GOVERNMENT NEWS
Value and Weight of Goods Moved on America’s Transportation Network Rose Over a Five-Year Period
Goods moved on America’s transportation network rose in value and tonnage from 2012 to 2017, according to the latest version of the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF5), the most comprehensive publicly available dataset of freight movement, jointly released this year by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). FAF benchmarks are released at fiveyear intervals. Starting with data from BTS’s Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) and international trade data from the Census Bureau, FAF incorporates data from
agriculture, extraction, utility, construction, service and other sectors. The most recent CFS data were collected in 2017, which is the benchmark year for FAF5. FAF numbers in this release represent total freight flows within the U.S., including domestic movement of imports and exports.
trillion were moved on the U.S. transportation network in 2017. The annual numbers mean that on average 54 million tons of goods valued at $52 billion a day moved throughout the country on all transportation modes. Value comparisons are in current dollars.
Annual FAF estimates of 2020 freight flows are planned for later in 2021 and will account for changes that have taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In comparison, in the full year 2012, nearly 17 billion tons of goods worth about $18 trillion were moved, which equates to 46 million tons of goods valued at more than $48 billion per day.
The newly updated FAF5 estimates show that nearly 20 billion tons of goods worth almost $19
Trucks remain the most commonly used mode to move freight, transporting 64% of the
FIGURE 1: VALUE AND TONNAGE OF FREIGHT BY MODE — 2017 Dollars Tons $13.7 Trillion $12.7 Billion
Truck Rail
$0.6 Trillion 1.6 Billion
Water
$0.3 Trillion 0.9 Billion
Air (Include Truck-Air)
$0.7 Trillion 0.1 Billion
Mulitiple Modes and Mail Pipeline
0.7 Billion
$2.7 Trillion
$1.0 Trillion
3.5 Billion
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, Freight Analysis Framework version 5.0.
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GUARDIAN
