MINNESOTA TRUCKING ASSOCIATION

Minnesota Trucking Facts

Select from: Moving Minnesota’s Economy | Providing Jobs | Paying Highway Taxes | Driving Safely
Reducing Emissions | Improving the Environment

Moving Minnesota's Economy

Note: the following statistics refer to class 6-8 trucks.

Trucks are the dominant mode of transportation in Minnesota, essential to every goods-moving industry in the state. Trucks deliver freight for 8,953 manufacturing companies, supply goods to 20,698 retail stores, and stock 13,947 wholesale trade companies. Trucks are the critical link in delivering agricultural products from farm to market.

In 68 percent of Minnesota communities, trucks are the exclusive means of moving products in and out. By dollar value, that amounts to 84 percent of Minnesota’s freight moved by truck.

In 2001, trucks moved 373 million tons of freight valued at $445 billion to, from and through the state of Minnesota. On a daily basis, there were approximately 358,079 tons of inbound freight and 357,827 tons of outbound freight moved by truck. As our state’s economy grows, trucks are expected to move 670 million tons of freight valued at $957 billion by 2020.

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Providing Jobs

As the engine of Minnesota’s economy, the 16,368 carriers located here provide a significant number of jobs. In 2004, 177,032 Minnesotans were employed by the trucking industry – that’s one out of every fourteen workers. 31,110 of those employees were truck drivers. Other personnel include mechanics, dispatchers, accountants, computer programmers, marketers/salespeople, diesel technicians, office managers, and safety directors.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Employment Projections estimates a 19 percent increase nationally in the number of jobs within the trucking industry. They go on further to predict there will be a 22.9 percent increase in drivers alone by the year 2010.

The total trucking industry wages paid in Minnesota in 2004 exceeded $7.4 billion, with an average trucking industry salary of $42,044.

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Paying Highway Taxes

211,508 trucks are registered in Minnesota – that’s approximately four percent of the vehicles in the state. Trucks traveled 4.554 million miles in 2004 – or eight percent of all vehicle miles traveled.

While they represent less than eight percent of the users in the state, trucks pay 35 percent of the state and federal taxes and fees collected – over $665 million! In terms of highway user taxes paid in Minnesota, the trucking industry paid over $182 million in fuel taxes collected and $211 million in registration fees in 2004.

The annual state and federal highway user taxes paid on a typical 5-axle tractor-trailer combination in Minnesota are $14,905.

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Driving Safely

Safety is the industry’s driving concern. In Minnesota, fatal crashes
declined ten percent and fatalities declined nine percent in the last ten years.

When compared to other vehicles, trucks have a much lower crash rate.

The fatal crash rate and the fatality rate for large trucks has dropped 31 percent over the past decade. At the same time, mileage has increased 33 percent.

In alcohol related fatalities, only 0.5 percent of all drivers were truck drivers with a blood alcohol content (BAC) level over 0.08 g/dl.

Who Can Drive a Truck?

AGE: While many states allow those 18 and older to drive trucks intrastate, federal regulations require drivers operating across state lines to be at least 21 years of age.

LICENSE: Every truck driver (of a vehicle over 26,000 pounds) must have a valid Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) issued by the state in which they reside.

EDUCATION: All drivers must be able to read and speak English well enough to understand traffic signs, prepare required reports, and speak with law enforcement authorities.

CRIMINAL/DRIVING RECORD: A driver must not have been convicted of a felony involving the use of a commercial motor vehicle; using a truck in the commission of a crime involving drugs; driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol; or leaving the scene of an accident involving a commercial motor vehicle.

PHYSICAL CONDITION: A driver must have a complete physical examination at least every two years. A driver must not have suffered any loss of hand, arm, foot or leg movement nor have any physical defect or disease likely to interfere with safe driving. A driver must not have a medical history or clinical diagnosis of diabetes that requires insulin for control. Drivers must also meet blood pressure standards.

VISION: A driver must have a minimum of 20/40 vision in each eye, with or without corrective lenses, and have a 70 degree field of vision in each eye. Drivers may not be color blind.

HEARING: A driver must be capable of perceiving a forced whisper in the better ear at not less than five feet, with or without the use of a hearing aid.

SUBSTANCE FREE: Strict regulations forbid the use of alcohol or drugs prior to or while operating commercial vehicles. Drivers are subject to drug and alcohol testing by their employers and by law enforcement officials. All drivers must pass a pre-employment drug test and are subject to random, reasonable-suspicion, post-accident, return-to-duty and follow-up alcohol and drug testing. A driver must have no current clinical diagnosis of alcoholism and must not use any drugs which could affect his or her ability to safely operate a commercial motor vehicle.

Vehicle Inspections
From 2003 to 2005, trucks in Minnesota have been subject to 99,423 roadside inspections. Nationally, the rate of trucks placed out-of-service at roadside inspections for serious defects dropped 46 percent in the ten years after vehicle inspection standards were adopted.

Rewarding Safety
The Minnesota Trucking Association sponsors several programs to recognize the best of the industry, including the Truck Driving Championships, Fleet Safety Awards and Driver of the Year programs. In 2005, the professional drivers in contention for the Driver of the Year award had 368 years of experience behind the wheel and logged 33 million accident-free miles.

Stephen Laubach was named the Minnesota Truck Driver of the Year at the January 22 awards banquet.   Pictured with (left) Captain Ken Urquhart, Minnesota State Patrol and (right) Dan Drexler, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Public Education Needed
Despite the strides made in reducing truck crashes, more resources need to be focused on outreach to the general motoring public. According to a study by the AAA Foundation, in fatal crashes involving a truck and another vehicle, police assigned one or more unsafe driving factors to the passenger vehicle driver and no factors to the truck driver in 73 percent of the cases.

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Reducing Emissions

A new truck today produces half as much smog-forming NOx emissions as a similar truck manufactured just three years ago.

Over the last decade, fine particulate matter emissions from over-the-road diesel trucks have been cut in half. These results can be attributed to new engine standards and in 2006, will be improved further when only low-sulfur diesel (at 15 ppm) is offered for sale nationwide:

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Improving the Environment

The Minnesota Trucking Association was among 23 firms honored by the U.S. EPA in late October 2006 for its leadership role in reducing diesel emissions via the agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership. SmartWay, established in 2004, is a voluntary partnership between the EPA and more than 450 freight industry companies that offers incentives for fuel efficiency improvements and greenhouse gas emission reductions.

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