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Research

The California Trucking Association is committed to advocating for sound transportation policies that can be backed up with data through research. Our policy staff frequently completes policy white papers and analysis in order for our industry to be protected from burdensome regulatory proposals.

Here's a sample of some key statistics on how much California depends on trucks and goods movement:

  • Trucking Drives the Economy*
  • Employment: In 2008, the trucking industry in California provided 862,235 jobs, or one out of 15 in the state. Total trucking industry wages paid in California in 2008 exceeded $50 billion, with an average annual trucking industry salary of $57,981. In May 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that truck drivers, heavy, tractor-trailer and light, delivery drivers, held 231,870 jobs with a mean annual salary of $36,515.
  • Small Business Emphasis: There are over 25,326 trucking companies located in California, most of them small, locally owned businesses. These companies are served by a wide range of supporting businesses both large and small.
  • Transportation of Essential Products: Trucks transported 87.9 percent of total manufactured tonnage in the state in 2009 or 2,570,884 tons per day. Over 78 percent of California’s communities depend exclusively on trucks to move their goods.
  • Trucking Pays the Freight*
  • As an Industry: In 2008, the trucking industry in California paid approximately $4.3 billion in federal and state roadway taxes and fees. The industry paid 36 percent of all taxes and fees owed by California motorists, despite trucks representing only 8 percent of vehicle miles traveled in the state.
  • Individual Companies: In 2009, a typical five-axle tractor-semitrailer combination paid $11,895 in state highway user fees and taxes in addition to $8,959 in federal user fees and taxes. These taxes were over and above the typical taxes paid by businesses in California.
  • Roadway Use: In 2008, California had 172,511 miles of public roads over which all motorists traveled 327 billion miles. Trucking’s use of 2008 public roads was 24.8 billion miles in 2008.

(*Source: The American Transportation Research Institute)