Four of five transportation modes – truck, rail, pipeline, and vessel – carried more US freight with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico by value in 2014 than in 2013 as the overall value of freight on all modes rose 4.5 percent in current dollars to $1.2 trillion, according to a report from the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) released Wednesday.
In 2014 compared to 2013, the value of commodities moving by pipeline grew the most, 12.5 percent, despite a decline in cost per unit of petroleum products, due to the increased volume of freight. Truck increased 4.5 percent, rail increased 1.5 percent, vessel increased 0.2 percent, and air decreased 0.2 percent.
Trucks carried 59.9 percent of US-NAFTA freight and were the most heavily utilized mode for moving goods to and from both US-NAFTA partners. Trucks accounted for $348.7 billion of the $640.2 billion of imports (54.5 percent) and $365.9 billion of the $552.5 billion of exports (66.2 percent).
Rail remained the second largest mode, moving 14.9 percent of all US-NAFTA freight, followed by vessel, 8.7 percent; pipeline, 7.9 percent and air, 3.7 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 82.7 percent of the total US-NAFTA freight flows.
Although trucks carry almost three-fifths of US-NAFTA freight, 59.9 percent in 2014, its share has decreased by 3.7 percentage points from 2004, the first year of BTS data for all modes. During the last decade, pipeline’s percentage share rose 2.5 points while vessel rose 2.2 points. The category of all modes of transportation cited in the following tables includes freight movements by truck, rail, vessel, pipeline, air, other and unknown modes of transport.
From 2013 to 2014, total US-Canada freight rose 3.8 percent. Trucks carried 53.8 percent of the $658.2 billion of freight to and from Canada, followed by rail, 15.8 percent; pipeline, 13.5 percent; vessel, 5.9 percent; and air, 4.3 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 83.1 percent of the total US-Canada freight flows.
From 2013 to 2014, total US-Mexico freight rose 5.5 percent. Trucks carried 67.5 percent of the $534.5 billion of freight to and from Mexico, followed by rail, 13.8 percent; vessel, 12.2 percent; air, 2.9 percent; and pipeline, 0.9 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 82.2 percent of the total US-Mexico freight flows.