Fun Facts about Freight Trucks

Published by Joe Webster.

What's in this article?

What Exactly Is a Cargo Truck?
Fun Facts about Trucks and Trucking
How Long Does It Take to Become a Driver of a Freight Truck?
The Life of a Freight Truck Driver
Interesting Facts about the Inside of a Freight Truck
Weird but True Facts about Freight Trucks
Fatalities Due to Truck Collisions
Conclusion

The sight of a big yellow truck on the road usually means one thing – there's freight somewhere nearby.

Freight trucks are essential for transporting goods from manufacturers to warehouses and directly to stores.

These massive vehicles can carry as much as 33,000 pounds of cargo at once – that's almost 15 elephants!

Although you probably won't meet that many freight drivers in your everyday life, these professionals have an essential job that requires extensive training, knowledge, and skill.

If you're interested in becoming a freight truck driver yourself one day or want to know more about this profession, read on to learn more facts about freight trucks you probably didn't know.

What Exactly Is a Cargo Truck?

A freight truck is a massive vehicle used to transport heavy cargo. Often, these trucks are designed to carry containers, crates, or pallets of cargo.

Many different types of trucks are used for transporting freight, making it possible to use them in different kinds of weather conditions and road conditions.

As you can imagine, an 18-wheeler can carry a lot more freight than a pickup truck or a passenger car. If a customer needs a truckload of goods hauled, a trucker will be required to transport it. One truckload can be used to haul a wide variety of commodities.

Freight trucks are typically outfitted with interior security features, such as metal cages, lock boxes, and cameras.

These features allow drivers to protect their cargo while on the road and parked.

15 Fun Facts about Trucks and Trucking

Trucks are big. They're heavy. And they're everywhere. From tractor trailers to garbage trucks, there are more than 10 million miles of roadways in the U.S., and more than 80 million Americans depend on truck drivers for their livelihood.

But what exactly do truck drivers do? What does it take to become one of those long-haul truck drivers?

In honor of national truck driver appreciation week, we've compiled some fun facts about trucks, truckers, and the trucking industry. Here are 15 things you might not know about the men and women behind the wheel.

Only 6% of the transportation business workforce comprises women.
Truckers who work for small businesses log over 3 million miles yearly, an annual average of over 115,000 miles further than the average American drives.
On average, truck drivers spend more than 240 nights away from their families throughout the year.
In the United States, 70% of all freight is transported by Class 8 vehicles.
In just the past three years, sales of class 8 trucks have surged by a whopping 45 percent.
In the United States of America alone, the trucking industry is responsible for the employment of 8.9 million people. 3.5 million of those people are truck drivers.
90% of the labor force in the trucking industry consists of small businesses.
Despite accounting for only 7% of all traffic, truckers are responsible for contributing around 36% of the taxes and fees that are paid into the Highway Trust Fund.
The average amount of fuel that a commercial truck uses in one year is 20,500 gallons.
Thanks to advances in clean diesel technology, 60 modern trucks may now produce the same amount of pollution as a single truck from the year 1988.
Over the past two decades, EPA restrictions have contributed to a decrease of more than 95% in the pollutants emitted by heavy trucks.
There are approximately 15.5 million active trucks in the United States trucking industry.
If every automobile in the United States was working together, they could drive to the moon.
In 1914, German-American blacksmith Charles Freuhauf constructed the first tractor-trailer to tow his boat. His motivation was to make hauling his boat easier.
It is anticipated that the trucking market will expand by as much as 21% during the next ten years.

How Long Does It Take to Become a Driver of a Freight Truck?

A professional driver's license is mandatory for employment as a freight truck driver. An average of one year is required to obtain a CDL.

It should be pointed out that you'll need to be at least 21 years old to start the training program to get your CDL.

A truck driver's education can be split into the commercial driver's license (CDL) phase and the specialized training phase.

Truckers must earn a commercial driver's license (CDL) before they start specialized training. The majority of truck drivers acquire their CDL through a college education program.

The length of a CDL program varies, but it usually takes about 8 to 12 months to complete it.

Freight truck driving jobs usually require at least two years of experience behind the wheel, so it's best to get started early.

The Life of a Freight Truck Driver

Freight truck drivers are on the road so often that they practically live in their trucks.

For example, one driver might start his route in Portland, Oregon, drive to Denver, Colorado, sleep in the cab, wake up the following day and go to Houston, Texas.

While driving is the primary responsibility of a freight truck driver, it's not the only one. Once they're on the road, they also need to be focused on the truck's condition and how it's operating.

They are also responsible for ensuring the safety of the cargo within the car, taking care of any paperwork related to the load, and communicating with customers and dispatchers.

Interesting Facts about the Inside of a Freight Truck

Freight trucks are loud. The inside of a freight truck can be up to 30 decibels louder than a motorcycle. Drivers often wear earplugs and noise-canceling headphones to protect their hearing.
They can be hot – Drivers sometimes open the windows to protect from the heat. While it's not ideal, it's the best choice for staying calm. But sometimes, it's unavoidable. Trucks often have air conditioning units that run off diesel fuel. This means that when diesel prices are high, the trucks can't run the air conditioning all the time.

Weird but True Facts about Freight Trucks

Even though freight trucks are massive vehicles, they can sometimes get stuck in the mud. This isn't as uncommon as you might think. There are unique places (called mud bogs) dedicated to watching trucks get stuck.
With so many trucks driving on the road, many drivers can't help but notice that their accomplice truckers are taking excessive breaks. It's estimated that about 75% of the freight trucks on the road are idling their engines. This means that even if a trucker is "resting," they're wasting gas.

Fatalities Due to Truck Collisions

Most people have heard of a car accident where someone was killed by another vehicle, but a truck accident?

The contrast between these types of catastrophes is startling and dramatic. People involved in automobile collisions are forty times more likely to pass away than those in truck collisions.

This difference is due to a few factors, including the size of the vehicles, the speed at which they travel, and the fact that cars are smaller than trucks and can be more easily crushed.