Trucking Drives the Economy

• Employment: In 2008, the trucking industry in Maine provided 30,669 jobs, or one out of 16 in the state. Total trucking industry wages paid in Maine in 2008 exceeded $1.1 billion, with an average annual trucking industry salary of $36,569.  In May 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that truck drivers, heavy, tractor-trailer and light, delivery drivers, held 13,820 jobs with a mean annual salary of $32,190.
• Small Business Emphasis: There are 7,323 trucking companies located in Maine, most of them small, locally owned businesses. These companies are served by a wide range of supporting businesses both large and small.
• Transportation of Essential Products: Trucks transported 90.1 percent of total manufactured tonnage in the state in 2008 or 188,087 tons per day.  Over 84 percent of communities depend exclusively on trucks to move their goods.

• As an industry: In 2007, the trucking industry in Maine paid approximately $181.1 million in federal and state roadway taxes and fees. The industry paid 37 percent of all taxes and fees owed by Maine motorists, despite trucks representing only 9.3 percent of vehicle miles traveled in the state.
• Individual Companies: In 2009, a typical five-axle tractor-semitrailer combination pays $9,748 in state highway user fees and taxes in addition to $8,959 in federal user fees and taxes. These taxes were over and above the typical taxes paid by businesses in Maine.
• Roadway Use: In 2007, Maine had 22,792 miles of public roads over which all motorists traveled 15 billion miles. Trucking’s use of Maine public roads was 1.39 billion miles in 2007.

• Continually Improving: At the national level, the truck-involved fatal crash rate for 2007 was 1.85 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles of travel (VMT). This rate is at its lowest point since the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) began keeping these records in 1975. The injury crash rate for 2007 was 31.8 injury crashes per 100 million vehicle miles of travel (VMT), also at its lowest point since DOT recordkeeping began.
• Sharing the Road: The trucking industry is committed to sharing the road safely with all vehicles. The Share the Road program sends a team of professional truck drivers to communities around the country to teach car drivers about truck blind spots, stopping distances and safe merging around large trucks, all designed to reduce the number of car-truck accidents.
• Safety First: Maine Motor Transport Association members put safety first through improved driver training, investment in advanced safety technologies and active participation in industry safety initiatives at the local, state and national levels.