For-hire motor carriers boost revenues but higher costs cuts into first quarter profits

OTTAWA, Ont. – Canadian trucking companies earned operating revenue of $10.1 billion in the first quarter, up 5.2% from the same quarter a year earlier.

During the same period, these firms reported operating expenses of $9.2 billion, compared with $8.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Fuel expenses increased 15.2%, mostly as a result of higher prices as consumption rose 2.5%.

Operating profit fell 4.7% to $936 million, as the increase in operating expenses (+6.3%) outpaced that of operating revenue. Companies whose main activity was long distance trucking were responsible for the decline. Their operating profits were $392 million in the first quarter, down from the $527 million in profits they earned during the same quarter a year earlier.

(Note: Statistics Canada has revised its estimates from the Quarterly Trucking Survey for the first quarter of 2010.)

For more information, to order data tables, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-866-500-8400; (transportationstatistics@statcan.gc.ca), Transportation Division.