This report seeks to provide a Canada wide, detailed portrait of private carriers. The results are based on a comprehensive questionnaire completed by approximately 200 fleet managers across the country – from Newfoundland to British Columbia.

We’ve taken the results and broken them down into a variety of categories including fleet size, scope of operation and location of headquarters. Consequently, regardless of the size of your fleet, whether you’re an intra-city or international carrier, you’ll be able to make comparisons with similar operations.

As well we’ve created a category of “best practice fleets”. We put a fleet into this category based on several measures including: coverage for their drivers of three or more health benefits, fleets with an increased likelihood of conducting employee surveys and those that are more likely to offer a driver wellness program.

A Few Key Highlights of this Ground Breaking Research….

Regardless of fleet size we see that the challenges of talent attraction, retention, training and health and wellness are dominant. “Best practice” fleets are more likely to rate these issues as “extremely/very” important. These fleets also show an increased likelihood of viewing carbon footprint and corporate social responsibility as critical challenges.

Approximately one-half (48%) of private carriers are involved in for-hire activities. This is fairly evenly distributed across fleet sizes. However, larger fleets are slightly more likely to undertake for-hire activities.

On average, one-third (33%) of kilometers travelled are empty. This average is slightly higher for the smaller flights.

Forty-one percent of fleets perform their own backhaul. An additional 31% say that they perform their own backhaul some of the time. Thus, in total, 72% perform at least some of their own backhaul indicating productive use of fleet resources.

“Costs per kilometre” is the dominant method of tracking fleet operations (47%). This method of tracking is even more dominant amongst larger fleets and “best practice” fleets.

Slightly more than one-third of respondents claim they have an anti-idling policy. This rises to 50% amongst larger fleets and stands at 62% amongst “best-practice” fleets. Given that fuel is such a large component of operating costs, it is surprising that the incidence of having an anti-idling policy is not higher.

Regardless of fleet size, costs are the number one factor in scorecarding the fleet. This is by-far the number one consideration for smaller fleets. Amongst mid and large fleets other factors come into play. For example, amongst mid-size fleets, service levels and customer service feedback are important secondary considerations. Amongst large fleets, CVOR or equivalent status is an important secondary consideration.

Overall 40% of fleets perform employee satisfaction surveys. Likelihood of performing such surveys is corelated with fleet size i.e. the larger the fleet the more likely it is that an employee satisfaction survey is performed. Seventy-eight percent of “best pratice” flights say they perform employee satisfaction surveys.

The incidence of performing customer satisfaction surveys stands at 42%. Once again, the likelihood increases with the size of the fleet and amongst “best practice” fleets.

Twenty-two percent of fleets say they are experimenting with new fuels. This incidence increases to one-third (33%) amongst the larger fleets. It is slightly higher (36%) amongst “best practice” fleets. It is also the case that larger fleets are the most likely to be experimenting with alternative fuels.

The most popular types of new technology being used include speed limiters (29%) and on-board computers (25%). Use of these types of new technology is corelated to fleet size and is used by 50% or more of “best practice” fleets.

Twenty-nine percent of fleets have a bonus incentive program. This percent rises to 50% amongst large fleets and is 40% amongst “best practice” fleets. Most frequently, this incentive is tied to safe driving – particularly amongst the large fleets.

When looked at in total, a relatively small percentage (22%) of fleets have a wellness program in place. However, almost half of large fleets and “best practice” fleets have a program of this type.

This 200 page report is your opportunity to access data from 110 operational issues across 13 business categories!