Transportation & Warehousing

Transportation and Warehousing (NAICS 48-49) covers the movement of passengers and freight by air, rail, truck, water, and pipeline, plus warehousing, storage, and logistics support activities. The sector's structure reflects its modal diversity: UPS and FedEx dominate parcel delivery, Union Pacific and BNSF Railway (a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary) control the western Class I rail network, and J.B. Hunt and Schneider National rank among the largest truckload carriers.

Trucking generates the most revenue of any subsector and employs the most workers, moving roughly 72% of US freight tonnage according to the American Trucking Associations. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates trucking through hours-of-service rules, the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate, and the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse that tracks driver violations. Air cargo operates under FAA oversight, while the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regulates railroad rates and service standards.

Warehouse capacity has expanded sharply in the Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino, California), central New Jersey, and the Atlanta-Savannah corridor, driven by e-commerce fulfillment demand. Prologis, the largest industrial REIT, owns over 1 billion square feet of logistics space globally. Amazon operates more than 1,000 fulfillment and delivery stations in the US, making it both the sector's largest customer and an increasingly direct competitor to established carriers.