7 ROAD TRANSPORTATION

FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION

Heavy truck fleet

The Canadian Vehicle Survey provides information on the heavy truck fleet and its use characteristics. In 2001, more than 580,000 trucks were registered with a gross vehicle weight of at least 4,500 kilograms. As Table 7-5 shows, this fleet was split between 330,000 medium trucks weighing between 4,500 and 15,000 kilograms and almost 254,000 Class 8 (heavy) trucks weighing more than 15,000 kilograms. Three quarters of the heavy truck fleet was concentrated in three provinces: Ontario with 40 per cent, Alberta with 25 per cent, and Quebec with 11.5 per cent. The medium-sized truck fleet was a little more evenly distributed with five provinces sharing about 90 per cent of the total. The distribution of vehicle-kilometres was heavily tilted in favour of heavy trucks with over 18 billion being performed in 2001, versus less than 6.5 billion for medium trucks. The distribution of heavy truck vehicle-kilometres was even more concentrated in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec with these three provinces controlling 80 per cent of the kilometres driven.

Source: Canadian Vehicle Survey, Statistics Canada and Transport Canada calculations

In 2001, there was a wide variation in the average kilometres driven between medium and heavy trucks: on average, medium trucks were driven 20,000 kilometres, while heavy trucks were driven almost 75,000 kilometres. By province, the variation in the average kilometres heavy trucks were driven was huge, ranging from a low of 20,000 kilometres per vehicle in Prince Edward Island to more than 100,000 kilometres per vehicle in both Quebec and Manitoba. By contrast, medium truck use across the provinces clustered fairly closely around the national average.

Configuration

Table 7-6 breaks down truck vehicle-kilometres driven by type of vehicle configuration. Medium trucks were characterized by the straight truck configuration, as more than 80 per cent of the kilometres driven used this format. Heavy trucks, by contrast, were dominated by various tractor-trailer combinations; the most popular was a tractor and one trailer (the conventional 18 wheeler), which accounted for almost 65 per cent of the heavy truck vehicle-kilometres. Straight trucks performed only 15 per cent of the heavy truck vehicle-kilometres.

Source: Canadian Vehicle Survey, Statistics Canada and Transport Canada calculations

Table 7-7 shows the purpose that medium and heavy trucks were typically used for. Medium trucks were put to a mix of uses: carrying goods or equipment, a traditional freight-hauling role, accounted for about 50 per cent of the vehicle-kilometres, but non-freight carrying functions such as making service calls accounted for more than 40 per cent of the vehicle-kilometres. These latter functions illustrate that medium-sized trucks were not confined solely to the for-hire or private trucking business. Of the 6.5 billion vehicle-kilometres driven, about eight per cent were made empty.

Source: Canadian Vehicle Survey, Statistics Canada and Transport Canada calculations

The same cannot be said about the heavy truck fleet. Its use was dominated by the conventional goods-hauling role, with nearly 75 per cent of the vehicle-kilometres reported as being from carrying goods or equipment. Less than 10 per cent were for other work purposes and about 18 per cent of vehicle-kilometres were made empty.

Truck Traffic by Sector

After a slowdown due to the 1990/91 recession, growth in for-hire trucking² traffic jumped from 70.6 to 170.9 billion tonne-kilometres from 1991 to 2001. The transborder sector dominated, with an average growth rate close to 14 per cent, more than twice the rate for domestic trucking activities, which was 6.3 per cent. The latter is a blend of intraprovincial and interprovincial activities, which grew at five per cent and almost seven per cent per year, respectively.

In terms of value, almost 65 per cent of Canada-U.S. trade moved by truck in 2001. Commodities shipped by truck from/to the United States amounted to $363 billion, driven by exports at $192 billion. Preliminary 2002 trade data show an increase of 2.3 per cent in the value of cargo carried by truck from/to the United States. A contributing factor to the strong transborder growth rate was a significant increase in the average distance travelled. In the last 15 years (1987 - 2001), the average distance travelled per trip by Canadian-domiciled trucks to and from the United States rose from 800 to 1,100 kilometres.

Figure 7-3 illustrates the growth of Canadian for-hire trucking traffic between 1987 and 2001. Table A7-8 in the Addendum provides the data in a tabular form.

FIGURE 7-3: TOTAL FOR-HIRE TRUCKING TRAFFIC IN ANNUAL TONNE-KILOMETRES, 1987 – 2001

Note: For-hire trucking carriers with annual operating revenues of $0.5 million or more (1988/89), and of $1 million or more (1990 – 2001).

Source: Statistics Canada, Trucking in Canada, Cat. 53-222 and special tabulations

Commodities and trucking flows

In 2001, domestic and transborder for-hire trucking traffic by Canadian firms generated revenues of $7.9 billion and $6.9 billion, respectively. Five groups of commodities represented close to 75 per cent of transport revenues: manufactured products, food products, forest products, metal and steel products, and automobile/transport products. In terms of volume (tonne-kilometres), the same five commodities also dominated in the same proportion (i.e. 75 per cent of the total).

Ontario dominated trucking traffic in all market segments, with 38 per cent of intraprovincial trucking traffic, 34 per cent of interprovincial trucking traffic and 44 per cent of total transborder traffic hauled by trucks. The heaviest traffic flows involved those between Ontario and the U.S. central region (17.1 billion tonne-kilometres) and Ontario and the U.S. southern region (10.5 billion tonne-kilometres). For additional information on volume and trucking flows, please see tables A7-9 to A7-11 in the Addendum.

Canada-U.S. Border Crossing Activity

Heavy truck activity across the Canada-U.S. border rebounded slightly in 2002, growing two per cent from the 2001 level to reach 13.3 million two-way trips. Although a reversal of last year's decline, cross-border heavy truck activity was still off the 2000 peak of 13.6 million trips. This levelling off of activity can be attributed to the economic slowdown in the United States reducing demand for transportation. Car crossings were off nearly six per cent from last year to 64.2 million trips, the lowest level since 1987. For further details on border activity by border crossing, see tables A7-12 and A7-13 in the Addendum.

2 Including Canadian domiciled long-distance for-hire trucking firms with annual operating revenues of $1 million or more. Back to text

Major Events in 2002

Infrastructure

Industry Structure

Passenger Transportation

Freight Transportation

Price, Productivity and Financial Performance