ARE TRUCKERS LUCKY? OR JUST BETTER? : HOW MOTOR CARRIERS TOOK FAST FREIGHT AWAY FROM RAILROADS

Abstract

This article examines the process by which motor carriers took freight business away from railroads. Today they carry more than 70% of domestic freight by value, more than 85% by gross revenues. The reasons go beyond trucks' use of publicly financed highways. Among them are: shorter, faster routes because today's highways correspond better to modern population centers than 19th-century rail lines, pay-as-you go costs for using highways, decentralization and deregulation and entrepreneurial management.