In a just-released freight forecast, the American Trucking Associations said that the trucking industry should increase its share of domestic freight tonnage to more than 68 percent by 2008. “This number represents a gain in market share of 0.8 percentage points and keeps trucking squarely in the driver’s seat as the dominant mode of transportation for delivering America’s goods,” says Bob Costello, ATA’s chief economist.
ATA’s U.S. Freight Transportation Forecast to 2014 projects that rail will move 13.4 percent of domestic tonnage five years from now and that the volume of freight carried by rail intermodal will be 1.4 percent. Pipeline will transport 9.3 percent of freight volume, water passage will move 7.6 percent, and air deliveries will carry 0.2 percent of total tonnage.