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Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design (2003)

Chapter: Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet

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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 3 - Size, Composition, and Characteristics of the U.S. Truck Fleet." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2003. Review of Truck Characteristics as Factors in Roadway Design. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23379.
×
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13 CHAPTER 3 SIZE, COMPOSITION, AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE U.S.TRUCK FLEET This chapter addresses the size, composition, and charac- teristics of the truck fleet in the United States. The discussion includes data on the number of trucks, truck-miles of travel, truck length, and truck weight. One of the challenges in describing the truck fleet is that the various data sources use different definitions of what consti- tutes a truck. The most common definition of a truck is a vehi- cle with more than two axles or more than four tires that is not classified as a bus or a recreational vehicle (RV). Under this definition, vehicles with three or more axles and two-axle vehi- cles with dual rear tires are considered trucks. However, the most extensive source of data on the truck fleet, the Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) (9), conducted every 5 years by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, includes not only trucks that meet the definition given above, but also pickup trucks, mini- vans, panel trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), and station wagons. By contrast, the recent FHWA Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight (CTSW) study appears to have focused exclu- sively on trucks with three or more axles (5). The following discussion attempts to sort out these differences in definition using published data sources. All tables in this chapter of the report exclude pickup trucks, minivans, panel trucks, SUVs, and station wagons. NUMBER OF TRUCKS IN THE U.S. FLEET The VIUS estimates that in 1997 there were 5.7 million trucks in the U.S. fleet, excluding minivans, pickup trucks, panel trucks, SUVs, and station wagons (9). This represents an increase of nearly 11 percent from the 5.1 million trucks counted in 1992. Table 9 shows the distribution of the truck population in 1997 and 1992 by truck use, body type, vehicle size, annual miles of travel, age, vehicle acquisition, truck type, range of operation, and fuel type. Some of the major changes indi- cated by Table 9, which suggest future trends, are that the 1997 population, compared with the 1992 population, included more heavy trucks, greater mileage per truck, newer trucks, a larger fraction of combination trucks (especially five or more axles), less local travel and more short- and long-range travel, and significantly more use of diesel fuel compared with gasoline. Appendix A presents a table of the number of trucks, truck-miles of travel, and average annual mileage per truck overall and broken down by a broad variety of variables including • Major use, • Body type, • Annual miles, • Primary range of operation, • Weeks operated per year, • Base of operation, • Vehicle size, • Average weight, • Total length, • Year model, • Vehicle acquisition, • Lease characteristics, • Primary operator classification, • Primary products carried, • Hazardous materials carried, • Truck fleet size, • Miles per gallon, • Equipment type, • Full conservation equipment, • Maintenance responsibility, • Engine type and size, • Refueling location, • Truck type and axle arrangement, and • Cab type. The VIUS database can be used to look at selected combi- nations of the variables that are not available in tables pub- lished by the Bureau of the Census. TRUCK-MILES OF TRAVEL The VIUS data indicate that there were an estimated 157 billion annual truck-miles of travel in 1997; this represents a 35 percent increase from the estimated 117 billion truck- miles of travel in 1992. This increase is very dramatic, indi- cating a growth rate in truck travel of 6.2 percent per year. Average annual miles of travel per truck increased 22 per- cent from 22,800 miles per truck in 1992 to 27,800 miles per truck in 1997.

14 TABLE 9 Distribution of key variables for trucks (excluding minivans, pickup trucks, panel trucks, SUVs, and station wagons)— 1997 and 1992 (9)

15 Figure 2. Illustrative truck configurations.

16 TABLE 10 Characteristics of typical vehicles and their current uses Configuration type Number of axles Common maximum weight (lb) Current use 2 under 40,000 Two-axle single-unit (SU) trucks. General hauling primarily in urban areas. 3 50,000 to 65,000 SUs are the most commonly used trucks. They are used extensively in all urban areas for short hauls. Three-axle SUs are used to carry heavy loads of materials and goods in lieu of the far more common two- axle SU. Single-Unit Truck 4 or more 62,000 to 70,000 SUs with four or more axles are used to carry the heaviest of the construction and building materials in urban areas. They are also used for waste removal. 5 80,000 to 99,000 Most used combination vehicle. It is used extensively for long and short hauls in all urban and rural areas to carry and distribute all types of materials, commodities, and goods. Semitrailer 6 or more 80,000 to 100,000 Used to haul heavier materials, commodities, and goods for hauls longer than those of the four-axle SU. STAA Double 5, 6 80,000 Most common multitrailer combination. Used for less-than-truckload (LTL) freight mostly on rural freeways between LTL freight terminals. B-Train Double 8, 9 105,500 to 137,800 Some use in the northern plains states and the Northwest. Mostly used in flatbed trailer operations and for bulk hauls. Rocky Mountain Double 7 105,500 to 129,000 Used on turnpike in Florida, the Northeast, and Midwest and in the Northern Plains and Northwest in all types of motor carrier operations, but most often it is used for bulk hauls. Turnpike Double 9 105,500 to 147,000 Used on turnpikes in Florida, the Northeast, and Midwest and on freeways in the Northern Plains and Northwest for mostly truckload operations. Triple 7 105,500 to 131,000 Used to haul LTL freight on the Indiana and Ohio Turnpikes and in many of the most Western states, used on rural freeways between LTL freight terminals. SOURCE: adapted from CTSW (5) TRUCK TYPES Figure 2 illustrates several basic truck types. The illus- trations in Figure 2 are meant to convey the axle and hitch configuration, not the body types. Whereas the depicted body types are all vans, the truck configurations illustrated could also include flat-bed or platform, tanker, dump, and other body types. The truck-tractor with single trailer con- sists of a tractor pulling a single semitrailer. The tractor- trailer with two or three trailers consists of a tractor pulling a semitrailer followed by one or two full trailers, for the double-trailer and triple-trailer combinations, respectively. A full trailer is a trailer that is pulled by a drawbar attached to the preceding unit, but the drawbar transfers no weight to the preceding unit. A semitrailer has one end that rests on the preceding unit and can, therefore, transfer part of its load to the preceding unit. Not shown in Figure 2 is a single- unit truck pulling a full trailer. Table 10, adapted from the CTSW study (5), illustrates the characteristics of representative trucks, including trucks in general operation and LCVs. The data in Table 11 show that, while single-unit trucks constitute the majority of the truck fleet, combination trucks (i.e., tractor-trailer combinations) travel the majority of truck miles. Truck-tractors with single trailers, also referred to as tractor-semitrailer combinations or single-semitrailer combinations, are the predominant type of combination truck, both in terms of number of trucks and truck-miles traveled. Table 12 presents data on the truck types in the current U.S. truck fleet from the FHWA CTSW study. The table includes both 1994 data and a projection to the year 2000. The source

17 TABLE 11 Number of trucks and truck-miles of travel by truck type and number of axles (VIUS, 1997) (9) Number of trucks (thousands) Percent of trucks Annual truck- miles (millions) Percent of truck-miles Annual truck- miles per truck (thousands) Single-unit trucks 3,853 68.0 51,467 32.7 13.4 2 axles 3,267 57.7 41,321 26.3 12.6 3 axles 475 8.4 7,189 4.6 15.1 4 or more axles 111 2.0 2,960 1.9 26.6 Combination trucks 1,811 32.0 105,896 67.3 58.5 Single-unit truck with trailer 106 1.9 2,674 1.7 25.3 4 axles 49 0.9 783 0.5 16.1 5 axles or more 57 1.0 1,891 1.2 33.1 Single-unit truck with utility trailer 162 2.9 2,098 1.3 13.0 3 axles 44 0.8 489 0.3 11.1 4 axles 97 1.7 1,285 0.8 13.3 5 axles or more 21 0.4 324 0.2 15.3 Truck tractor with single trailer 1,438 25.4 99,221 63.1 64.1 3 axles 78 1.4 2,183 1.4 28.0 4 axles 212 3.7 8,809 5.6 41.6 5 axles or more 1,149 20.3 81,229 51.6 70.7 Truck tractor with double trailers 101 1.8 8,467 5.4 83.8 5 axles 56 1.0 4,730 3.0 84.1 6 axles 24 0.4 2,239 1.4 93.3 7 axles or more 21 0.4 1,497 1.0 72.1 Truck tractor with triple trailers 5 0.1 437 0.3 97.1 7 axles 0.2 0.0 22 0.0 97.1 8 axles or more 4 0.1 415 0.3 97.3 Total trucks 5,665 100.0 157,364 100.0 27.8 TABLE 12 Existing U.S. truck fleet and vehicle miles of travel, 1994 and 2000 projections (5) Number of vehicles Vehicle miles traveled (in millions) Vehicle class 1994 2000 Percent share of truck fleet 1994 2000 Percent share of truck fleet 3-axle single-unit truck 594,197 693,130 24.9 8,322 9,707 7.6 4-axle or more single-unit truck 106,162 123,838 4.4 2,480 2,893 2.2 3-axle tractor-semitrailer 101,217 118,069 4.2 2,733 3,188 2.5 4-axle tractor-semitrailer 227,306 265,152 9.5 9,311 10,861 8.5 5-axle tractor-semitrailer 1,027,760 1,198,880 43.0 71,920 83,895 65.4 6-axle tractor-semitrailer 95,740 111,681 4.0 5,186 6,049 4.7 7-axle tractor-semitrailer 8,972 10,466 0.3 468 546 0.4 3- or 4-axle truck-trailer 87,384 101,934 3.6 1,098 1,280 1.0 5-axle truck-trailer 51,933 60,579 2.2 1,590 1,855 1.4 6-axle or more truck- trailer 11,635 13,572 0.5 432 503 0.4 5-axle double 51,710 60,319 2.2 4,512 5,263 4.1 6-axle double 7,609 8,876 0.3 627 731 0.6 7-axle double 7,887 9,201 0.3 542 632 0.5 8-axle or more double 9,319 10,871 0.4 650 759 0.6 Triples 1,203 1,404 0.0 108 126 0.1 Total 2,390,034 2,787,972 109,979 128,288

of these data are not stated in the CTSW report, but they are thought to be based, at least in part, on VIUS data. To make Tables 11 and 12 more comparable, Table 13 presents a revised version of Table 12 with data for two-axle single-unit trucks added (based on 1992 and 1997 VIUS data). Table 13 suggests that two-axle single-unit trucks constitute a much larger percentage of the truck population and of truck-miles than does Table 11. TRUCK LENGTH The lengths of trucks are constrained by truck size and weight regulations that are discussed in Chapter 2 of this report. Table 14 presents data on the distribution of truck lengths for specific truck types from the 1997 VIUS data. The table shows that most single-unit trucks are less than 11.0 m [36 ft] in length, while nearly all combination trucks are 13.7 m 18 [45 ft] or more in length. The table is not very informative about longer trucks because the greatest length category used in the VIUS is 13.7 m [45 ft] or more, which includes nearly all the tractor-trailer combinations. TRUCK GROSS WEIGHT The gross weight of trucks and the weights that can be car- ried on specific axle types are limited by truck size and weight regulations that are discussed in Chapter 2 of the report. Table 15 presents data on the distribution of gross vehicle weights for specific truck weights from the 1997 VIUS data. The table shows that most single-unit trucks have gross vehi- cle weights below 9,100 kg [20,000 lb], while most combina- tion trucks have weights of 27,300 kg [60,000 lb] or more. Approximately 3% of single-trailer combination trucks and 11% of double-trailer combination trucks operate at gross vehi- cle weights above 36,400 kg [80,000 lb]. Such operation is TABLE 13 Existing U.S. truck fleet and vehicle miles of travel, 1994 and 2000 projections including two- axle single-unit trucks (adapted from Reference 5) Number of vehicles Vehicle miles traveled (in millions) Vehicle class 1994 2000 Percent share of truck fleet 1994 2000 Percent share of truck fleet 2-axle single-unit truck 3,213,020 3,747,984 57.3 46,035 53,700 29.5 3-axle single-unit truck 594,197 693,130 10.6 8,322 9,707 5.3 4-axle or more single-unit truck 106,162 123,838 1.9 2,480 2,893 1.6 3-axle tractor-semitrailer 101,217 118,069 1.8 2,733 3,188 1.8 4-axle tractor-semitrailer 227,306 265,152 4.1 9,311 10,861 6.0 5-axle tractor-semitrailer 1,027,760 1,198,880 18.3 71,920 83,895 46.1 6-axle tractor-semitrailer 95,740 111,681 1.7 5,186 6,049 3.3 7-axle tractor-semitrailer 8,972 10,466 0.2 468 546 0.3 3- or 4-axle truck-trailer 87,384 101,934 1.6 1,098 1,280 0.7 5-axle truck-trailer 51,933 60,579 0.9 1,590 1,855 1.0 6-axle or more truck-trailer 11,635 13,572 0.2 432 503 0.3 5-axle double 51,710 60,319 0.9 4,512 5,263 2.9 6-axle double 7,609 8,876 0.1 627 731 0.4 7-axle double 7,887 9,201 0.1 542 632 0.4 8-axle or more double 9,319 10,871 0.2 650 759 0.4 Triples 1,203 1,404 0.0 108 126 0.1 Total 5,603,054 6,535,956 156,014 181,988 TABLE 14 Truck gross weight for specific truck types by truck-miles traveled (adapted from VIUS, 1997) (9) Single-unit trucks Single-unit truck with trailer Single-unit truck with utility trailer Truck-tractor with single trailer Truck-tractor with double trailer Truck-tractor with triple trailer Truck weight category (lb) (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % less than 19,501 27,717 53.9 306 11.2 998 47.6 343 0.4 0 0.0 0 0.0 19,501 - 26,000 8,476 16.5 200 7.3 395 18.8 880 1.0 177 2.1 0 0.0 26,001 - 33,000 5,039 9.8 115 4.2 261 12.5 1,652 1.8 26 0.3 0 0.0 33,001 - 40,000 1,720 3.3 186 6.8 113 5.4 3,381 3.7 825 9.8 369 89.8 40,001 - 50,000 3,119 6.1 229 8.4 85 4.1 9,262 10.0 364 4.3 0 0.0 50,001 - 60,000 2,588 5.0 133 4.9 102 4.9 8,641 9.4 1,189 14.0 0 0.0 60,001 - 80,000 2,757 5.4 1,205 44.0 116 5.5 65,688 71.2 4,916 58.1 42 10.2 80,001 - 100,000 45 0.1 225 8.2 15 0.7 1,828 2.0 311 3.7 0 0.0 100,001 - 130,000 7 0.0 119 4.4 13 0.6 426 0.5 485 5.7 0 0.0 130,001 and more 0 0.0 18 0.6 0 0.0 122 0.1 172 2.0 0 0.0 Total 51,467 100.0 2,736 100.0 2,098 100.0 92,221 100.0 8,463 100.0 410 100.0

19 TABLE 15 Truck gross weight for specific truck types by truck miles traveled (adapted from VIUS, 1997) (9) Single-unit trucks Single-unit truck with trailer Single-unit truck with utility trailer Truck-tractor with single trailer Truck-tractor with double trailer Truck-tractor with triple trailer Truck weight category (lb) (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % (106 mi) % less than 19,501 27,717 53.9 306 11.2 998 47.6 343 0.4 0 0.0 0 0.0 19,501 - 26,000 8,476 16.5 200 7.3 395 18.8 880 1.0 177 2.1 0 0.0 26,001 - 33,000 5,039 9.8 115 4.2 261 12.5 1,652 1.8 26 0.3 0 0.0 33,001 - 40,000 1,720 3.3 186 6.8 113 5.4 3,381 3.7 825 9.8 369 89.8 40,001 - 50,000 3,119 6.1 229 8.4 85 4.1 9,262 10.0 364 4.3 0 0.0 50,001 - 60,000 2,588 5.0 133 4.9 102 4.9 8,641 9.4 1,189 14.0 0 0.0 60,001 - 80,000 2,757 5.4 1,205 44.0 116 5.5 65,688 71.2 4,916 58.1 42 10.2 80,001 - 100,000 45 0.1 225 8.2 15 0.7 1,828 2.0 311 3.7 0 0.0 100,001 - 130,000 7 0.0 119 4.4 13 0.6 426 0.5 485 5.7 0 0.0 130,001 and more 0 0.0 18 0.6 0 0.0 122 0.1 172 2.0 0 0.0 Total 51,468 100.0 2,736 100.0 2,098 100.0 92,223 100.0 8,465 100.0 411 100.0 legal in commercial zones around many metropolitan areas and in other areas under permit. [Note: The data in the table for triple-trailer trucks are not credible; these data are probably based on a small sample.] TRUCKS ENTERING THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA AND MEXICO A substantial volume of trucks enter the United States from Canada and Mexico. In 1997, more than 9 million trucks entered the United States at the Canadian and Mexican bor- ders. This large volume of cross-border trucking is expected to increase as NAFTA implementation proceeds. Table 16 shows the annual number of trucks entering the United States from Canada for each major border crossing point, based on 1997 data. The table shows that two areas (Buffalo/Niagara Falls and Detroit/Port Huron), each with multiple crossings, account for more than 50% of trucks enter- ing the United States from Canada. Table 17 shows compara- ble data for trucks entering the United States from Mexico. One crossing (Laredo-Nuevo Laredo) accounts for more than 35% of trucks entering the United States from Mexico, and the three busiest crossings (i.e., Laredo, El Paso, and San Diego) together account for 68% of trucks entering the United States from Mexico. As noted in Chapter 2, the Canadian and Mexican borders operate differently in that Mexican trucks are, at present, not generally free to proceed to destinations in the United States away from the commercial zone along the border. Most truck crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border are drayage operations in which a trailer is moved from an industrial facility or ter- minal on one side of the border to another industrial facility or terminal not far away on the other side of the border. A recent study by Economic Data Resources found that the 4.2 million trucks entering the United States in 1999 were actually made by only 82,000 distinct vehicles (straight trucks or tractors), with an average of 52 crossings per vehicle per year (10). This is consistent with the nature of drayage operations, described above. Both the number of border crossings and the number of vehicles involved in those crossings is likely to increase when the border is fully opened. No broad-based quantitative data have been found on the types of trucks actually entering the United States from Canada and Mexico. Table 18 compares the distribution of truck types operating in the United States, Canada, and Mexico (11). The comparison of truck types in the United States, Canada, and Mexico shown in Table 18 probably suffers from some of the common definition problems discussed earlier. For exam- ple, the table shows a substantial number of six-axle doubles (3-S1-2) in the United States. In fact, five-axle doubles (2-S1-2), not shown in the table, are far more common in the United States than six-axle doubles (see Tables 11 and 12). It should be recognized that NAFTA does not permit Canadian or Mexican trucks entering the United States to violate established U.S. truck size and weight limits. Thus, NAFTA is not expected to result in new truck types operat- ing on U.S. highways. Canada and Mexico currently permit larger and heavier trucks than are permitted in the United States. However, any Canadian or Mexican truck that crosses the border must comply with applicable Federal and state laws in the United States, so the larger and heavier Canadian and Mexican trucks cannot cross the border and operate legally on U.S. highways. As noted in Chapter 2, the adoption of an international access network of truck routes is under consideration, and vehicle size and performance criteria for trucks operating in that network have been proposed, but not yet agreed on. How- ever, the proposed International Access Network (IAN) cri- teria limit single semitrailers to 16.2 m [53.2 ft] in length, equivalent to truck trailer lengths that already operate in many states. The proposed IAN criteria could permit trailer lengths of double-trailer trucks to increase from 8.7 m [28.5 ft] to approximately 9.3 m [30.5 ft], an increase of 0.6 m [2 ft]. However, such a change would require international agree- ment to be implemented. The assessment conducted in this research indicates that, overall, NAFTA should have very little effect on the sizes

20 TABLE 16 Number of trucks entering the U.S. from Canada, 1997 Border crossing point Number of trucks entering U.S. Percentage of trucks entering U.S. Maine-New Brunswick Calais-St. Stephen 125,713 2.2 Houlton-Woodstock (I-95) 103,153 1.8 Others (7 crossings) 88,629 1.5 Maine-Quebec Jackman-Armstrong 86,826 1.5 Vermont-Quebec Derby Line-Rock Island (I-91) 100,720 1.7 Highgate Spring-St. Armand (I-89) 99,133 1.7 Others (3 crossings) 53,692 0.9 New York-Quebec Champlain/Rouses Point-Lacolle (I-87) 298,933 5.2 Others (2 crossings) 13,389 2.3 New York-Ontario Alexandria Bay-Lansdowne (I-81) 219,956 3.8 Buffalo-Fort Erie/Niagara Falls 1,053,588 18.3 Others (2 crossings) 76,087 1.3 Michigan-Ontario Detroit-Windsor 1,419,728 24.6 Port Huron-Sarnia 679,441 11.8 Sault Ste. Marie 66,035 1.1 Minnesota-Ontario All (3 crossings) 88,052 1.5 Minnesota-Manitoba All (4 crossings) 18,013 0.3 North Dakota-Manitoba Pembina-Emerson (I-29) 152,110 2.6 Others (11 crossings) 58,991 1.0 North Dakota-Saskatchewan All (6 crossings) 90,225 1.6 Montana-Saskatchewan All (6 crossings) 20,035 0.3 Montana-Alberta Sweetgrass-Coutts (I-15) 111,962 1.9 Others (3 crossings) 3,522 0.1 Montana-British Columbia Roosville 20,875 0.4 Idaho-British Columbia All (2 crossings) 52,309 0.9 Washington-British Columbia Blaine-Surrey (I-5) 463,074 8.0 Others (11 crossings) 191,891 3.3 Alaska-British Columbia All (2 crossings) 6,643 0.1 Alaska-Yukon Alkan-Beaver Creek 5,346 0.1 TOTAL 5,768,071 SOURCES: U.S. Customs Service; DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics

and weights of trucks operating on U.S. highways. It is likely, however, that NAFTA will increase the volume of trucks operating on U.S. highways and could also result in a change in the mix of truck types in some areas or some highway cor- 21 ridors. Because the types of trucks that operate on U.S. high- ways will remain the same or nearly the same, NAFTA is not expected to have any major effect on geometric design poli- cies for U.S. highways. TABLE 17 Number of trucks entering the U.S. from Mexico, 1997 Border crossing point Number of trucks entering U.S. Percentage of trucks entering U.S. Texas-Tamaulipas Brownsville-Matamoros 247,578 7.0 Hidalgo-Reynosa 234,800 6.6 Laredo-Nuevo Laredo (I-35) 1,251,365 35.4 Texas-Coahuila Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras 116,715 3.3 Del Rio-Ciudad Acuna 71,656 2.0 Texas-Chihuahua El Paso-Juarez 582,707 16.5 Others (2 crossings) 4,920 0.1 New Mexico-Chihuahua Columbus-Palomas 2,305 0.1 Arizona-Sonora Douglas-Agua Prieta 35,718 1.0 Nogales (I-19) 242,830 6.9 San Luis 42,351 1.2 Others (3 crossings) 11,792 0.3 California-Baja California Norte Calexico-Mexicali 33,611 1.0 Tecate 61,804 1.7 San Diego-Tijuana (Otay Mesa) 567,715 16.1 Others (1 crossing) 2,647 0.1 TOTAL 3,510,514 SOURCES: U.S. Customs Service; DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics TABLE 18 Comparison of truck types used in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (11) Percentage of the total truck fleet Percentage of tonne-km transported Truck type Description U.S. Canada Mexico U.S. Canada Mexico Type 2 2-axle single-unit 47.9 9.7 38.9 12.5 – 7.8 Type 3 3-axle single-unit 11.2 2.3 19.8 6.8 – 14.8 2-S1 3-axle single-semitrailer 2.1 – – 2.3 – – 2-S2 4-axle single-semitrailer 5.7 – – 12.6 – – 3-S2 5-axle single-semitrailer 16.1 51.0 21.6 50.3 – 30.4 3-S3 6-axle single-semitrailer – 18.5 16.0 – – 39.6 3-S1-2 6-axle double 13.6 – – 9.9 – – 3-S2-2 7-axle double – 5.2 – – – – 3-S2-4 9-axle double – – 1.9 – – 6.0 3-S2-S2 7-axle double B-train – 5.3 – – – – 3-S3-S2 8-axle double B-train – 7.9 – – – – Others – 3.4 0.1 1.8 5.6 – 1.4

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