Source: BTS.

Average Length of Haul, Domestic Freight in the United States, 1960-2004

Modal and intermodal competition have provided substantial changes in the average domestic freight haul length. The development of the Interstate highway system is linked with the doubling or truck haul length from 272 miles in 1960 to 485 miles in 2001. The growth of the average haul length for rail transportation is linked with increased competition from trucking as well as the establishment of transcontinental landbridges between the East and the West coasts. The decline in the average haul length for air transport is mainly the outcome of the setting of hub-and-spoke networks by major parcel distributors such as UPS and Fedex.

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