Heavy Truck Travel Across the United States


Trucks lie at the core of a functioning global economy. Each day, millions of trucks deliver a wide range of goods across the United States. Prioritizing the development of infrastructure that supports safe and sustainable freight mobility is crucial to ensuring the efficiency of supply chain movements. Heavy trucks are particularly important to consider.

What are Heavy Trucks?

Heavy trucks are commercial vehicles that weigh over 26,000 pounds. Trucks of this classification are subject to strict legislation to minimize damage to the road network and ensure the protection of street users and vehicle operators alike. Higher restrictions are placed on where these vehicles are permitted to operate, and robust regulation surrounds maximum drive times and mandated rest periods for drivers.

GettyImages-1477217126


Spatial considerations play an intrinsic role in understanding the movements of trucks. Truck travel patterns in central states such as Ohio and Missouri will differ significantly from areas containing seaports, such as Texas and Florida, due to their unique geographical situation.

Such patterns can be observed using LOCUS Truck, which utilizes thoroughly cleaned and validated connected vehicle and telematics data. These data are visualized in an interface that can be used by anyone, regardless of skill or technical expertise.

How They Move

We have studied and compared heavy truck movements across six areas: California, Florida, Missouri, New York/New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas. Heavy truck trip percentages are calculated as their share of total truck trips in each respective state.

  • Long Distance Travel Patterns

Heavy trucks in Missouri, Ohio, and Texas occupy higher shares of long-distance trips, compared to California, Florida, and the greater New York/New Jersey area. 

Studying statewide trip lengths for heavy trucks reveals that California, Florida, and NY/NJ have significantly higher shares of short distance trips. The proximity to ports and large warehouses in these areas is one possible explanation for this contrast.

LD - HT

  • Vocational Distributions

These observations cohere with the variation in trip vocation of heavy truck movements. Missouri and Ohio have the highest number of long haul (long distance) trips, whereas New York and New Jersey have the highest number of door-to-door (short distance) trips.

V - HT

  • Late-Night Trips with Out-of-State Destinations

When studying heavy truck trips with external destinations, the variation in nighttime patterns is also interesting to note. The table below shows the increase in nighttime travel between 7 PM and 6 AM for heavy trucks when only trips with out-of-state destinations are selected.

Night

California

Florida

Missouri

NY/NJ

Ohio

Texas

All Trips

22%

18%

15%

15%

15%

20%

External

34%

25%

26%

26%

24%

28%

Why This Matters

Closely monitoring truck movements through connected devices and other tools that collect regular and reliable data is imperative to enabling smooth freight operation. Access to raw data, however, is not enough. Whether your concerns pertain to truck parking, safety, electrification, or minimizing congestion, the ability to glean quick and straightforward insights is at the cornerstone of effective planning.

State of Texas, Truck

Heavy Truck Trips in the State of Texas, LOCUS Truck

In addition to optimizing for general safety and sustainability, it is also important to develop strategic redundancies to mitigate disruptions caused by unprecedented events. While these cannot be predicted, it is possible to identify areas with higher truck volumes and make informed investment decisions with prioritization frameworks that are backed by dependable data.

Looking for insights into how trucks travel in your region? Want to learn about where more truck parking infrastructure is needed, or where there is the highest demand for truck electrification? We would love to hear from you. Contact us to learn how you can start using LOCUS Truck today.

Curious to learn about how LOCUS can be used for your planning needs? 

Request a demo

Stay in the loop!

Be the first to know whenever there's a new post on our blog, where we share insights into all things big data and travel behavior.

Subscribe