The U.S. trucking industry hauled more goods in 2006 than ever before in a single year, the American Trucking Associations recently reported.

The trucking industry hauled 69 percent of the total volume of freight transported in the United States in 2006, according to the ATA’s issue of American Trucking Trends 2007-2008. This equates to an all-time high carrying load of 10.7 billion tons, and $645.6 billion in revenue, representing 83.8 percent of the nation’s freight bill, the ATA said.

“Americans should understand that their national economy is directly linked to freight transportation,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “Trucking is the driving force behind our great economy. Safe, reliable and efficient motor carriers enable businesses throughout the entire supply chain to keep inventories lean, thereby saving the economy billions of dollars each year,” he said.

American Trucking Trend also reported that more than 26 million trucks of all classes played a part in reaching the tonnage milestone. Of this number, 2.9 million were typical Class 8 trucks operated by more than 750,000 interstate motor carriers.

Class 8 trucks drove 130.5 billion miles of the total 414 billion miles traveled by all weight classes used for business purposes in 2005. The nation’s truck fleet consumed 52.8 billion gallons of fuel, both diesel and gasoline. The trucking industry spent about $111 billion on diesel fuel in 2007, up from $103.3 billion in 2006. Commercial trucks paid $35.2 billion in federal and state highway-user taxes in 2005.