By truck

With an economy heavily dependent on the movement of goods for growth, Canada has always relied on a strong cargo transportation system. Since the late 1800s, natural resources have been shipped by rail to eastern ports and loaded on ships travelling overseas to markets in Europe. Today, containers can be moved from railcar to truck to ship and delivered to destinations around the world.

The trucking industry is an essential spoke in the transportation wheels that move goods to market. Over one-quarter of all transportation related GDP is generated by trucking. The trucking industry is highly flexible in using Canada’s 900,000 kilometres of highways and roads to bring goods to all points in the country as well as facilitating trade of large quantities of goods with our NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) neighbours.

If tonne-kilometre is used as the unit of measure (one tonne of goods being moved one kilometre), then trucking activity increased by an average annual rate of 7.4% from 1997 to 2001. Volumes to and from the United States, carried by Canadian trucks increased an average 11.5% in each of the last five years. In 2001, 56% of Canada–United States traffic carried by Canadian trucks was southbound. The commodity most frequently shipped across the border was motor vehicles, parts and accessories.

However, GDP growth for the Canadian trucking industry has shown signs of slowing down since 1999. This has been the result of a number of factors; increased fuel costs, Canadian economic uncertainty, declining momentum of the U.S. economy and the events of September 11, 2001.