Federal obligations in all other support activities for transportation (NAICS 488999)

A residual logistics code at $1.02 billion

Transportation support is a wide Census sector: arrangement, handling, and other services that help freight and passengers move without being the carrier themselves. 488999 is the leftover after more specific support codes are assigned. Federal tagged contracts in that leftover sum to $1,024,372,939.55. The total is real as tagged; the activity mix inside the residual is not a single product.

Port and harbor operations appears as a separate NAICS in this same slice. Do not fold 488999 into ports or into air transportation. Each six-digit code in the extract is a separate tagged sum. $1,024,372,939.55 is the 488999 slice only.

313 awards: concentrated support vehicles

Three hundred thirteen awards against $1,024,372,939.55 averages about $3.27 million per action. That is a low-count, high-dollar services pattern. A few large logistics-support instruments can dominate a residual code. The industry hub is the place to see whether the $1,024,372,939.55 is one-heavy or evenly spread across 313 rows.

This guide does not name those instruments. Packet facts are the total and the count. Neutral tone: public contract obligations, not a claim about supply-chain performance.

What “support activities” is not

It is not the carrier NAICS (air, truck, rail, water). It is not wholesale of transportation equipment. It is not manufacturing of vehicles. Support means services that assist transportation. Residual means those support services that did not land in a more specific 488 code. The $1,024,372,939.55 on 313 awards follows that tag.

Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. State DOTs receiving federal highway assistance will usually not appear here even when they buy related support services with grant funds. Contract tags are this page’s universe.

A complete citation of this industry is $1,024,372,939.55 in USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 488999, all other support activities for transportation, on 313 awards. Anything less—dropping the NAICS, dropping the word obligations, or dropping the contract-only universe—overstates what the extract contains. The packet facts do not include a fiscal year, so this guide does not invent one. Live tables on the industry hub can move when USAspending posts modifications; the harvested pair remains $1,024,372,939.55 and 313.

Obligations on logistics vehicles

Support contracts often obligate a period or a ceiling and invoice as work is ordered. The $1,024,372,939.55 is committed value on 313 tagged actions, not cash already paid for every handling task. Outlays and de-obligations can diverge from that commitment total.

Classification errors are expected at the margin. Vendors that straddle port operations, carriers, and vehicle manufacturing may land in 488999 on some actions and in a neighbor on others. Port and harbor operations (488310) is the specific ports code; 488999 is the leftover support bucket. The public-record stance is to keep $1,024,372,939.55 attached to 488999 as tagged, then inspect the 313 rows for concentration before treating the residual as a market. Re-tagging the extract by hand is out of scope for this overlay.

Next step on the hub

Open the all other support activities for transportation industry page for the 313 awards behind $1,024,372,939.55. Compare, without summing blindly, to port operations and other 488 codes via the all-industries directory. Source: USAspending.gov contract awards.

Support residuals are not carrier or port totals

Award count interprets the buying pattern. 313 actions producing $1,024,372,939.55 is a low-count residual of large logistics-support vehicles, with about $3.27 million per action as the simple average. That average hides mix: modifications, options, and delivery orders all increment count. 313 is not a count of unique companies and not a count of physical units. Use the hub amount sort to see whether a few large rows plus a long tail make up most of the tagged total.

Outlays remain a separate USAspending concept. An agency can obligate $1,024,372,939.55 across 313 tagged all other support activities for transportation actions and pay on a different calendar. De-obligations after cancellations reduce the obligation ledger; they do not rewrite the fact that this NAICS has been a large tagged category in the harvest. Assistance without NAICS still sits outside even when the real-world activity looks similar. Program pages answer the grant question; this page answers the tagged-contract question.

Internal links on this file point only to the all other support activities for transportation industry page and the all-industries directory. Those are the packet hrefs. Neighboring industry codes mentioned in prose are classification context only. Source note, copied from the packet: NAICS from USAspending contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. The overlay’s job is to state $1,024,372,939.55, 313, the obligation unit, and the boundary around port operations, carriers, and vehicle manufacturing.

Questions

How much federal contracting is coded to other transportation support?

NAICS 488999 shows $1,024,372,939.55 in obligations on 313 USAspending contract awards. It is a residual support-activities code, not carrier transportation. The unit is obligations, not outlays. Quote it as USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 488999, not as cash outlays. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so grants remain outside the 313-award extract behind $1,024,372,939.55.

Is port and harbor operations included in 488999?

No. Port and harbor operations is a different NAICS. This page’s $1,024,372,939.55 is all other support activities for transportation as tagged on 313 awards. Open the ports code separately from the all-industries list. Port and harbor operations (488310) is the specific ports code; 488999 is the leftover support bucket. Keep $1,024,372,939.55 attached to 488999 as tagged on 313 actions; do not merge neighbor codes into the same unlabeled cell.

Why is the average award above $3 million?

313 actions against $1,024,372,939.55 averages about $3.27 million. Residual logistics support is often bought in larger service vehicles. The industry hub shows whether a few rows dominate the total. That pattern is a low-count residual of large logistics-support vehicles, with about $3.27 million per action as the simple average of $1,024,372,939.55 over 313 awards. Inspect the 313 rows for concentration before treating the residual as a market.

Do highway grants show up here?

Usually not. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so they fall outside this contract extract. Use program pages for grants and the industry page for tagged 488999 contracts. This industry guide covers tagged contracts only: $1,024,372,939.55 obligated on 313 all other support activities for transportation awards in USAspending. Outlays are a different field; assistance without NAICS is a different award type.