Top Auto Transport Industry Statistics and Trends 2022

The past couple of years have been challenging for the U.S. auto transport industry, especially during the pandemic. Amidst a rebounding economy, the auto transport industry is experiencing a more sluggish growth than expected. However, this growth is due to several combined factors like the ongoing supply chain crisis, truckers’ shortage, and many more. Nevertheless, there are specific auto industry statistics and trends to watch out for in the auto transport industry.

These auto industry statistics and trends reveal a lot of information that can serve as a benchmark to help make informed decisions and projections. Therefore, auto industry players need to consider these auto transport industry trends to ease and boost operations. This article explores top auto industry statistics and trends.

Auto Transport Industry General Statistics and Trends

• The American Trucking Association (ATA) reported a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers (business insider).
• According to Chris Spear, American Trucking Association (ATA) President and CEO, if the truckers’ shortage isn’t resolved, the deficit could reach 160,000 by 2030 (CNN)
• Truck drivers spend about 50 hours per week (or more during peak seasons) on the road.
• Open carrier transport accounts for almost 82% of auto transport methods and is usually cheaper than an enclosed carrier. However, an enclosed carrier offers more protection to the shipped vehicles.
• Roll-on, Roll-off (RORO) Shipping is usually less expensive than Container Shipping. However, Container shipping is more secure.
• RORO Shipping is faster than Container Shipping, making it more reliable regarding departure and arrival dates.
• In terms of shipping cost, the farther the distance traveled, the higher the price. Also, the larger the vehicle to be shipped, the more the shipping cost. Exotic/luxury cars will cost more than compact cars.
• Shipping an inoperable vehicle will cost more than transporting a running car.
• Carriers will charge more for shipping to or from rural areas than metro cities.
• Shipping rates are higher during peak seasons such as summer because car shipping demand is always higher.
• The cheapest way to ship a car is by choosing an open car carrier auto transport method.

Auto Transport Broker

With the prevalence of increased digital technology, there is a growing size of active internet users (4.66 billion as of January 2021). Additionally, this number translates to about 59.5% of the global population. Also, there is a need for auto transport brokers to have a solid online presence to catch up with the growing number of users and trends.

According to a digital marketing report, there are 3.96 billion social media users, and they spend an average of 144 minutes on social media every day. Hence, auto transport brokers can take advantage of this behavior to grow their business.

Interstate auto transport brokers and carriers must be registered with the FMCSA and have a six-digit “MC Docket” number. Also, Carriers are issued a seven-digit “USDOT” number. Hence, customers can use the numbers to check the authenticity of a broker or carrier.

Shipping Location

Presently, based on the estimates of the orders we received at Metti International vehicle transport and car shipping in the past few months, it shows:

• Los Angeles County is the top auto shipping destination in the U.S.
• The next most shipped-to destination would be Florida.
• As the leading vehicle sold in the U.S. in 2020, Ford could be the most shipped vehicle after it sold about 1.9 million units (Statista)

Truckers Demography

• The average age of truckers is 48.2 years (com)
• There are more male truck drivers than females – 79% and 15%, respectively (com)
• About 41% of car haulers have a diploma degree, while 20% have a bachelor degree (com)
• 66% of truckers’ population is white while 15.8% is Hispanic or Latino (com)
• As of May 2020, the median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $47,130, about $22.66 per hour. (Bureau of Labor Statistics )
• The common entry-level education is a postsecondary non-degree award. (Bureau of Labor Statistics )

Trucking Industry

• The employment of long-haul truckers is expected to grow by 6% between 2020 and 2030. However, this would be as a result of the need to replace truck drivers who exit the workforce, perhaps due to retirement (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Most tractor-trailer truck drivers exceed 26,000 pounds in the total weight for the vehicle, passengers, and goods (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Drivers that plan their routes have one or two routes that they drive regularly. In some cases, their routes run through Canada or Mexico (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• There were about 1.466 million employees in the truck transportation industry in 2020. Although, this value is down from 1.529 million in 2019 and 1.496 million in 2018 (Statista)
• In 2020, the trucking industry employed approx. 232,700 people in 2020 (Statista)
• The total revenue generated by the local specialized freight trucking industry in the united states was around 37.7 billion in 2020 (Statista)

Trucking Companies and the Trucking Industry

• The largest trucking company in 2021 DSV, a Danish company, had a market value of about 47.7 billion U.S. dollars (Statista)
• As of 2020, about 57,300 businesses were involved in the freight trucking industry in the U.S. (Statista)
• The trucking market size was worth more than 732 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 in the United States (Statista)
• In 2021, eighty-five percent of truckers mentioned driver-related costs as one of the greatest challenges in the U.S. trucking industry (Statista)
• 5% of goods transported in the United States in 2019 was moved by trucks, which equated to 11.8 billion tons (American Trucking Associations )
• In 2019, commercial trucks paid $48.6 billion in federal and state highway-user taxes (American Trucking Associations )
• Registered trucks traveled a total of 300.05 billion miles in 2019 (ATA)
• The number of interstate motor carriers with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) totaled 83,235. Of the carriers, 91.5% have six or fewer trucks, while 97.4% have below 20 trucks (ATA)
• The number of truck drivers employed in the trucking industry dropped by 6.8% to 3.36 million in 2020 (ATA)
• In 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics revealed that the trucking industry in total employed about 1.48 million persons, and about 61% worked specifically in car hauling (ATRI)

Truck Drivers and the Trucking Industry

• According to the American Trucking Associations, the truckload sector experienced a 6% and 4.9% decline in fleet sizes for large and small carriers, respectively, in the first half of 2021. This decline was attributed to the truck drivers’ shortage (Trucking Info)
• The ATA revealed that carriers with more than 30 million in annual revenue had a 90% driver turnover for large truckload carriers in 2020 (Trucking Info)
• The annual average turnover rate at smaller truckload fleets was 69% in 2020 (Trucking Info)
• National Private Truck Council’s annual benchmarking survey revealed that driver turnover was around 14.25% over the 15-year history of the council’s survey (Trucking Info)
• According to the National Transportation Institute, most fleets paid about 3,242 USD in signing bonus in 2021 (Trucking Info)
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics released a report in May 2020 indicating that Alaska, Washington D.C., New York, and Wyoming had the highest-paid heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (Trucking Info)
• The pay averaged between $21,500 and $45,540 (Trucking Info)
• Women were outnumbered out of the 3.36 million employed as driver/sales workers and truck drivers in the same report. However, the number of women increased from 4.6% in 2010. Also, the percentage of black drivers rose by 13.6% in that same period. However, Asian and Hispanic/Latino drivers’ percentage has remained unchanged (Trucking Info)
• Proposed pilot apprenticeship program managed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) would allow young adults between ages 18 and 21 years to operate interstate commercial motor vehicles soon (Trucking Info)

Energy and Auto Transport

• In 2020, approx. 26% of total U.S. energy consumption was for transporting goods and people from one place to another (EIA)
• Carriers can achieve and improve fleet fuel economy by training drivers to operate vehicles more efficiently (ATRI)
• According to the American Transport Association (ATA), about 35% of drivers are the most efficient drivers (ATRI)
• Of all other feasible ways, drivers can also attain fuel efficiency through the appropriate selection of routes (ATRI)
• Drivers that take calculated decisions concerning vehicle maintenance, engine idling and break use, etc. resulted in about 20% less fuel consumption (ATRI)
• Two-thirds of factors affecting fuel consumption are caused by the driver and vehicle, while one-third is from weather and routing (ATRI)
• According to overseas research, driver training can benefit carriers by reducing costs and boosting fuel efficiency (ATRI)
• A study has shown that idling a heavy-duty truck consumes about 1 gallon of fuel per hour and contributes to air and noise pollution (ATRI)
• Fuel economy started to decrease at speeds above 50 to 55 miles per hour. For instance, operating a truck at 65mph saved 15% more fuel while driving at 55mph increased fuel efficiency by 28% (ATRI)
• Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) estimated that a rest-period idling truck uses approx. 1 billion gallons of fuel in a year at the cost of about 3 billion dollars USD (DOE)
• The idling period of a long-haul truck is about 1800 hours annually, which consumes about 1,500 gallons of diesel (DOE)

Domestic Migration Trend

• The South was the most populous of the four regions, with a net internal migration of 657,682 between 2020 and 2021. The Northeast had a net internal migration of -389,082 within one year. This means that more people moved out of the Northeast than they came in (S. Census Bureau)
• Out of all the states, Texas had the highest annual gain, recording about 310,288 (1.1%) increase with net domestic migration accounting for more than 45%.(S. Census Bureau)
• Florida had the largest internal migration gains of (220,890) followed by Texas (170,307) and Arizona (93,026) (S. Census Bureau)
• An American moves about 11.7 times in their lifetime, although this might be lower or higher (S. Census Bureau)
• Florida, Texas, and New York had the largest net international migration of 38,590, 27,185, and 18,307, respectively (S. Census Bureau)
• New York had the most annual decline, having about 1.6% (319,020) drop with negative domestic migration of -352,185 (S. Census Bureau)
• States that had a population above 20 million were California (39,237,836), Texas (29,527,941), Florida (21,781,128). New York population decreased from 20,154,933 in 2020 to 19,835,913 in 2021 (S Census Bureau)

Source: United States Census Bureau

Source: United States Census Bureau

Source: United States Census Bureau

Auto Transport Industry Statistics and Supply Chain Disruption

There’s hardly any industry that wasn’t hit by the ongoing supply chain crisis in part caused by the pandemic. However, the automotive industry took one of the most significant hits due to the global microchip shortage, causing a stalling post-COVID recovery. Hence, industry experts are now suggesting the need for better supply chain planning.

A survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit in February and March 2021 featuring 175 respondents (more than 70% were Asians) concerning the supply chain disruption revealed that:

• About 51.7% of participants from the auto sector stated that the impacts of the supply chains disruption were “very significant.”
• A report by Statista in 2020 on the negative effect of the supply chain issues (due to the pandemic) on companies’ business outcomes noted that:
• 41% of supply chain key players in the automotive and transportation industry claimed they lost between 50-100 million USD due to the supply chain crisis
• 5% reported they lost more than 500 million USD, while 17% recorded a loss between 100-500 million USD.
• About 30% claimed they lost less than 50 million USD, while 7% said that the supply chain disruption had no impact.

Car Dealerships

• According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), new light-vehicle sales hit 14.93 million units in 2021, a 3.1% gain from the 2020s 14.47 million (NADA)
• The automotive industry represents 3% of America’s Gross Domestic Product (NADA)
• As of December 2021, SAAR (seasonally adjusted annual rate) of new light-vehicles sales totaled 12.44 million units, with about a 23.7% decline from December 2020 (NADA)
• Domestic light vehicles totaled 9.88 million units, import light vehicles (2.56 million units), Total light trucks (9.82 million) (NADA)
• 3% of households reported having access to at least one car in 2019.
• In 2020, there were 276 million registered vehicles in the United States. (Statista)

Auto Transport Industry Statistics and Trends

Car sales volume could be a great source of insight for auto transport companies. Also, this indicates regions where there could be a possibility of a high influx of auto transport orders.

• Of all states, California recorded the highest car sales in the United States. Some of which could have been as a result of its high population (Kneoma)
• In 2020, the total estimated car sales in the United States was 980.1 billion USD (Kneoma)
• California’s car sales totaled 107.7 billion USD in 2020, which represented about 10.99% of car sales in the U.S. (Kneoma)
• Other states with high car sales include Texas, Florida, New York, and Michigan, which accounted for 38.76% of the total car sales in the U.S. in 2020. (Kneoma)
• As of 2020, the motor vehicle and parts dealers’ industry was worth about 343.6 billion USD in gross output. Compared to the previous year, the volume grew by over 2 billion USD (Statista)
• Light vehicle dealership outlet reached 18,260 in 2021, supporting under 2 million jobs across the country (Statista)
• CarMax led other U.S. companies in automotive retailing and services in terms of dealership group revenue in 2020. It had about 228 retail locations in the U.S., recording revenue of about 19 billion USD in 2021 (Statista)
• Used vehicle sales accounted for nearly 33% of dollar sales at franchised dealerships in 2020 (Zippia)
• The amount spent on car purchases by the average American household is about $4,500 (Zippia)
• US. exported 1.8 million new light vehicles and 131,200 medium/heavy trucks in 2018, which totaled about 60 billion USD (Zippia)

Automotive Industry

• As of 2020, vehicle production in the United States had dropped by 27.7% (Zippia)
• Between 2019 and 2020, vehicle purchase demand fell by 13.3%. (Zippia)
• Car and automobile manufacturing in the U.S. market size has grown by 4.3% between 2021 and 2022. This could mean a growing interest in automobiles (Ibisworld)
• In 2020, the automotive industry sold more than 14 million new light trucks and cars in the United States.
• Likewise, the industry recorded about 39.3 million units of used light vehicles sales in the United States (Ibisworld)
• Americans purchased approx. 14,471,800 cars in 2020 (Ibisworld)
• US vehicle exports increased by 6%, with Canada importing the most U.S. passenger vehicle in 2020 (ATRI)
• The automotive industry sold about 1.65 million cars in the united states as of December 2020 (ATRI)
• Consumer purchasing rose above 35% normal value observed yearly in the second half of 2020. But, this consumer habit remained strong into 2021, resulting in a market that skyrocketed to 1.8 million loads per day and rates of $3.17 per mile (ATRI)

Auto Transport Industry Statistics and Trends Projections for 2022 and Beyond

• The estimated growth for the auto shipping services industry in the united states in 2022 is about 3.8% (Ibisworld)
• The global car carrier market should hit 1.059 Billion by 2029 Market U.S. (Ibisworld)
• According to Policy Advice, the sales of used cars in the united states should grow by 95 between 2019 and 2025.  Although, the heightened demand is due to the latest technologies that are integrated into recently manufactured vehicles (not older than four years) (Ibisworld)
• According to a report, more than 33 million autonomous vehicles will hit the roads in 2040. However, this could include autonomous trucks, significantly impacting the auto transport industry.

Metti International Vehicle Transport and Car Shipping

Metti International stands out among the best vehicle shipping businesses. We offer valuable car shipping services at competitive pricing to ensure that our customers have a smooth experience. At Metti International, we work with carriers with a 95% or higher service rating so that your car can arrive on time and safely.

We are a licensed and bonded car shipping broker with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. As a three-time finalist with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Metti International is the top choice for your vehicle shipping needs.

Call Metti International today to schedule your auto transport at (866) 620-1776 or to speak to a sales representative. Contact us today to get an instant quote. For more information, you can also visit our website at www.mettiintl.com