OTTAWA, Ont. – In a recent appearance before the Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) told MPs that the trucking industry is being hit hard by current economic conditions in Canada and the US, by rising fuel prices and by an array of costly, often overlapping security programs.

CTA senior vice-president Graham Cooper told the committee that, “Trucking is a derived demand industry, so economic conditions in domestic and international markets are reflected in the industry’s freight volumes and financial performance. The high value of the Canadian dollar combined with the general weakening of the US economy, the resulting reduction in Canadian exports to the US, and the manufacturing downturn (particularly in central Canada), are all having a profound impact on the trucking industry in most parts of the country.”

It is in the cross-border market that the Canadian trucking industry is being particularly hard hit and as Cooper told the committee, “From November 2006 to November 2007, Canada’s total exports to the US declined by 3.8% and imports by 1.9%. However, these aggregate figures do not tell the whole story. Trucking specializes in the carriage of relatively lower weight and higher value products when compared with other freight modes. A comparison of export statistics for November 2006 and November 2007 shows yearover-year decreases of 4.4% in industrial goods, 3.7% in machinery and equipment, 5.9% in automotive products and 9.9% in other consumer goods.”