Fast Facts About Colorado Trucking

 

Trucking Drives the Economy

• Employment: In 2008, the trucking industry provided 127,081 jobs, or one out of 15 in the state. Total trucking industry wages paid in Colorado in 2008 exceeded $6.7 billion, with an average annual trucking industry salary of $52,940. In May 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that truck drivers, and light, delivery drivers, held 37,340 jobs with a mean annual salary of $36,565.


• Small Business Emphasis: There are 17,330 trucking companies located in Colorado, most of them small, locally owned businesses. These companies are served by a wide range of supporting businesses both large and small.
  
  
• Transportation of Essential Products: Trucks transported 89.7 percent of total manufactured tonnage in the state in 2008 or 401,402 tons per day. Over 79 percent of communities depend exclusively on trucks to move their goods.

 

Trucking Pays the Freight

• As an Industry: In 2008, the trucking industry in Colorado paid approximately $472.6 million in federal and state roadway taxes and fees. The industry paid 36 percent of all taxes and fees by Colorado motorists, despite trucks representing only 8 percent of vehicle miles traveled in the state.


• Individual Companies: In 2009, a typical five-axle tractor-semitrailer combination paid $8,746 in state highway user fees and taxes in addition to $8,959 in federal user fees and taxes. These taxes were over and above the typical taxes paid by businesses in Colorado.

Safety Matters

• Continually Improving: At the national level, the large truck fatal crash rate for 2008 was 1.64 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles of travel (VMT). This rate is at its lowest point since the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) began keeping these records. Since 1975 this rate has dropped 64 percent.


• Sharing the Road: The trucking industry is committed to sharing the road safely with all vehicles. The Share the Road program sends a team of professional truck drivers to communities around the country to teach car drivers about truck blind spots, stopping distances and safe merging around large trucks, all designed to reduce accidents.

 

Trucking and the Environment

• Good and Getting Better - On-highway diesel emissions from a 2010 heavy duty truck are 98% less than emissions from a 1990 unit. Heavy duty trucks now use ultra-low sulfur fuel containing 5 ppm vs. 500 ppm in 2001.

• Reduced Fuel Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Fuel efficiency has increased by more than 30% since 1982.  New fuel efficiency standards will translate into even greater improvements.
  
  
• EPA SmartWay - In 2010, over 50 trucking companies in Colorado were certified as  EPA SmartWay carriers. SmartWay is a public-private partnership where carriers commit to strategies to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.  Some fleets have achieved a 20% increase in fuel efficiency by implementing these strategies which has translated into a major reduction in greenhouse emissions.