Shipments in the US

Sorry I have not been posting much lately, the cruel lash of 4th quarter (and end of year) market reports has kept me at bay.

And there has been so much worthwhile things to blog about.

But the tasty trinket that most caught my eye was this, a brief article released by the 2007 Economic Cencus: Nationwide Movement of Goods

This is a 5 year figure calculated by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the U.S. Census.

In 2007:

Total shipments of goods in the US accounted for 11.7 Trillion in revenue ($11,700,000,000,000).

This is up from $8.4 Trillion in 2002 ( a 40% increase in just 5 years).

12.5 Billion tons of goods was hauled, up from 11.7 billion tons in 2002. ( a 7% increase). I.E. what we are hauling is worth more. (FYI these are inflation adjusted numbers).

Trucks hauled 71% of the total value (or 8.3 Trillion Dollars, 8.8 Billion Tons)

55% of tonnage traveled less than 50 miles.

For-Hire freight (3PL's etc.) shipped an average of 599 miles.

Public Truck Shipments shipped an average of 57 miles.

What does this mean?

The value of what is shipped drastically increased.
Trucks are still how goods end up in the hands of the consumer.

Short Haul trucking makes up the majority of shipping.

I am guessing most of these goods were counted twice or more, once as raw goods to a manufacturer, then to a wholesaler distribution center, then to a retailer local warehouse, then to an acutal retail store. The 3pls will take it from manufacturer (or manufacture it themselves) thus they travel longer distances, while the public truck shipments are from a local warehouse to a local retail store.

The reason why I am guessing these goods were double counted is that the GDP of the US in 2007 was only 13.8 Trillion, and it is impossible for shipping to account for some 85% of GDP.