ARLINGTON, Va. (July 21, 2014) — Freight tonnage shipped in the U.S. will grow about 2 percent a year through 2025 while freight revenues will expand at more than three times that rate, 6 percent, according to a new American Trucking Associations (ATA) forecast.
The forecast, a collaboration between ATA and IHS Global Insight, predicts that trucking's share of freight tonnage will grow about two percentage points, to 71.4 percent in 2025 from 69.1 percent in 2013.
“We continue to see growth for the entire freight economy, but we also see that trucking will maintain its position as the nation's dominant mode of freight transportation,” said ATA Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Bob Costello.
Other projections include:
- Truckload volume will grow 3.5 percent a year through 2019, then 1.2 percent annually from 2020 to 2025 — however, truckload carriers will make greater use of intermodal rail for intermediate- and long-distance hauls;
- Rail intermodal tonnage will grow 5.5 percent annually through 2019 and 5.1 percent a year through 2025;
- Railroad's market share will shrink to 13.8 percent in 2025 from 14.5 percent of all tonnage in 2013.
The full ATA forecast can be purchased as a bound volume or downloadable PDF at www.atabusinesssolutions.com or by calling 1-866-821-3468.
