Transportation Economic Trends
Cost of Transportation:
Costs Faced by Producers
The major inputs to produce transportation services include labor, equipment, fuel, and infrastructure. This page discusses equipment prices. See Employment by Industry and Employment by Occupation for labor data; Cost of Fuel for fuel data; and Value of Transportation and Other Infrastructure for infrastructure data.
2022 Year-in-Review
- As measured by the Producer Price Index (PPI), the amount received for transportation equipment increased in 2022. The increase continues an upward rise, suggesting a continued increase in the price of transportation equipment.
- The 2022 price increase for transportation equipment is the largest year-over-year increase (5.3 percent) on record (records begin in 2004). All types of transportation equipment – railroad rolling stock, ships and boats, and automobile and light duty motor vehicles – reached a record high in 2022.
- Railroad rolling stock and ships and boats saw the largest price increase of 16.1 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, in 2022, followed by automobile and light duty motor vehicles (4.1 percent) and aircraft (3.7 percent).
Costs to Produce Transportation Services
Price for Transportation Equipment
PPI shows the average change over time in the amount received by producers of transportation equipment, for example, the amount received by aircraft manufacturers. If the amount firms receive rises, then the price faced by purchasers likely increases—making transportation equipment a larger cost in producing transportation services.
The price for aircraft, ships and boats, and railroad rolling stock has risen at a faster rate than automobiles.
Annual data are an average of monthly values.
Recommended citation
U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Economic Trends, available at www.bts.gov/product/transportation-economic-trends.
