The U.S. Logistics and Transportation Industry

The logistics and transportation industry in the United States is highly competitive.  By investing in the U.S. logistics and transportation sector, multinational firms position themselves to better facilitate the flow of goods throughout the world’s largest consumer market.  International and domestic companies in this industry benefit from a highly-skilled workforce and relatively low cost and regulatory burdens.

Spending in the U.S. logistics and transportation industry totaled $1.1 trillion in 2009, and averaged 9.4 percent of annual gross domestic product (GDP) between 2000 and 2008. Analysts expect industry investment to correlate with growth in the U.S. economy.

A highly-integrated supply chain network in the United States links producers and consumers through multiple transportation modes, including air and express delivery services, freight rail, maritime transport, and truck transport.  To serve customers efficiently, multinational and domestic firms provide tailored logistics and transportation solutions that ensure coordinated goods movement from origin to end user through each supply chain network segment. 

Industry Subsectors

Air and express delivery services (EDS): Firms offer expedited, time-sensitive and end-to-end services for documents, small parcels and high-value items. EDS firms also provide the export infrastructure for many exporters, particularly small- and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford to operate their own supply chain.

Freight rail: High volumes of heavy cargo and products are transported over long distances via the U.S. rail tracking network. Freight rail moves 72 percent of the nation’s coal, 58 percent of its raw metal ores, and 31 percent of its grain, and accounted for approximately one third of all U.S. exports.

Logistics services: This subsector includes inbound and outbound transportation management, fleet management, warehousing, materials handling, order fulfillment, logistics network design, inventory management, supply and demand planning, third-party logistics management and other support services. Logistics services are involved at all levels in the planning and execution of the movement of goods.

Maritime: This subsector includes carriers, seaports, terminals and labor involved in the movement of cargo and passengers by water.  In 2009, water transportation carried 78 percent of U.S. goods exports by tonnage and 36.9 percent of U.S. goods exports by value, via U.S.-flag and foreign-flag carriers.  

Trucking: Over-the-road transportation of cargo is provided by motor vehicles over short and medium distances. The American Trucking Associations reports that in 2009, trucks moved 8.8 billion tons of freight, or about 68 percent of all freight tonnage transported domestically, and motor carriers collected $544 billion in revenues, or 81.9 percent of total revenue earned by all domestic transport modes.