Importance of Trucking Companies for Business and Industry - Canada

The vast Canadian country consists of miles of highway-road networks, airports, river docks and railway lines purpose-built for the transportation of consumer and industrial goods as well as food grains and raw material for the vastly spread Canadian production industry. The most extensive and comprehensive coverage in Canadian transportation is provided by the Canadian trucking industry, which consists of a network of overland freight forwarding service providers tied in with a multitude of trucking companies which provide services throughout Canada from end-to-end.

Overview

In a verbal report to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and agri-foods this year (June 2nd 2009), The Canadian Trucking Alliance reported in the for-hire trucking industry, there were more than a quarter million truck drivers and overall nearly half a million workers (including drivers) involved with trucking companies and freight forwarding businesses currently employed full-time within the trucking industry. There are approximately 10,000 trucking companies operating in Canada which provide services to a variety of clients and these alone collect annual revenues amounting to nearly 30 Billion dollars a year; while this number is closer to 70 billion dollars a year when non-hire (private / dedicated trucking) systems, belonging to producers themselves, are included. To support transportation, there are over 900,000 Km of roads and over 40,000 Km of national highway spread across the country.

Importance

Trucks carry virtually all the consumer related finished products and most of the raw material for production in Canada at least at one point of the supply-chain, and in many cases, carry raw material to production facilities from ports (primarily river and lake / sea ports and also airports) and carry the finished products to markets and distributors, who in turn, also use trucking businesses to deliver the goods to retail outlets and end-consumers. The industry contributes 1.2 % to Canada's overall GDP, and handles up to half of Canada's exports to the US and at least 75% of the imports from the US - which makes it the vital artery for Canada's trade with the US and other countries (through US ports and from transit trade to South American countries).

Trucking in Canada is a highly competitive industry, with a multitude of businesses from small localized transporters to countrywide carriers operating on a daily basis. This industry is de-regulated and is based completely on free competition (this competitive market spans all of North America and Mexico, including within it carriers from the three countries), which ensures that the rates offered are as low as possible (especially in the face of recession, which has created a price-war scenario).

Materials commonly carried in trucks

Trucks carry at least 90 percent of all retail consumer goods and at least 60 percent of raw material for the production of consumer goods to and from ports. Trucks carry dried, frozen and raw food products as well as cereal grains, oils and packed processed foods (from FMCGs located in and outside of Canada).

References:

Report Ron Lennox, Vice President - Canadian Trucking Alliance to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Food
Shipping In Canada: Report by Statistics Canada
www[dot]ic[dot]gc[dot]ca/eic/site/ts-sdc.nsf/eng/fd00264.html
Road Transportation: www[dot]tc[dot]gc[dot]ca/road/menu.htm
www[dot]cantruck[dot]ca/iMISpublic/Content/NavigationMenu2/CTAIndustry/TruckinginCanada/default.htm