Last year, the trucking industry generated $700.4 billion, according to the latest edition of American Trucking Trends, making 2014 the first year in history the industry topped $700 billion in total revenue.

“Last year, we saw freight volumes grow significantly,” says Bob Costello, chief economic for American Trucking Associations, which claims to be the largest national trade association for the trucking industry.

“Increases in freight, combined with continued tight capacity, helped drive revenues, and coupled with lower fuel prices, we saw motor carriers go on a buying spree for new trucks as they replaced older equipment,” Costello says.

American Trucking Trends is ATA’s annual compendium of data on the trucking industry’s size and performance. This year’s edition includes data that suggest an increase in shipping activity and that outline the industry’s reach in the U.S.

In 2014, trucks moved 9.96 billion tons, almost 70 percent of all domestic freight, the compendium says. Also, the $700.4 billion in revenue accounted for four-fifths of all freight transportation spending, it says.

Trucking employed more than 7 million people, including 3.4 million drivers. Since deregulation, the number of registered motor carriers has grown by 68 times to more than 1.3 million carriers.

Combination trucks logged 168.4 billion miles in 2013, or an average of 69,000 miles per truck.

Commercial trucks paid $16.5 billion in federal highway user fees in 2013.

“Trends is a valuable resource for showing just how critical, how essential, our industry is,” asserts ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “It is one thing to say trucking is our economy’s lifeblood, but it is quite another to show it. And Trends shows it clearly: Trucking is, and will continue to be, the dominant way to move goods in this country.”

Through 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA says it strives to serve as the voice for the national trucking industry.