All five major transportation modes—truck, rail, pipeline, vessel and air—carried less US freight by value with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico in January 2016 than in January 2015. The total value of cross-border freight carried on all modes fell 7.7 percent from 2015 to $82.4 billion in current dollars, according to the TransBorder Freight Data released today by the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
The value of commodities moving by truck declined 1.5 percent, the smallest decrease from 2015 to 2016 of any mode. The value of freight on other modes also declined: vessel 37.3 percent; pipeline 32.7 percent; air 12.8 percent; and rail 3.5 percent. A drop in the price of crude oil in 2015 played a key role in the large declines in the dollar value of goods shipped by vessel and pipeline.
Trucks carried 66.5 percent of US-NAFTA freight and continued to be the most heavily utilized mode for moving goods to and from both US-NAFTA partners. Trucks accounted for $28.4 billion of the $44.6 billion of imports (63.7 percent) and $26.4 billion of the $37.9 billion of exports (69.7 percent).
Rail remained the second largest mode by value, moving 15.2 percent of all US-NAFTA freight, followed by vessel, 5.3 percent; pipeline, 4.8 percent; and air, 3.7 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 86.4 percent of the total value of US-NAFTA freight flows.
From January 2015 to January 2016, the value of US-Canada freight flows fell 12.7 percent to $42.0 billion as all modes of transportation carried a lower value of US-Canada freight than a year earlier.
Trucks carried 60.5 percent of the value of the freight to and from Canada but the total was down 4.0 percent from January 2015 primarily because of a 9.3 percent decline in the value of US exports to Canada by truck. Rail carried 15.9 percent followed by pipeline, 8.8 percent; air, 4.4 percent; and vessel, 3.9 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 85.2 percent of the value of total US-Canada freight flows.
From January 2015 to January 2016, the value of US-Mexico freight fell 1.8 percent to $40.5 billion as three out of the five transportation modes carried more US-Mexico freight value than in January 2015. Freight carried by rail increased by 8.2 percent. Truck freight value rose 0.7 percent while air freight value increased 0.6 percent. Vessel freight value decreased by 33.8 percent, while pipeline freight dropped by 4.0 percent, both due mainly to lower crude oil prices.
Trucks carried 72.6 percent of the value of freight to and from Mexico. The total was up because the 4.0 percent growth in US imports by truck outweighed the decline in exports. Rail, carried 14.4 percent followed by vessel, 6.3 percent; air, 2.9 percent; and pipeline, 0.7 percent. The surface transportation modes of truck, rail and pipeline carried 87.7 percent of the value of total US-Mexico freight flows.