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Transportation Network Rose Over a Five-Year Period
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.
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.
The newly updated FAF5 estimates show that nearly 20 billion tons of goods worth almost $19 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.
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.
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
Truck Rail Water Air (Include Truck-Air) Mulitiple Modes and Mail Pipeline
$0.6 Trillion 1.6 Billion $0.3 Trillion 0.9 Billion $0.7 Trillion 0.1 Billion 0.7 Billion $2.7 Trillion $1.0 Trillion 3.5 Billion
$13.7 Trillion $12.7 Billion
weight (12.7 billion tons) and 72% of the value ($13.7 trillion) in 2017 (Figure 1).
The busiest freight corridors are located between major cities. For example, the total value of bi-directional freight flows transported between the Los Angeles and San Francisco metropolitan areas, the busiest corridor, reached $200 billion in 2017 or 1.1% of the national total (Figure 2).
FAF includes data on the amount and types of goods that move by land, sea and air between large metropolitan areas, states and regions. It is designed to provide information on national level freight flows across America’s transportation network. These data help people in the public and private sectors better understand freight movement, and aid transportation planners in targeting resources to improve operations or increase capacity.
All 50 states plus the District of Columbia have developed state freight plans. Many states based their plans on FAF data, analyzing national freight system trends. As states begin updating their existing freight plans, FAF5 data will again be a valuable resource for identifying needs and key issues confronting the freight system. The 2021 FAF5 product release provides updated 2017 origin and destination FAF data. The 2017 data will be used as a benchmark for the development of additional FAF5 data releases including: annual freight flows estimates for 2018, 2019 and 2020; long-range forecasts through 2050; projections of truck flows on the highway network; and a historical time series.
2012 2017
Value: $18 Trillion $19 Trillion Weight: 17 Billion Tons 20 Billion Tons
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Federal Highway Administration, Freight Analysis Framework version 5.0.
More detail on FAF is available from BTS, at www.bts.gov/faf, and from FHWA at ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/
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FIGURE 2: TOP 4 BUSIEST FREIGHT CORRIDORS BY VALUE — 2017
Los Angeles, CA San Francisco, CA
New York — Newark (NJ Part) New York — Newark (NY Part)
San Francisco, CA Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles, CA San Diego, CA
