During the calendar year 1940 the manufacturers of cars and trucks in the United States produced 4,680,000 motor vehicles to meet an increased demand based on needs of the civilian population, and at the same time undertook an extensive program of building armaments in connection with the national defense effort.
A partial list of defense items contracted during the latter months of the year for manufacture in motor vehicle factories includes military scout cars; trucks and tractors; armored tanks; aircraft engines and parts; shells, fuses and other ammunition components; field range cabinets; submarine engines and parts; anti-aircraft fire control apparatus; recruiting station trailers; compasses; drift meters and radio apparatus; machine guns; marine engines; half-track personnel carriers, and airplane control instruments.
Factory sales of peace-time products during the year included 3,805,000 passenger cars and 875,000 trucks, both substantially higher than the 1939 totals. These preliminary estimates embrace production in both the United States and Canada, and represent wholesale value of $2,479,000,000 for automobiles and of $674,500,000 for trucks, or a total wholesale value of $3,153,500,000.
The number of automobiles registered in the United States increased to 27,050,000 during the year, with truck registrations reaching 4,510,000, for a combined total of 31,560,000 vehicles, 69 per cent of the world's motor vehicles. The percentage of motor vehicles exported from the United States, which was 6 per cent of production in 1939, dropped to 5 per cent in 1940. The value of exported vehicles, parts and tires for the year was approximately $272,000,000.
Large increases also were noted in 1940 in motor vehicle user taxes, which totaled $1,797,000,000, or one-ninth of all Federal, state and local taxes collected in the nation. Gasoline taxes levied by local, state and Federal agencies accounted for $1,142,000,000, far exceeding any previous year's total. Special taxes on motor trucks totaled $460,000,000.
Linked directly with the increased taxes was increased use of motor vehicles, more than half of which is now serving the necessity purposes of daily life, such as going to and from work, marketing etc. During the year 3,742,000 children were transported to and from schools in buses, and the post office department operated its delivery routes over 1,392,657 miles of rural highways with cars and trucks.
Farm use of motor vehicles continued to expand, evidenced in 1940 by the transport of 53 per cent of all livestock to market by truck. More than 40 per cent of all the motor vehicles in the nation are registered on farms and in towns under 2,500 population, and 86 per cent of all trucks are privately owned, at least one-fourth of them by farmers.
Employment in automobile, body and parts factories reached 443,000 persons in 1940 and the weekly payroll in these plants averaged $15,500,000, a considerable increase over 1939. The industry's products were distributed through 41,494 car and truck dealers throughout the country.
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