Being a part of the trucking industry, sometimes we hear the same things over and over again. We hear constantly how much the trucking industry is struggling with the driver shortage, or we see posts about the ELD mandate and how it’s changing the industry.
This is not about that.
Today, we want to give you some interesting, fresh information that maybe you haven’t heard about before. We hope that this article is refreshing and that by the end you will learn something new!
- Leading Manufacturers
About the last 10 years, there have been 5 companies that have dominated the trucking industry: Volvo Truck, Peterbilt, Mack, Kenworth and Freightliner.
As you can see in this graph, provided by Statista, Freightliner has had the best sales spanning from 2007-2016. International trucks have also managed to make a decent dent in the trucking industry, with most of that being credited to Daimler. In fact, in 2015, Daimler’s Freightliner division managed to sell over 100,000 Class 8 trucks, which makes up most of the international sales in that year. Kenworth, Peterbilt and Volvo are all relatively level with Mack coming in last place as of recent.
In about that same span of time, as you can see in the graph provided by Statista, the industry as a whole has seen the extremes of success and decline in regards to revenue growth. After seeing very high numbers from 2004-2006, the industry dropped immensely from 2007-2009. 2010 was a great recovery year, and the growth has appeared to level out the past few years. Trucking appears to be moving in the right direction with sales and revenue growth, and so the next obstacle to tackle is the trucker shortage!
- Building a Semi-Truck
You drive this thing for hours upon hours, and some of you call it home… but do you know how they build it? That “thing” you are driving is quite the force of nature. Don’t believe me? Watch this video:
If that wasn’t enough to show you just how complex and awesome semi-trucks are, we have gathered some very interesting facts regarding some of the components that make up a truck. The following facts were provided by www.truckersreport.wordpress.com:
- An 80,000 big rig weighs 20 to 30 times more than a car.
- A truck engine is six times larger than a standard car engine.
- Truck engines have 300 to 400 more horses under the hood, and they have 900 to 1,800 more feet/pound of torque.
- Semi-truck engines offer 800,000 more miles of life than car engines.
- How much money are you spending?
Checkups, upgrades, fuel, insurance etc., the list goes on and on for what a trucker must spend money for on a yearly basis. These expenses add up, and some of you have probably been left thinking, “How much money am I spending on all of this?”
No worries. We have you covered.
The Truckers Report has done great research on this and have happily shared it online for all truckers to see! We found this information shared on www.drivebigtrucks.com.
That morning cup of joe may be taking more out of your pocket than you think. The Truckers Report tells us that the average truck driver spends more than $0.004 per mile on coffee, totaling to a whopping $600 per year. If that stat doesn’t wake you up then maybe you should know that truck stops sell more coffee than convenience stores. Not impressed yet?
What will not surprise you is that fuel is the largest percentage of total operating cost of being a trucker. Commercial trucks can consume up to $70,000 worth of diesel fuel or 20,500 gallons. This is 39% of the total operating cost, which adds up to be $0.54 cents per mile.
When you combine the maintenance and insurance and various factors of being in the trucking industry and driving a truck, the total average cost of being a trucker per year is $180,000. This rounds out to be about $1.38 cents per mile on average to have the trucking industry function. Talk about an expensive industry!
- Automation
It is not news to truckers that semi trucks are becoming automated, meaning that trucks are being built to drive on their own. It’s been one of the more controversial/exciting aspects of this industry given that it could threaten to take away jobs from truckers while simultaneously help the driver shortage deficit. However, we aren’t going to dive into all those aspects (I’m sure you’re tired of reading about it).
Something that is quote mesmerizing that you may never get tired of looking at is staring at a semi-truck with no driver in the driver’s seat. Whether that makes you feel uneasy or excited, it’s a reality that has already begun. In fact, on October 20th, 2016, Otto and Budweiser partnered up to do the first automated delivery. The trip was 120 miles and spanned from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the video:
- Rise in gas prices
For the next two years, gas prices are expected to be higher than these past two years according to truckinginfo.com. However, the prices should be somewhat stable throughout this time period so you shouldn’t expect to see a sharp spike in prices at all. Gas prices in 2018 are expected to average around $2.95 and then increase to $3.01 in 2019, making it a 2% rise between these years. Compared to the jump that was seen from 2016 to 2017 (14.8% jump in prices) this is somewhat mild.
Hopefully you’ll take something away from this article that you haven’t already read about elsewhere. If you enjoyed reading this piece, we encourage you to share it on your social media sites or let us know in the comment section below! If you are looking for more interesting trucking info, hit that subscribe button and you will be updated the next time we post a trucking article (don’t worry, we won’t spam you!) Thank you for taking the time to read this, and be safe out there!
