 workers accounted for $3.4 billion in revenues. The remaining states in the top five in terms of employment and revenue were Florida (27,419 workers and $2.6 billion in sales), Illinois (25,457 workers and $2.1 billion in sales), and Ohio (22,635 workers and $1.6 billion in sales). The largest sectors of the industry, according to D&B were moving services, delivery services, and dump truck hauling. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the local truck driving industry was expected to grow about 4 percent annually between 2008 and 2018.

In the early 2010s, all segments of the local trucking industry were dealing with concerns regarding the environmental effects of emissions and resulting government mandates. According to Richard Moskowitz of the American Trucking Association, the U.S. trucking industry accounts for less than 6 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. However, as stated in a February 2010 Bulk Transporter article, trucking will see "a significant impact from any climate-related legislation and regulation." Many large companies had already started to incorporate alternative-fuel vehicles into their fleets, but smaller companies struggled to meet the necessary investment requirements. Dealing with a weak infrastructure regarding alternate fuels was an additional challenge.