BTS | Water Transport Profile

Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)

About RITA
- Key Officials
- Organizational Chart
- Do Business with Us
- Publications
- Laws and Regulations

Communities of Interest

Press Room
- Press Releases
- Upcoming Press Releases
- What's New

RITA Offices

Site Map

About BTS

Bookstore

BTS Press Room

Data and Statistics

External Links

Programs

BTS Home > Publications > National Transportation Statistics > 2000

Water Transport Profile

Excel | CSV

Financial	1960	1970	1980	1990	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Operating revenues ($ millions)
Domestic freight	1,722ⁱ	2,070ⁱ	7,219ⁱ	7,940ⁱ	7,745ⁱ	7,712ⁱ	7,684ⁱ	^R6,901ⁱ	6,886ⁱ
Coastal waterways	747	834	3,155	3,066	2,929	2,774	2,782	^R2,169ⁱ	2,115ⁱ
Inland waterways	461	621	2,395	2,956	2,868	2,964	3,044	^R2,860	2,801
Great lakes	227	239	513	615	577	585	579	^R615	612
Locks, channels	287	376	1,156	1,303	1,371	1,389	1,279	1,257	1,358
International freight^h	1,765	3,187	8,279	12,181	13,405	^R14,069	17,281	^R14,091	15,679
Passenger, total	281	287	304	^R1,386	^R1,539	^R1,709	^R1,800	^R1,180	1,147
Domestic passenger, intercity	14	12	21	^R99^u	^R120^u	^R129^u	^R141^u	^R141^u	147^u
International passenger^a	267	275	283	1,287ⁱ	1,419ⁱ	1,580ⁱ	1,659ⁱ	^R1,039ⁱ	1,000ⁱ
Revenues of U.S. commercial fishing
Fleet (domestic landings) ($ millions)	354^j	613^j	2,237^j	3,522^j	3,809^j	3,770^j	3,487^j	^R3,448^j	3,128^j
Inventory
Number of domestic inland
Vessel operators^b	228^k	380^k	403^k	565^k	555^k	557^k	554^k	U	U
Number of employees
Ships, boat building, and repairing	141,200^l	171,800^l	220,500^l	187,700^m	158,200^m	159,600ⁿ	158,800ⁿ	^R158,300ⁿ	165,900ⁿ
Water transportation^c	N	212,300	211,200	176,600	172,400	174,500	174,100	^R178,700	180,000
Number of employees^d
Passenger/combo	8,560^o	2,178^o	618^o	642^o	642^o	642^o	321^o	321^o	321^o
Cargo	28,668	22,257	9,878	7,019	6,056	5,400	4,964	4,831	4,924
Tankers	12,053	10,567	8,722	4,471	4,626	4,261	3,965	3,785	3,711
Total	49,281	35,000	19,218	12,132	11,324	10,303	9,250	8,937	8,956
Mileage of commercially Navigable channels	25,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ	^R26,000ⁱ	26,000ⁱ
Number of vessels
Total nonself-propelled	16,777^p	19,377^p	31,662^p	31,209^p	30,730^p	31,360^p	32,811^p	33,011^p	33,509^p
Dry cargo barges and scows	14,025	15,890	27,426	27,091	26,723	27,342	28,743	29,006	29,526
Tankers	2,429	3,281	4,166	3,913	3,966	3,985	4,036	3,971	3,952
Railroad car floats	323	206	70	13	34	33	32	34	31
Total self-propelled	6,543	6,455	7,126	8,236	8,334	8,281	8,293	8,408	8,523
Dry cargo/passenger	1,796	1,761	2,036	2,678	2,785	2,804	2,782	2,905	2,938
Ferries, railroad car	31	17	67	135	175	172	173	183	213
Tankers	489	421	330	213	195	178	161	147	135
Towboats/tugs	4,203	4,248	4,693	5,210	5,179	5,127	5,177	5,173	5,237
U.S. merchant marine ships(over 1,000 gross tons)
Total U. S. flag	2,926^q	1,579^q	864^q	636^q	543^q	509^q	495^q	477	470
Passenger/cargo	309	171	65	10	13	13	15	14	12
Freighters	2,138	1,076	471	367	308	295	292	288	289
Bulk carriers	57	38	20	26	22	20	15	14	15
Tankers	422	294	308	233	200	181	173	161	154
Privately owned	1,008	U	578	408	354	319	302	285	281
Government owned	1,918	U	286	228	189	190	193	192	189
Number of recreational boats (thousands)^e	2,500^r	7,400^r	^R8,905^r	^R10,996^r	^R11,430^r	^R11,735^r	^R11,878^r	12,313^r	12,567^r
Performance
Ton-miles (thousands)^f
Domestic water freight
Coastwise	N	359,784,000^s	631,149,247^s	479,133,600^s	457,600,661^s	440,345,100^s	408,086,100^s	349,843,000^s	314,863,900^s
Internal	N	155,816,000	227,342,991	292,393,300	297,762,360	306,329,100	296,790,600	^R294,023,000	294,896,400
Lakewise	N	79,416,000	61,747,114	60,929,900	58,263,444	^R59,703,800	58,335,300	^R62,165,900	61,654,300
Intraport	N	1,179,000	1,596,412	1,087,000	1,292,733	1,349,600	1,474,500	1,378,100	1,380,700
Total	N	596,195,000	921,835,764	853,543,800	814,919,198	748,023,800	764,686,500	^R707,409,900	672,795,000
Tons of freight hauled (thousands)
Domestic
Coastwise	209,197	238,440	329,609	298,637	277,029	266,612	267,389	^R263,146	249,633
Internal	291,057	472,123	534,979	622,595	618,409	620,324	622,081	^R630,558	625,028
Lakewise	155,109	157,059	115,124	110,159	114,777	116,127	114,870	^R122,734	122,156
Intraport^R	104,193	81,475	94,184	86,378	82,870	83,104	89,011	^R89,816	90,077
Intraterritory	1,017	1,630	3,588	4,529	5,926	6,868	7,327	^R6,273	7,217
Total	760,573	950,727	1,077,483	1,122,299	1,099,011	1,093,035	1,100,679	^R1,112,527	1,094,112
Exports
Great lakes ports	23,150	35,932	45,077	32,898	27,108	32,968	31,855	33,209	36,876
Coastal ports	104,810	205,698	358,806	408,688	369,138	441,732	418,940	399,104	367,831
Total	127,961	241,629	403,883	441,586	369,246	474,700	450,794	432,313	404,708
Imports
Great lakes ports	12,851	26,406	15,515	17,578	23,028	18,897	24,503	24,532	25,558
Coastal ports	198,466	312,934	502,006	582,412	696,469	653,760	708,090	763,771	815,122
Total	211,316	339,340	517,521	599,970	719,497	672,657	732,593	788,303	840,680
Average haul, domesticsystem (miles)^f
Coastwise	1,496	1,509	1,915	1,604	1,652	1,652	1,526	1,330	1,261
Internal	282	330	405	^R470	482	494	477	466	472
Lakewise	522	506	536	553	508	514	508	507	505
Cargo capacity (short tons)
Total nonself-propelled vessels	16,355,657^p	24,026,024^p	44,875,116^p	^R48,946,785^p	49,708,960^p	51,140,530^p	54,086,973^p	54,974,961^p	55,999,952^p
Dry cargo barges	12,147,006	17,695,275	34,486,851	^R38,189,490	38,643,518	39,971,443	42,748,644	43,710,093	44,718,691
Tankers	4,208,651	6,330,749	10,388,265	^R10,757,295	11,065,442	11,169,087	11,338,329	11,264,868	11,281,261
Total self-propelled vessels	15,905,881	19,284,050	23,906,346	19,723,788	16,867,458	15,783,399	14,850,253	14,161,739	12,970,167
Dry cargo/passenger	12,188,956	10,815,977	8,011,587	7,042,263	7,118,193	6,484,707	6,208,011	6,685,719	6,371,425
Tankers	3,716,925	8,468,073	15,894,753	12,681,525	9,749,265	9,298,692	8,642,242	7,476,020	6,598,742
Fuel consumption (thousand barrels)
Diesel fuel and distillate	18,730ⁱ	19,503ⁱ	35,201ⁱ	52,310ⁱ	48,260ⁱ	47,098ⁱ	51,848ⁱ	50,180ⁱ	50,609ⁱ
Residual fuel oil	94,084	89,850	213,131	148,764	141,544	153,125	138,213	114,044	110,480
Gasoline	9,200	14,238	25,048	30,962	20,850	25,250	23,659	^R23,659	22,767
Total	122,014	123,591	273,380	232,036	210,654	225,473	213,720	^R187,883	183,856
Safety
Fatalities in waterborne transport (vessel casualties only)
Freight	N	30^t	8^t	0^t	0^t	0^t	0^t	2^t	0^t
Tankship	N	4	4	5	3	0	0	0	0
Passenger vessel	N	1	5	3	4	4	2	1	3
Tug/towboat	N	22	14	13	1	1	1	4	1
Offshore supply	N	N	N	2	1	2	2	0	3
Fishing vessel	N	77	60	47	38	18	38	22	35
Recreational vessel	N	N	N	3	12	20	3	7	5
MODU^g	N	N	N	0	1	0	0	4	0
Platform	N	N	N	1	2	0	1	0	1
Freight barge	N	N	N	0	0	0	0	5	2
Tank barge	N	H	N	0	0	0	0	0	0
Miscellaneous	N	44	56	11	7	1	3	1	9
Total	N	178	206	85	69	46	50	46	59
Injuries in waterborne transport
Freight	N	14	8	10	6	1	0	3	4
Tankship	N	19	9	13	10	5	5	1	0
Passenger vessel	N	10	10	51	39	50	60	37	29
Tug/towboat	N	10	27	19	17	18	12	20	15
Offshore supply	N	N	N	9	3	10	7	3	5
Fishing Vessel	N	13	28	31	51	32	32	25	33
Recreational vessel	N	N	N	2	16	19	7	5	6
MODU^g	N	N	N	13	0	0	0	2	0
Platform	N	N	N	9	3	1	0	0	1
Freight barge	N	N	N	3	0	0	0	6	1
Tank barge	N	H	N	3	3	3	1	0	0
Miscellaneous	N	39	98	12	31	6	5	7	13
Total	N	105	180	175	179	145	129	109	107
Fatalities in recreational boating (vessel casualties only)
Air thrust	N	N	N	N	N	4^r	1^r	6^r	11^r
Propeller	N	N	N	N	N	475	363	^R436	462
Inboard	N	119^r	100^r	50^r	36^r	N	N	N	N
Outboard	N	774	609	454	341	N	N	N	N
Inboard/outboard	N	28	47	53	49	N	N	N	N
Jet	N	N	10	25	58	68	61	83	82
Sail	N	44	43	20	13	4	8	15	5
Manual (oars, paddle)	N	205	272	182	140	148	109	150	151
Other	N	29	14	5	12	8	8	10	0
Propulsion unknown	N	219	265	76	135	122	159	121	104
Total	739^r	1,418	1,360	865	784	829	709	821	815

KEY: N = data do not exist; R = revised; U = data are not available.
^aRevenues paid by American travelers to U.S. and foreign flag carriers.
^bDoes not include vessel operators whose primary area of operation is fishing, towing, passenger transport, ferrying, or crew boat utility service.
^cIncludes commercial port, marina, and other employees; excludes employees of non-for-hire private businesses.
^dEstimate based on established active jobs for licensed and unlicensed personnel aboard oceangoing ships of 1,000 gross-tons and over, privately owned and operated, government-owned ships under bare boat charters, ship managers and General Agency Agreement, supplemented by Military Sealift Command employment totals for ships with Civil Service crews.
^eThe U.S. Coast Guard changed its methodology for counting the number of recreational boats.Figures cited represent number of numbered boats, not estimates as previously noted for 1960 and 1970.
^fDoes not include intraterritorial traffic (traffic between ports in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, which are considered a single unit).

^gMobile Offshore Drilling Units.
^hThe international water freight operating revenues data was revised in Transportation in America 1998 for all years expect 1994 & 1996. Therefore, the international water frieght data for years 1994 & 1996 may not be comparable to other years.
SOURCES: Unless otherwise noted, refer to chapter tables for sources.
ⁱEno Transportation Foundation Inc., Transportation in America,1999 (Washington, DC: 2000), pp. 40, 42, 57, 64.
^jU.S. Department of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries Services, Fisheries of the United States (Washington, DC: Annual issues), p. 5 and similar tables in earlier editions.
^kU.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, MAR-450, personal communication.
^lU.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment, Hours and Earnings, United States, 1909-1994, (Washington, DC: September 1994), SICs 373 and 44.
^mIbid., Employment, Hours and Earnings, 1988-1996 (Washington, DC: August 1996), SICs 373 and 44.
ⁿIbid., Internet website www.bls.gov, as of April 21, 2000.
^oU.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, U.S. Merchant Marine Data Sheet (Washington, DC: Annual issues).
^pU.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Summary of U.S. Flag Passenger & Cargo Vessels (New Orleans, LA: Annual issues).
^qU.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration, Merchant Fleets of the World (Washington, DC: Annual issues).
^rU.S. Coast Guard, Boating Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues).
^sU.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterborne Commerce of the United States (New Orleans, LA: Annual issues), part 5, section 1, table 1 & table 4.
^tU.S. Coast Guard, Office of Investigations and Analysis, G-MAO-2, personal communication.
^uU.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Selected NIPA Tables, table 2.4, Internet website http://www.bea.doc.gov, as of August 21, 2000.