US Transportation and Warehousing Sector NAICS 48

Apr 21, 2025 - States Ease EV Truck Mandates

• Several of the ten states that have adopted California’s Advance Clean Trucking Programs (known as ACT) manufacturing model have eased mandates to increase the number of heavy-duty electric trucks by the end of 2025. New York is the latest state that is considering flexibility in the mandates, prompted by little progress on building EV charging infrastructure to power the trucks properly and not enough EV truck supply. Maryland and Massachusetts have already eased requirements and have called for more “bridge” solutions, such as increasing the use of biofuels, natural gas, and renewable diesel to still tackle the environmental challenges while states play catch-up on building EV infrastructure. Ironically, the aggressive timelines and costs have kept older trucks on the road longer, which has an adverse impact on environmental gains from electric trucks.
• The federal government wants to revive the US commercial shipbuilding industry and blunt China’s ocean freight dominance by expanding the number of US-flagged vessels capable of transporting vehicles, food, and fuel during wartime. There are currently less than 200 US commercial vessels available for such operations, and not enough mariners to fully operate them. The US has long outsourced shipbuilding and maintenance to the private sector in other countries, particularly in Europe, and those ships are not controlled by the US but are essentially rented out to carry American goods and be available to the Department of Defense in times of conflict. Trump signed an executive order in early 2025 instructing the government to come up with a plan in seven months to boost domestic shipbuilding and train and hire more mariners. The US hopes to eventually combat China’s control of almost 30% of all current vessels on the ocean.

• Mass transit in the US continued to grow with a 17% increase in ridership from 2022 to 2023, the most recent data available from the Federal Transit Administration. The data reflects rising American usage of buses, light rail, subways and other modes of public transportation by workers, students, and those traveling for weekend leisure time. US transit agencies provided 6.9 billion trips and moved passengers a total of 35 billion miles, both about a 17% increase in 2023 year over year. That is twice the growth of domestic air travel within the same period. Mass transit also had solid employment growth during the same period adding 10,000 jobs and boosting salaries by $1 billion, per the FTA data. By the end of 2023 about 388,000 people worked in operations, maintenance, and administrative mass transit positions.
• Transportation and warehousing sector employment increased moderately and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first 10 months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Transportation and warehousing sector prices increased slightly during the first 10 months of 2024. Transportation and warehousing sector sales are forecast to grow at a 4.2% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, comparable to the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.