For-hire growth flat between first halves of 1998 and 1997

OTTAWA (March 17) — Compared with the for-hire trucking industry’s strong performance throughout most of 1997, first and second quarter 1998 operating results showed little improvement, a federal report showed.

Industry Canada said the combined first and second quarter 1998 operating ratio (operating expenses divided by operating revenues) of 0.93 was unchanged from the same period one year earlier.

Any ratio under 1.00 represents an operating profit.

In the first half of 1998, there were approximately 2210 for-hire motor carriers of freight domiciled in Canada (with annual revenues of $1 million or more) compared with 2087 during the same period in 1997.

First-half 1998 operating revenues for these carriers climbed 5% to $7.2 billion ($3.4 billion in the first quarter and $3.8 billion in the second quarter). Operating expenses posted by for-hire carriers also increased 5.3% over the first half of 1997 to $6.7 billion ($3.2 billion in the first quarter and $3.5 billion in the second quarter).