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Truck Activity in Canada
- A Profile
Prepared by
Fred P. Nix
Prepared for
Motor Carrier Policy Branch
Transport Canada
March 2003
The report "Truck Activity in Canada
- A Profile" is available in PDF format
(file size 664 KB) and may be viewed using version 3.0
or higher of the Adobe® Acrobat Reader. This reader may be downloaded
free of charge by visiting the
Adobe® web site.
Report.PDF (664 KB)
Preface
This profile is an update to a 1998 publication, Trucking In Canada: A Profile, funded by Industry Canada and the
Canadian Trucking Research Institute. The intent was, and still is,
to give the layperson a better sense of how trucks are used, how their
use is regulated, who operates them, and how they
factor into the overall economy in Canada.
Funding for this edition was provided by Transport Canada. Rene
Kehoe from the Motor Carrier Policy Branch at Transport Canada was
responsible for the project and gave the author some appreciated
assistance in the final weeks of work on such things as up-to-the-minute
numbers and formatting. Stephen Petit, editor of Today’s Trucking
magazine, kindly volunteered to edit the final manuscript. Joanne Ritchie from Industry Canada
proofread the final copy and this assistance was also appreciated.
The views expressed and factual accuracy are solely the responsibility
of the author. Notes on sources, calculations used to develop graphs and
qualifications about the quality of information are at the end of the
document.
Table of Contents
Truck Facts
1. Trucking Activity
2. Trucking and the Economy
3. The Fleet
4. Freight Hauled by Truck
5. Roads, Traffic and Safety
6. Trucks and Government
7. Energy
8. For-Hire Motor Carriers and Couriers
9. Drivers
10. Regional Perspectives on Trucking
11. Trucking Issues
Sources and Notes
Tables
Table 1: The Truck Fleet, 2001
Table 2: Trucking Employment
Table 3: Common Configurations by No. of Axles
Table 4: For-Hire Trucking Freight
Table 5: Heavy Trucks and Emissions
Table 6: Financial Statements, 1999
Table 7: Driver Incomes
Graphs
Graph 1: Components of Trucking Activity, 2000
Graph 2: Relative Contribution to GDP, 2001
Graph 3: Transport and Warehousing GDP, 2001
Graph 4: Transport Revenues, 2000
Graph 5: Truck vs Rail GDP
Graph 6: Up Tick in Cross Border Trucking
Graph 7: Trade Volumes Keep Growing
Graph 8: Class 8 Truck Sales Fluctuate
Graph 9: Configurations on Main Highways
Graph 10: Number of Axles on a Truck
Graph 11: Truck Weights Vary
Graph 12: So Do Cargo Weights
Graph 13: How Long is that Truck?
Graph 14: Domestic Freight Volumes, 2000
Graph 15: Canada-U.S. Freight Volumes, 2001
Graph 16: For-Hire Trucking Cross-border Activity
Graph 17: Are Road Users Paying Enough?
Graph 18: Trucks Involved in Collisions
Graph 19: Insatiable Demand for Energy
Graph 20: Diesel Price Spike to 75¢ a Litre
Graph 21: Greenhouse Gases
Graph 22: Operating Expenses, 1999
Graph 23: Motor Carriers' Operating Ratio
Graph 24: Rates Have Been Flat
Graph 25: Truck Drivers' Age Profile
Graph 26: Owner-Operator Earnings are Flat
Graph 27: Regional Perspective (1)
Graph 28: Regional Perspective (2)
- In 2002, 26 trucks a minute crossed the Canada-United States border.
- For-hire trucking, private trucking and couriers represent a $48-billion industry.
- There are 671,000 trucks in Canada, but only 163,000 of these are tractor-trailers hauling freight on the highways-most are straight trucks, used in urban areas or local hauling.
- Close to one-third of a million people work in the trucking industry or drive trucks.
- In the 2001 Census compiled by Statistics Canada, "truck driver" is the largest occupation listed for male Canadians.
- 97.1 per cent of all truck drivers are male.
- The largest Internet-based load-matching service lists about 40,000 available loads a day.
- From 1994 to 1998, trucks were only 4 per cent of vehicles involved in collisions. They did, however, make up 11 per cent of vehicles involved in fatal collisions.
- Between 1994 and 1998, the collision rate for trucks involved in fatal collisions declined by 16.5 per cent and the collision rate for trucks involved in injury collisions declined by 12.1 per cent.
- For-hire trucking adds 2.4 times more to Canada's gross domestic product than rail (passenger & freight).
- The value of exports and the value of imports carried by truck have grown at annual rates of 11 per cent and 9 per cent respectively since 1992.
- Trucks registered in Canada account for 70 per cent of cross-border
trucking activity.
- Trucks' demand for energy has been growing by 4.6 per cent a year since 1990, versus a total growth in energy demand of only 1.6 per cent a year.
- Ontario, with 38 per cent of the Canadian population, accounts for 40 per cent of truck travel, 41 per cent of for-hire trucking revenues, 54 per cent of the total for-hire international truck tonnage, and 63 per cent of all truck trips that cross the Canada-United States border.
- The average truck on the highway weighs 24.2 tonnes and carries a payload of 14.1 tonnes-but, there is a lot of variation above and below these averages.
- By 2007, truck engines will only be emitting about 2 per cent of the particulates (small, sooty bits) and oxides of nitrogen that they did in 1987.
- There are about 26,000 trucks in Canada with satellite-based tracking and messaging services.
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