U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Vehicle Technologies Program

Fact #356: January 24, 2005
Trucks and Truck-Miles

The Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey (VIUS) produces state and national statistics on the physical and operational characteristics of the U.S. truck population and is conducted every five years. The 2002 VIUS data were released by the Bureau of the Census in December 2004. According to the survey, in 2002 there were 85 million trucks in the United States that were driven 1,115 billion miles, for an average of 13,100 miles per truck.

A graph showing that the number of trucks in the United States has risen steadily from 1977 to 2002
A graph showing that the number of miles driven by trucks in the United States has risen substantially between 1977 and 2002
A graph showing that the average number of miles driven per truck in the United States has held fairly steady from 1977 to 2002

Supporting Information

 

Year Number of trucks
(millions)		 Truck miles
(billions)		 Average annual miles
per truck
(thousands)
1977 26.2 313 11.9
1982 33.8 377 11.2
1987 44.6 529 11.9
1992 59.2 786 13.3
1997 72.8 1,044 14.3
2002 85.2 1,115 13.1
Source:  U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey,
U.S. Summary, December 2004, and earlier U.S. Summaries.

 

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