The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that in August trucks moved more than 65 percent of all the international freight – with trains, planes, ships and pipelines picking up the rest. Truck and air freight were the only modes to experience an increase compared to last August.
The value of freight hauled across the borders increased by more than 11 percent compared with July when freight was down nearly 10 percent from the previous month. August marks the largest month-to-month increase since March 2015.
Compared to August 2015, freight was up 0.7 percent, the first year-to-year increase since December 2014 when freight increased by more than 5 percent. Year-to-year, NAFTA freight was down every month since then.
Trucks were responsible for nearly $61 billion of the $93.1 billion of imports and exports in August. Rail came in second with more than $14 billion.
Vessel and pipeline freight when compared with last year contributed to the yearly decline in U.S.-NAFTA trade flow because of plummeting crude oil prices, according to BTS. Freight totalled $93.126 billion, up more than $9 billion from the previous month and an increase of nearly $700 million from August 2015.
Vessel freight experienced the steepest decline at 12.5 percent, half of July’s drop of 25.1 percent. Trucks had a 3.4 percent increase, the second highest increase next to air freight at 4.9 percent.
Nearly 60 percent of U.S.-Canada freight was moved by trucks, followed by rail at 16.5 percent. U.S.-Mexico freight went up by 3 percent compared with August 2015. Of the $45.8 billion of freight moving in and out of Mexico, trucks carried more than 71 percent of the loads.
