Trucks Most Heavily Used Mode for Nafta Freight in September
Trucks carried almost two-thirds of the freight moving between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, Canada and Mexico, in September, and continued to be the most heavily used mode, according to federal released Nov. 29.
Trucks carried 64.7% of Nafta trade, said the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which issued the report.
Also, trucks accounted for $30.1 billion of the $48.8 billion of imports, and 61.7%, and $28.9 billion of the $42.4 billion of exports, or 68.1%, according to the report.
But the value of commodities moving by truck decreased 3.8%, the report said.
Overall, total freight on all modes decreased 2.3% to $91.1 billion, it said.
The total value of cross-border freight has declined from the same month of the previous year in 20 of the past 21 months beginning in January 2015 with only an increase of 0.7% in August 2016, it said.
Year-over-year, the value of U.S.-Canada freight flows fell 4.4% to $46.2 billion mainly due to decreases in the value of goods moved by vessel and pipeline. All modes of transportation except rail carried a lower value of U.S.-Canada freight than a year earlier, the report said.
Trucks, however, carried 59.6% of the value of the freight to and from Canada, it said.
The value of U.S.-Mexico freight, year-over-year, decreased 0.04% to $44.9 billion despite four modes of transportation – pipeline, rail, air, and vessel – carrying a higher value of U.S.-Mexico freight than a year earlier.
Truck, which accounted for 69.9% of the value of freight to and from Mexico, was down 4%, BTS said.
Rail remained the second largest mode by value, moving 15.9% of all U.S.-Nafta freight, followed by vessel, 5.4%; pipeline, 4.9%; and air, 4.1%. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 85.5% of the total value of U.S.-Nafta freight flows.
