Modern Roadways Sparked Creation of Longhaul Trucking Industry

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hen President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act and the Highway Revenue Act on June 29, 1956, visionaries then might have realized he was ushering in the interstate highway era. But hardly anyone at the time could have predicted that Ike was also creating an entirely new industry — interstate trucking.

Until completion of the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, trucking operated very locally.

Statistics from that era prove the point. In 1956, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), all drivers recorded a total of 627.8 million miles. Of that total, truck combinations (semi-trailers) produced 28,854 million miles. The more popular two-axle, six-tire straight trucks (Class 5) produced 98,551 million miles. Today, Americans log more than 2.829 trillion miles a year on the 46,837-mile interstate system.

For the full story, see the June 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.