Bigger carriers hauling more freight: StatsCan

OTTAWA — Canadian trucking companies making over $1 million transported 66.7 million shipments in 2005, up slightly from 2004.

According to Stats Canada’s latest Trucking Commodity Origin and Destination survey, these companies hauled 615 million tones of goods, compared with 609 million tons in the previous year.

A majority of total shipments were within Canada,
but cross border still brings in the big money.

This increase in shipments has been generated from domestic rather than transborder activity, StatsCan noted, as domestic shipments increased 2.5 percent (85% of the truck traffic in 2005), while transborder shipments were down 4.0 percent.

While transborder hauls represented 15 percent of total shipments, they generated 35 percent of total revenue and 43 percent of ton-kilometres.

In 2005, 84 percent of shipments were long distance (25 km or more). On average, these shipments weighed 8.4 tons and generated revenue of $467. In contrast, shipments less than 24 km averaged 13.4 tons and yielded $213 in revenue.

The top three commodities hauled, in terms of weight, were wood products (9.3%), miscellaneous goods (8.7%) and base metals (6.9%). In total, these groups represented a quarter of the total weight.

Goods originating in Ontario accounted for 36 percent of the total weight transported. While most of this tonnage was shipped within the province, 10 percent was transported elsewhere in Canada and 14 percent went across the border.