United States Tank Trucking Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecast (2023-2028)

The size of United States Tank Trucking Market is USD 48.9 billion in the current year and is anticipated to register a CAGR of over 4.5% during the forecast period.

Key Highlights

• The US tank trucking market is expected to grow because the economy is getting stronger, technology is getting better, and more gas, oil, and chemical goods are being made and traded.
• Tank trucks are used on routes that can't be reached by rail or pipeline. The slow recovery of the US construction industry and the growth of the healthcare infrastructure are also expected to help the US market grow.
• Furthermore, they are used to transport chemicals including harmful substances. Tank trucks are used to transport dangerous goods typically; hence, US transporters are required to adhere to harsher rules and requirements.
• Operators in this sector transport a wide range of specialty items such as heavy machinery, frozen food, automobiles, coal, oil, iron ore, and gasses that cannot be transported by standard box trailers. The sector is heavily sensitive to American industrial activity and consumer expenditure fluctuations.
• However, the industry admits dangers from market instability around the world and in the US, including rising borrowing rates, inflation, and worries of a recession. Also, the price of crude oil is expected to fall around the world over the next five years. This will cut surcharges and hurt the performance of the US tank trucking business.
• The COVID-19 epidemic caused a disruption in the tank trucking industry on a global scale that had never happened before. This has made it hard to predict the demand and supply of vehicles in the United States. Due to lockdowns ordered by the government, most US tank truck manufacturers had to deal with serious problems like stopping all operations, having low manufacturing productivity, and not having enough workers.
• However, the post-pandemic situation sped up the FMCG and healthcare industries in the country, which directly helped the tank trucking industry in the country. There is still a demand for these things, even though a larger amount of that spending might be on less truck-intensive items like experiences rather than tangible goods. Restocking will also increase the need for freight, which will benefit the US tank trucking business.

United States Tank Trucking Market Trends

Fuel Tank Trailers as Petroleum Carriers Are Boosting the Market Growth in the US

• Across the US, billions of gallons of fuel tanker trucks are used to transport useful but highly flammable petroleum compounds like diesel, gasoline, benzene, CNG, jet fuel, and many others. Owing to the items' flammability, transporting them can result in dangerous scenarios both during loading and unloading at the destination and while traveling on the road.
• The Department of Transportation in the USA mandates that any ships transporting such petroleum and byproducts in bulk comply with DOT 406 standards and adhere to prescribed procedures for loading and discharging the product. The U.S. Department of Transportation has set minimum standards for loading and unloading fuel tank trailers to improve safety and convenience.
• These regulations call for the supervision of the loading and unloading of flammable goods into the tank trailer by a competent attendant. While loading and unloading, the vessel must always have a qualified person in charge of it. Attendees must be familiar with the extremely combustible goods they will be handling, per DOT regulations, to be admitted. Also, there is a need to always keep the attendant 25 feet (7.62 meters) away from the tank trailers. This is a walking distance in a straight line, not a field of vision.
• The trained person must constantly be on the lookout for any kind of odd circumstances that could be risky or challenging, the attendant must have an unimpeded view of the tank trailer and any hoses attached to it during loading and unloading are few of the others must to-dos in the process.
• Recently, many new entrants are found to be appearing as appealing tank truckers of petroleum products in the US. For instance, Sentinel Transportation, which transports crude oil, petroleum coke, fuel, and other items connected to oil, was originally a subsidiary of the oil firms Conoco and DuPont. It is now a subsidiary of Phillips 66. It is recognized as one of the best and largest crude oil and gasoline transportation fleets in the nation and runs over the entire US.
• Another example is the popular family-run business in the US, James J. Williams transports both liquid and dry cargo. The business has its headquarters in Cheney, Washington, and mostly serves the Pacific Northwest. Its tanker division, known as the JJW Tanker Division, operates in Canada, Washington, and Oregon. James J. Williams is a much smaller company than some, which many local drivers may find appealing. It hauls bulk chemical, food, and petroleum items with its 80 trucks and 115 trailers.

US Tank Trucking Industry Getting Benefited from Advanced Technologies

• In the past, US businesses have relied on tactics like increasing manpower and freight capacity, but supply chains become more dynamic and customer-focused every day. To get over the industry's bottleneck, they are using technology to create more autonomous and intelligent operations.
• Businesses like Tesla and Alphabet's Waymo are constantly developing AI systems to feed billions of miles of real-time data to AVs. Their goal is to make AVs that are fully autonomous at level 5. With or without a driver, tank trucks may soon be available at a moment's notice.
• A component of autonomous vehicle technology called platooning has the potential to end the ten-year truck driver shortage. Here, a group of self-driving vehicles would be closely linked (both physically and digitally), and then supercomputers running AI would control these trucks from afar. As part of this project, Daimler has been building and testing a semi-autonomous vehicle that can now legally drive on Nevada's public roads.
• The US tank trucking business has become more productive and easier to talk to thanks to improvements in satellite technology. Bill of lading information can be put into a simple dot matrix display screen that only shows text. The "Qualcomm" system is also known as OmniTRACS.
• This enables the communication between the driver and their dispatcher, who is often in charge of figuring out and telling the driver their drop-off and pick-up locations. The need to find the next public phone is no longer necessary since American truck drivers may now communicate load status information while still within the truck cab.
• The driver uses a keyboard to enter the information into an automatic system of macro messages that have already been set up. The loading and unloading procedure has macros for each step, such as "arrived at the ultimate destination" or "loaded and leaving
• Because of this technology, the company can also keep track of the driver's speed, gear choice, location, engine idling time, driving time, and travel direction. Every truck in the US is known as "a note on the system," according to the datasheet for the trucking business. This digital transparency is what is driving standards to transform the market globally, starting in the US.
• Also, truck drivers who use GPS satellite navigation systems don't have to use a paper map, which saves them time and work. Drivers can listen to the news, sports, commercial-free music, and talk radio coast to coast without signal interruption if they are ready to pay for a satellite-operating radio or work for an organization that does. So, the government is always putting money into the industry to help it grow.

United States Tank Trucking Market Competitor Analysis

In the United States, there are a lot of small and medium-sized players in the tank trucking market, which makes it hard to tell who is the strongest. The market is also highly competitive. Driver scarcity or availability has a significant impact on a player's ability to generate revenue.

As technology changes the shape, size, and structure of parts, the tank trucking business in the US is also changing. Manufacturers are putting a lot of effort into making lightweight parts and components that are reliable and strong and help trucks work better. The US tank trucking market is growing, and new technologies like artificial intelligence are being used, which is expected to keep the market growing.

Power cars using fuel are also stored throughout the nation using tank trucks. Construction of these power car trucks is more durable and robust when compared to other types of fuel tanks. These trucks are therefore in high demand across the nation.

Some of the most important companies in the United States tank trucking market are Kenan Advantage Group, Trimac Transportation Inc., Superior Bulk Logistics Inc., Martin Transport Inc., and Miller Transporters Inc.

Some other major players in the market are Dupre Logistics LLC, Foodliner/Quest Liner Inc., Ruan Transportation Management Systems, Groendyke Transport Inc., Tankstar USA, Eagle Transport Corp., Florida Rock & Tank Lines Inc., etc.

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• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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