The trucking industry drives
Maryland's
economy, delivering the goods and creating good jobs for our
citizens.
People
The trucking industry employs
148,000 people in Maryland—one out of every seventeen
workers.
Trucking pays over $6.9
billion annually in wages and salaries—an average of $46,475 for each
employee, far higher than the state's overall average wage.
Maryland has over 170,000 CDL
holders.
Freight Movement and Economic
Importance
Trucks move 90% of the
manufactured freight moving in and out of Maryland each year.
Every business day, trucks
move 533,000 tons of essential goods, such as clothing, electronics, farm
supplies, and household necessities.
Trucking serves every
community in Maryland. Over 93% of all Maryland communities
depend exclusively on trucks for freight service, making our state one of the
most truck-dependent states in the country.
Safety
Continuing efforts by the
Maryland
trucking industry to improve safety for all highway users through better
regulation and enforcement, as well as public education and driver training,
have succeeded. Heavy trucks in Maryland are involved in less than 10% of
all accidents.
Maryland law enforcement officers
inspect over 95,000 trucks each year.
The
national fatal accident rate for heavy trucks is at its lowest point since the
U.S. Department of Transportation began keeping these statistics in
1975.
Taxes
An operator of a typical
five-axle tractor trailer pays $15,872 in state and federal highway user
taxes. That includes $6,913 paid directly to the state of Maryland.
The Maryland trucking
industry pays $552 million in state and federal taxes and fees each year, or
31 percent of all taxes and fees paid by all motorists, even though trucks
represent only 7.7% of the vehicle miles traveled in the state.