U.S. trucking generated $936.4 billion in revenue in 2025, up from $906 billion a year earlier, according to the American Trucking Associations' American Trucking Trends 2026 report, released October 26.

The report found that trucks moved 11.46 billion tons of freight in 2025, compared with 11.27 billion tons in 2024. ATA describes the industry as the economy's leading mover of freight.

Employment figures in the report show the scale of the workforce behind those loads. Trucking accounted for 8.5 million jobs in industry-related positions in 2025, including 3.45 million professional truck drivers.

The data also underline how fragmented the carrier base remains. According to ATA, 91.1% of motor carriers operate 10 or fewer trucks, and 99.2% run fewer than 100 power units. Those figures indicate that the industry remains made up largely of small businesses.

Trucks also remained the dominant mode for cross-border trade with the country's two largest neighbors. In 2025, trucks carried 68% of surface trade between the United States and Canada and 86% of goods moving across the Mexican border.

ATA said the annual Trends publication also covers diesel fuel price trends, safety, taxes paid by the industry, household goods movements and broader economic indicators.

The accompanying chart, from FreightWaves SONAR, tracks the Cass Freight Index for U.S. shipments since 2001 and marks the freight booms and recessions that have shaped carrier volumes over the past two decades.

Source: American Trucking Associations -- https://www.trucking.org/news-insights/ata-american-trucking-trends-2026